Promised LANDS

UPROOTED REPEATEDLY BY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, THE OUJÉ-BOUGOUMOU WANDERED BOREAL FOR 70 YEARS BEFORE FINDING A PERMANENT HOME. FOR SOME, THE JOURNEY CONTINUES.

BY JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTIAN FLEURY

44 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 Promised LANDS

The lake-pocked landscape near Oujé-Bougoumou, Que.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC 45 ABEL BOSUM, GRAND CHIEF side shacks, miners’ tents and trapline it’s the site of a small family farm of the Grand Council of the , cabins for some 70 years before with chickens, rabbits and a lone cat. plants his dress shoes where his par- Bosum led them to secure a perma- When Bosum and I stop in, the own- ents’ house once sat on a thin wooded nent reserve on the shores of Lake ers aren’t home, so technically, we spit that curls into Doré Lake like a Opémisca, about an hour’s drive from are trespassing. dog’s tongue into a bowl of water. here, in 1992. For some, the exodus “I’m still amazed at those trees,” A late September breeze rushes might not be over. Bosum says, scoping out the paper Athrough the birch trees. Bosum’s Bosum was born in 1955 at nearby birch outside the modest two-storey mind turns to the past. This was the Lake , separated from house. Bosum recalls a photograph site of the final village from which his Doré Lake by a thin isthmus across taken of his aunt in front of one of people, the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree which the Cree could easily portage these trunks. There’s another, some- Nation, were uprooted by a mining their canoes. He was the eldest of his where in the memory books, of company — this one a gold pit owned mother Lucy’s 11 children. Lucy’s par- Bosum posing outside his family’s by a fellow named Campbell — in the ents forbade her marriage to Abel’s cabin in a pair of DIY bell bottoms unrelenting pursuit of monetizable biological father, Cypien Caron, a (made by cutting a slit up from the minerals from the Canadian Shield. French-Canadian, and so Lucy instead cuff of the jeans and stitching in an The Bible says the Israelites wan- married Sam Neepoosh, who was a extra triangle of denim), his hair dered the wilderness for 40 years father figure to Abel. Standing where hanging over his shoulders like a before Moses led them to the Prom- his childhood home once did, Bosum hippy. At 63, Bosum’s now silvery hair ised Land. The Oujé-Bougoumou surveys the lakeside peninsula. This is close-cropped. He speaks softly and Cree roamed the boreal near what is is his first time back since the Oujé- thoughtfully as memories return, now the town of Chibougamau, Que., Bougoumou Cree hosted a healing periodically adjusting the rectangular like squatters, seeking shelter in road- camp on this plot 20 years ago. Today, glasses resting on the bridge of his

46 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 RELOCATIONS OF OUJÉ-BOUGOUMOU AREA CREE to Mistissini from Mistissini Mashchekushtikw 167 Active mining claims*

BlackRock

Utapiskucheu Other companies Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation Sw *claims current to January 13, 2020 a Cedar Bay m p y Opémisca P t Chibougamau Cam Post pb Doré Lake el H l P am t e l Doré Is Gawashebuggidnajj Lake Lake (site of proposed BlackRock mine) Chibougamau 113 Chapais Highway camps Wapachee rabbit camp Chibouchibi Hudson's Bay Company 0 250 km trading post r o d r i or James Bay and c il 10 km a 0 Northern Quebec r d Agreement e s (1977) o p o Nichicum r P Movement of Cree community Nemiscau Neoskweskau 167 ONTARIO Mistissini 1929 Enlarged Mistissini area 1942 Elliot QUEBEC 1950-1952 Lake Val-d'Or Quebec City 1962 Montreal 1974 Toronto Shiipekush 1989

plump nose. “That was a long time pride in their homes, at least in part Abel Bosum, Grand Chief of the Grand ago,” he says wistfully. because they were under the impres- Council of the Crees, revisits his childhood Bosum remembers log homes built sion that, if they built up a dignified home at Doré Lake. His family was forced in a circle, their front doors facing community, the provincial and federal to leave the community in 1974. inward. About a dozen structures governments would let them stay. once stood here. The builders would In the centre of the village, roughly the dump for building supplies, begin by erecting a plywood shack where the current residents now have Bosum spotted the man throwing with a tarp for a roof. Over two to a front-yard firepit, there was once a away his cakes after making his final three years, using materials rum- makeshift ballfield. A baker used to sales at Doré Lake. It was then he real- maged from a nearby dump, families stop to sell bread and Vachon cakes ized the breadman had been selling slowly built up walls and roofing out of his van. Families pinched pen- the village the last of his supply as it before sealing windows, adding insu- nies to save for the pastries. One time, started to spoil. “That was no favour,” lation and finally fixing up the interior. Bosum and five young friends orga- says Bosum. “It wasn’t like today,” says Bosum. nized a cake heist. Their plan was Behind each house, there was a trail “We had no credit, couldn’t go to the simple: Eddy, the fastest, would pick down to the lake, where families kept bank.” Nonetheless, families took up a Vachon and run. The baker the canoes they used to traverse the would give chase. His van abandoned, many interlinked waterways spattered the other four would make off with as across Chibougamau and James Bay Julian Brave NoiseCat (@jnoisecat) is a contribut- many morsels as they could. The like a region-wide Rorschach test left ing editor for Canadian Geographic. Christian scheme worked and the baker was by the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet Fleury (christianfleury.com) is a Montreal-based pissed. After that, the kids weren’t millennia ago. Despite the once editorial and commercial photographer. allowed to come around his van any- meagre circumstances of his people,

more. Months later, during a trip to Bosum considers this a place of plenty. DE LA FAUNE MINISTÈRE DES RESSOURCES NATURELLES MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO; ACTIVE MINING CLAIM DATA:

CANGEO.CA 47 Doré Lake, or Lac aux Dorés in French, FOR MOST OF THE 1900S, claimed by white men, were displaced is named for the doré (walleye) found Cree life was organized around the from village after village. And even in its waters. Blueberries and rasp­ harvest of fur, timber and minerals when they weren’t removed by indus- berries grow on the hill above the for French- and English-speaking try, they felt its impacts. Piles of village. In the 1960s, a Quebec govern- colonists who first appeared in the mining garbage left atop frozen lakes ment official told then Chief Jimmy region in the 1600s, as well as an older in winter killed fish and ruined drink- Mianscum that his people could remain Indigenous subsistence economy. In ing water in summer. New mines, here indefinitely. In 1966, the Canadian 1870, the Canadian Geological Com- logging plots and roads scared off Centennial Commission even wrote a mission sent a surveyor to the region. game. In the years before they estab- grant for $1,700 so that Anglican Gold was first discovered in 1903 at lished themselves at Doré Lake, the Church volunteers from far-off cities Copper Point on Portage Island in Cree lived at Hamel Island, Swampy like Toronto could build a 15-metre-long Chibougamau Lake. The Cree main- Point, Campbell Point and Cedar Bay, hall for community meetings and reli- tain that their ancestors, who didn’t among other places. At Hamel Island, gious services at Cache Bay, just around know the value of the metals, first they were told to move because the the bend from the village. It doubled as identified outcroppings to prospec- government needed sand to build the chief’s home. The villagers called it tors. A series of mining booms and highways. At Swampy Point, the only “Beaver House.” busts followed, generally tracking land not claimed by prospectors, Bosum remembers a wedding party global economic cycles: down with influential clergymen cited public at Beaver House when he was a little the crash of 1929, up after the Sec- health concerns before telling the boy. At around 11 o’clock at night, four ond World War. In 1947, the Quebec Cree to hit the road. At Cedar Bay and police pulled up and started throwing government began construction of Campbell Point, the Cree were told attendees into the backs of their squad a road into the region. It was com- their homes were too close to mining cars. The Cree were shaken and pleted by 1950, and loggers began explosives. Each time they were injured. “Nobody knew what was going chopping away at the spruce that uprooted, they had to find a new place on,” says Bosum. “There was a lot of grew dense, strong and tall in the to settle, clear-cut a lot and start build- racism back then. There was a lot of backcountry. When Chibougamau ing a new shelter. When they left tension built up between the Cree was established as a company town Campbell Point, they had to dig up and French people working in the in 1952, there were 25 sawmills oper- and relocate the remains of ancestors mines and so forth. And so, the ating in the region producing 50 interred in a community cemetery. police — I wouldn’t say all of them, I million feet of timber, primarily for Many turned to alcohol to cope. knew some good police — but there export to the United States. In 1954, Beginning in 1962, most had sum- were some police who would use their the province incorporated Chibouga- mer residences at the village on Doré authority to just come in and crash a mau as a municipality. Lake. Men would join prospecting party. They weren’t even invited and The Cree, who had the misfortune teams, working as explorers and line- they weren’t called.” of building homes on top of riches cutters felling trees in areas of interest

48 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 LOCATION

Maggie Wapachee, 88, skins a beaver in That same year, despite repeated MAGGIE WAPACHEE, INST 88,ALLA isTION her home (opposite left). Her son, Norman promises from both the provincial and skinning a beaver that is lying belly- (opposite right), worked for a mining federal governments to respect their up on her kitchen table, when her company. Another such company was village and build new homes, the Cree son Norman walks in the front door. once responsible for forcing the family at Doré Lake, along with others from Earlier that morning, Norman’s LOCATION INSTALLATION from their home near Doré Lake (below). Neoskweskau, Nemiscau and Nichicun, father Matthew, 87, trapped and were incorporated under the Mistissini killed the animal before retiring to for mining corporations. Others Band by the Department of Indian his room. Maggie speaks Cree exclu- found jobs as lumberjacks. They Affairs. Government and industry com- sively, so Norman translates for me drank the water and ate the fish from pelled the Cree to abandon Doré Lake. as she sets about flaying the critter. the lake and supplemented their Finally, when the Campbell firm discov- “I’m getting old for this kind of job. incomes with rations and welfare col- ered a new deposit near the village, the I can’t work as fast as I used to,” she lected from government officials at a Cree caved. “At Doré Lake, we were told says in her percussive Eastern Cree Hudson’s Bay Company post on the to move to Mistissini — that the land dialect — pointy vowels wrapped in Mistissini reserve, about four days’ belonged to the white men,” Mary-Ann round, repetitious consonants. (Say voyage by canoe. In the fall, families Bosum, a local Cree, told anthropologist “Chibougamau” and you get a taste returned to camps where they trapped Jacques Frenette in 1982. “This was not of its phonology.) Norman chuckles beaver, otter and lynx to sell to the true. The land was my father’s hunting as he offers the translation. Hudson’s Bay while they hunted territory, and his father had hunted The beaver, a Cree staple, can be moose, goose, caribou, bear, porcu- there, too.” Others, like Bosum’s broiled in the oven, boiled on the pine, rabbit and partridge to eat. mother Lucy, relocated to the town of stovetop or roasted over an open fire. Between 1952 and 1972, the white Chibougamau. Some went to Chapais. Their tender tail is considered a deli- population of Chibougamau grew The community, once gathered around cacy. But they’re also pungent when from fewer than 200 to nearly 12,000. the lake, the Beaver House and the ball they cook, and Maggie, a gracious They far outnumbered the Cree at field, dispersed. host, says she wants to spare our Doré Lake, whose population was The last Cree families departed nostrils. “I would never stop doing about 125 in 1968. Doré Lake in 1974. Their log homes these types of activities, because I and the Beaver House were demol- love it,” she says as she takes a break BOSUM REMEMBERS when, ished soon after. The Campbell mine from her work. “My late mother in 1962, his mother and stepfather operated for three years. taught me these things, so I just want took him on one of their trips to the HBC post in Mistissini. At the store, Bosum’s mother bought her boy the finest clothes she could afford. Bosum remembers the pride he felt, looking at himself in the mirror. The next day, a plane landed on Lake Mis- tissini. Bosum’s stepdad Sam said, “time to go” and walked the seven- year-old down to the dock where Cree children were gathered. A white man stood before them, calling out names to be loaded onto the aircraft. Bosum’s name was called, and his stepfather carried him to the hold alongside 30 other children. They would be the first students of the La Tuque residential school run by the Anglican Church hundreds of kilometres south. The children cried as the plane carried them away.

CANGEO.CA 49 it passed down to continue this way the world. (Chibouchibi is located environmental monitoring opportu- of life.” right on Highway 167, while the turn- nities to the Oujé-Bougoumou Still outfitted from his early off for Oujé-Bougoumou is 20 Cree Nation. Norman has even morning moose hunt, Norman kilometres west down Route 113, worked as BlackRock’s community points out the back of the house at which transects the highway south of relations coordinator. the Chibougamau River, which Chibougamau.) The Wapachee BlackRock plans to break ground moves at a slow crawl. There, most clan, who now number some 140 once the company secures more than of his 14 siblings — six boys, six children, grandchildren and great- $1 billion from investors. As of 2018, girls, plus two adopted sisters — had grandchildren, maintain a traditional the company had raised about a third their walking-out ceremonies, a way of life. Their seasonal hunting of that, including $63 million from Cree rite of passage marking a grounds extend deep into the bush to the Quebec government to support child’s first steps. The mother and the southeast along Logging Road 210 infrastructure upgrades at Port grandmother walk baby girls out to a mountain called, in their stories, Saguenay so BlackRock’s products can into the water; grandfathers and Gawashebuggidnajj (pronounced be exported to China. But the mine fathers walk out baby boys. “It’s a “Ka-wa-she-pi-ki-ti-nach”), which has been delayed by mineral price commitment that they will raise the roughly translates as “Gold” or fluctuations, and in the interim Black- child, introduce the child, in the “Bright” Mountain, so named for the Rock seems to be rolling back some of Cree way of life — that the child will birch trees that grow on its slopes and its commitments. be raised out on the land to main- shine from a distance. That’s where Critics of the project in the tain cultural tradition,” explains the Wapachees can most reliably spot Wapachee family and the community Norman. “It’s been done since time and hunt browsing moose. “It’s where say there will be fewer jobs and con- immemorial.” we feed our children and our grand- tracts available to the Cree than The Wapachee family has lived children,” explains Maggie. originally promised. Meanwhile, here at Chibouchibi on the Chibouga- BlackRock Metals Inc., however, early exploration and construction mau River for decades. After leaving wants to level the mountain to create have been more disruptive to wild- Doré Lake, they lived in Mistissini for a giant open pit titanium, vanadium life, the environment and the 10 years. When the Oujé-Bougoumou and high-purity iron mine. In 2013, Wapachees than anticipated. Before reserve was established, Matthew, the the Grand Council of the Crees and BlackRock opens, for example, the Wapachee patriarch, opted instead to the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation Wapachees will have to relocate their build a house on the family trapline, signed an impact benefits agreement rabbit camp — the cabins they use which runs more or less perpendicu- with BlackRock. The agreement, for the fall and winter hunt. “The lar to Highway 167, the main named for Bally Husky, one of the relocations have not stopped yet,” thoroughfare built after the Second Wapachee ancestors who hunted this explains Norman, who is clearly con- World War to connect Chibougamau’s land, promised to provide money, flicted about the mine but feels he mines and lumberyards to the rest of jobs, training, business contracts and has little power to stop it. “We have

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The Wapachees’ traditional hunting grounds near the mountain they call Gawashebuggidnajj (opposite) are now threatened by a mining claim. Mining and logging (left and above) in the area are largely responsible for the repeated relocations of the local Cree, such as Cynthia and Maggie Wapachee (top left) who still live outside Oujé-Bougoumou (top right). camps over here that we use season- “WE’RE IN TROUBLE!” yells A few, like Norman, have even cho- ally for our main hunting activities. Matthew. “We’re in trouble on the trap­ sen to work with the company. But by BlackRock company came in, and line!” Stout and cantankerous with doing so, Matthew feels the children now what’s challenging for the bushy eyebrows poking out above thick have circumvented his and Phillip’s Wapachee family is that we’re being black glasses, Matthew uses a beaded authority. It’s not that Matthew is cate- asked to relocate those camps.” He belt to hold his grey trousers aloft. He gorically opposed to development — in continues: “It’s been repetitious, how plops himself down at the head of the fact, he was one of the first Cree min- the government works: opening kitchen table, the half-dressed beaver ers in the community. But as the land doors for further resource develop- still resting there. becomes increasingly bare, his sense ment. … Our hunting areas in the Matthew was once tallyman, or man- of loss and bitterness grows. He chose trapline are getting smaller and ager, of this trapline, but has since to build his home out here. And now, smaller, and so this is where we look passed that responsibility to his eldest in his old age, it’s being taken away at what are we going to do.” son, Phillip. Matthew is opposed to from him. “I’m going to win,” he says Roused by the commotion of com- BlackRock. But it’s a more complicated in a later conversation. “The Black- pany, Norman’s father, Matthew, story for his children. While all express Rock, they’re not going to start this emerges from his room. “He’s upset misgivings about the desecration of mine while I’m still alive.” with me,” says Norman under his familial territory, some feel that develop- Once Matthew settles down, Mag- breath, before skedaddling out the ment is inevitable and that they must gie heads out to the back porch, front door. make the best of bad circumstances. bundled up in a jacket with a red

CANGEO.CA 51 LOCATION

INSTALLATION caused the Wapachees to lose their way. Sitting on the back porch, Mag- gie looks out at the water where her children took their first steps in the Cree way. “I have good memo- LOCATION INSTALLATION ries of the past,” she says. “The environment, where I am, how I see it now — it hurts.” Back inside, Maggie finishes skin- ning the beaver. She demonstrates how to use a willow tool to make a fishnet and shows off the moccasins and gloves she makes with smoked moose hide. Mid-visit, her son James walks in the door wearing a Boston Bruins cap and camouflage sweat- shirt. (If there was a Cree sitcom, the Wapachee household would be a wor- sweater underneath, Cree florals Once she learned these things and thy set.) James has just spotted fresh embroidered on its left breast. Mag- more, a marriage was arranged with tracks out on the trapline. He didn’t gie’s daughter Cynthia joins us to Matthew, who lived in Doré Lake. But see the animal, but he made some translate, plunging her hands and there, Maggie recalls that the couple moose calls and expresses optimism bespectacled face into a green hoodie was surrounded by hardship and alco- that the game will return later that to stay warm. Maggie has birdfeeders hol. Maggie’s own father, William, was night. It is about time for the set up on the deck. Generations ago, a drinker. And as she tells the story, Wapachee hunters to gather at camp in a time of hardship, Matthew’s Maggie, an animated speaker, sticks out and prepare for the hunt. father Alan had to kill and eat small her chest and boisterously swings her Maggie, Cynthia and I wrap up our birds to avoid starvation. The warblers arms, pretending to take a deep swig conversation. Tapwe, she says as she that frequent their home serve as a from an imaginary bottle. (She’s a gives me a big hug, rubbing my back reminder of the family’s survival. favoured orator at community functions while she prays in Cree. The only “I love it here,” says Maggie, a for obvious reasons.) Maggie credits word I understand — “Jesus” — is wisp of grey hair hanging in front of tradition and the Church — which she peppered throughout her invocation. her ear, the corners of her eyes curled doesn’t see as incompatible — for set- “Amen,” she says. And although I toward the sky in a slight smile as she ting her family and the community on don’t go to church, I say “amen,” too. speaks. “I hope for my children to a different path. She’s devoted to both. Then Cynthia and I walk out the have stability in their lives and not “When we became Christians — that’s door and hop in the back of James’s have to go through what I went when I found peace in my home,” she F-150. His .270 hunting rifle rattles through in having to move from dif- says. “We’ve got to continue our way of beneath my boots as we roll on down ferent places.” life — it’s like you drop something,” she the road to rabbit camp. The Cree way of life is one of sur- stretches out her fist and opens it, as vival. Unlike most Cree people her though an object is slipping through ABEL BOSUM AND I SIT on a age, Maggie did not attend the resi- her fingers, “it’s hard to pick it back up.” bench beside the shaptuan, an oblong dential school and instead learned The divisions sown by BlackRock Cree structure that stands roughly at the skills of Cree womanhood from weigh on her. At the time of my visit, the centre of the Oujé-Bougoumou her mother in Mistissini. Before she Norman, Phillip and Matthew aren’t Cree Nation’s administrative build- could marry, she needed to know speaking. With her husband and ings. The business services centre is to how to skin a beaver; how to scrape, children at odds, Maggie, the matri- our left and the government offices to stretch and smoke a moose hide; how arch, has to hold things together. our right. The Cree Cultural Institute, to make clothes and moccasins out of “She’s like a needle,” says her young- a museum, lies directly ahead. The the leather; how to knit a fishnet; how est daughter, Alice. Like Matthew, Pentecostal Church is at our backs, to clean an animal and a house. Maggie is concerned BlackRock has and beyond that, Lake Opémisca.

52 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 In 1989, the Oujé-Bougoumou built this shaptuan for a signing cer- emony with Quebec when the province agreed to contribute funding for the construction of a village and recognized, to a limited degree, the community’s jurisdiction and self- government. Three years later, the Oujé-Bougoumou finalized an agree- ment with the federal government, securing further resources for their village and setting them on the path to independence. Back then, the Cree lived in shacks down the hill closer to the lake, and the shaptuan was the only structure here. Bosum recalls the 1989 celebration. It began with a prayer from an Elder and a song from the youth. The Cree feasted on moose, bear, beaver and bannock. Speakers from the First Nation and the provincial government shared speeches marking the historic agreement before signing the docu- ment and shaking hands. Bosum, one of the negotiators, remembers people in the crowd crying. “It was quite an emotional journey for many people,” he says of the negotiations. “They come out, they express, they partici- sound of her sobbing. On weekends, The town of Oujé-Bougoumou, pate, and then sometimes I had to he would leave the apartment with designed by renowed architect Douglas come back and report that things were the kids until things died down on Cardinal (opposite). The community’s not going well or that idea is out the Sunday. Child services ended up tak- impressive Aanischaaukamikw Cree window. It was like a roller coaster. ing some of them away. Many have Cultural Institute building (above). But to actually reach a point in the pulled through, but some are no lon- process where you’ve got an agree- ger with us — their lives also school, he worked in the mines. Then ment, you’ve got the ceremony — well, consumed by drink and grief. he took a course on community plan- that was quite an accomplishment.” At the residential school, Abel met ning, communications and government Bosum tells the story of how he Sophie Happyjack from the Waswa- affairs in Elliot Lake, Ont. Every other and his people got to that point. After napi Cree Nation. When they weren’t weekend, he would drive 17 hours back Doré Lake, Abel’s mother Lucy in La Tuque together, Abel would hitch- to Chibougamau to be with his wife and moved to Chibougamau where she hike for two days across northern young family. (He missed Curtis’s birth lived on welfare and worked intermit- Quebec to visit her. They had four chil- by two hours during this time.) tently as a chambermaid. Her dren: Irene in 1975, Curtis in 1977, In the 1970s, things were chang- husband Sam died in 1969. She Reggie in 1982 and Nathaniel in 1989. ing in northern Quebec. The province turned to alcohol. She remarried. Nathaniel, a professional motocross had plans to expand hydroelectric When he was around and his mother rider, died in a racing accident two dams on James Bay, but the affected was on the bottle, Abel helped take years ago. Curtis has been Chief of First Nations and Inuit insisted that care of his siblings. He remembers Oujé-Bougoumou since 2015. their rights be respected. In 1975, the the arguments and violence that Despite the circumstances of his Cree and Inuit of the region, as well accompanied Lucy’s addiction, the youth, Abel persisted. After residential as the provincial and federal govern-

CANGEO.CA 53 ments, signed the James Bay and ton, Lott Thunder — evangelized the opening, but tripartite negotiations Northern Quebec Agreement, the community. Many became Pentecos- between his community, Quebec and first modern treaty in Canadian his- tal. At camp meetings, they studied Canada were slow and complicated. tory. It allowed the province to the Bible, but they also rediscovered Quebec’s position, according to complete construction of the dams who they were and began discussing Bosum, was that his band could and in exchange, it awarded the Cree what had happened to them. Many receive land once they had secured and Inuit $225 million to be paid got sober. In 1984, they elected federal recognition. The Canadian over 20 years and recognized their Bosum chief, and he opened an office government’s position was that the distinct territorial and cultural rights. in Chibougamau and started leading Cree could receive recognition once It affirmed the independence of workshops and sending letters to the they had land. The negotiations were many Cree and Inuit communities, provincial and federal governments further complicated by the fact that while incorporating them into the to petition for recognition. His allies Quebec sovereigntists wanted noth- region’s economy. But it left out the at the Cree Indian Centre of Chibou- ing to do with the federal government, Cree from Doré Lake, who were gamau enlisted the aforementioned and Indian reserves were primarily a legally subsumed under the Mistis- anthropologist Jacques Frenette to federal issue. Neither government sini Cree Nation at the time. conduct an ethnographic study of the wanted to compensate the Cree for the After completing his coursework, First Nation. Frenette argued the $4-billion worth of natural resources Abel got a job in Val-d’Or with the Cree who once lived at Doré Lake that the First Nation estimated had Grand Council of the Crees, a new were a distinct group, and his book, been stolen from their territories governing body created to imple- The History of the Chibougamau Crees, since the 1950s — contaminating ment the James Bay agreement. His published by the centre in 1985, lands and waters and dispossessing job was to travel to First Nations armed the community with valuable them of their homes along the way. in the region, communicating evidence to advance their cause. Peo- Bosum remembers one particu- plans and developing economic ple, some in high places, started larly contentious meeting held in a strategies. His travels brought him paying attention to these Cree who Cree cabin. The federal negotiator back to Chibougamau. had been left out of the James Bay had flown in from Ottawa and left a In the 1980s, the Cree dispersed Agreement and were living in Third taxi outside the meeting with the from Doré Lake were being born World conditions. meter running. Cree kids built a bon- again. Preachers with colourful When the Liberals came to power fire nearby. As the hours dragged on, names — Enoch Hall, Chuck Mor- in Quebec in 1985, Bosum saw an federal and provincial representatives

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Many area Cree were relocated to Oujé- their billion-dollar line for their hydro- mills to pump heated water. When the Bougoumou (opposite), now home to the electric project and here are these community moved into their new region’s administrative building (left), in Indians underneath,” Bosum recalls, houses, after generations of living in 1989 after an agreement with the feds and laughing. By September, the First shacks, many didn’t even know how province led by Chief Abel Bosum (right). Nation and Quebec had reached an to use a faucet or toilet. The most agreement. The federal government common complaint, Bosum recalls, is had their aides fetch hot dogs. Finally, followed suit. that the homes were “too big.” Fami- around 11 at night, the federal nego- After a long diaspora, the Cree set lies named the streets for places out tiator caved and signed a deal. Two about selecting and designing a per- on their traplines: Muskuuchi Meskino days later, he sent a letter alleging he manent village. They began by having for “Bear Street,” Ginshaw Wagumshi had been coerced. Negotiations broke each family choose a favoured spot on Meskino for “Pike Fishing River down. Bosum recalls advice that Rob- their trapline. They then worked with Street,” Oukauw Sakhegun for “Doré ert Epstein, a friend, gave him: community planners to narrow down Lake.” They called their nation Oujé- “You’re going to wait on the govern- the selection. The community voted Bougoumou: “The Place Where ment forever. If you believe your on the final three options and chose People Gather.” people are distinct, act like it.” the current site on Lake Opémisca. It The Oujé-Bougoumou Cree, par- was a fortuitous decision. Although ticularly the Elders, still spend much IN THE SUMMER OF 1989, the Cree didn’t know it at the time, an of their time out on the land. The the Cree declared jurisdiction over esker, a ridge of gravel, runs through community observes a two-week their territory, established their own the land and acts as a natural water Goose Break in the spring and a simi- court and convicted Quebec and Can- filter. The community hired renowned lar Moose Break in the fall. When I ada of theft of resources and architect Douglas Cardinal, of Black- visited, the village was mostly empty, destruction of villages. They erected a foot, Algonquin and Métis heritage, to as families were away pursuing bull blockade under a transmission line design their new village according to moose on their hunting grounds. But carrying power from James Bay to the traditional architectural forms, like tradition is, of course, a flexible thing. United States. “The reporters that the shaptuan, and to reflect traditional For Goose Breaks, Abel has built a came, they were taking pictures with values, like sustainability. plush cabin with six rooms. On a the transmission line in the back- All the buildings on the reserve are recent family hunting trip, his grand- ground. And, of course, that caught connected to a central heating system, son told him: “Grandpa, this is not a Quebec’s attention, because this is which burns waste sawdust from local cabin. This is a hotel!”

CANGEO.CA 55 Bosum was Chief for 14 years and fetches the moose leg steaks, which Cynthia and James Wapachee cook moose has been Grand Chief of the Grand she has cut into thin filets and set out steaks at the family’s rabbit camp (left), Council of the Crees since 2017. His to thaw on butcher paper. (These where youngster Amberlynn Shecapio son Curtis was just elected for a second came from Norman’s kill last year. (right) shows off her moose-calling skills. term as Chief of Oujé-Bougoumou. The Wapachees haven’t taken a moose Before interviewing the elder, I spoke yet this season, as the animals are “Hey, you wanna’ see her moose with the younger Bosum in his sec- increasingly scarce on their hunting call?” asks Wally. “She does a great ond-floor corner office. From his desk, grounds.) She spears one filet each moose call.” He passes a red horn to the Chief can see much of the nation onto three pointy sticks, which she the little girl who wails into it. For a his father built: the Pentecostal digs into the ground and props up so pint-sized Homo sapien, she blows a Church, the daycare, the youth centre, that the meat hangs just a few inches pretty convincing moose. the tourism lodge, the development above the flames. “We just had a “Do it again,” says Linda. “I didn’t corporation and the shaptuan. Beyond marshmallow roast on this stick,” she hear.” Amberlynn does it again, but that, the lake, the woods and the says, chuckling. louder. When hunting is a way of life, mountains. At the start of every day, After the meat has browned and kids start early. he looks out across his people’s starts to ooze tiny bubbles of white fat, Before Wally gets his family back domain. “My morning view,” says Cynthia cuts off a piece and tastes it. on the road, I ask what he thinks Chief Curtis, “really is just a reminder “It’s done,” she says before distribut- about BlackRock. of my duties, my responsibilities, who ing bite-sized chunks to the visitors “If you follow this road up here,” I’m here for.” and family gathered round, who chat he says, pointing down Logging Road mostly in Cree. 210, deeper into the bush, “you can AT THE WAPACHEE RABBIT Rabbit camp is both a hunting and see the whole mountain range that’s camp, a row of four cabins crossing gathering place for the Wapachee. going to disappear.” Wally is out­ Logging Road 210, Cynthia is trying While I was there, more than a dozen spoken like his father. He believes to get a fire going using dry spruce relatives and visitors cycled through. BlackRock misled the family and the twigs and boughs for kindling, but “We never plan anything, we just community. According to Wally, the isn’t having much success. John bump into each other wherever we Bally Husky Agreement committed Blacksmith, her boyfriend from Mis- go,” says James. “We might even BlackRock to building a work camp tissini, steps in, as men tend to do, bump into each other in Montreal.” that would provide 500 jobs and cre- but can’t catch a spark. Eventually Among the visitors during this trip is ate many business contracts for the Cynthia’s brother James comes over Wally Wapachee, one of the elder Cree. But the company has walked with a piece of cardboard doused in brothers, with his wife, Linda Bosum, back the commitment to a work gasoline and the fire bursts to life. and adopted granddaughter Amber- camp and now plans to employ far “Get the steaks!” James yells, theatri- lynn Shecapio, a gap-toothed fewer workers, maybe 150 to 200, and cally. “Now don’t write we had to use five-year-old, her hair wild and loose, ship most of the ore out by rail. gas,” he says to me. wearing pink boots and a camouflage “Canadians call it development,” he Once the fire is crackling, Cynthia sweatshirt about five sizes too big. says. “We call it disaster.”

56 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 LOCATION

Curtis Bosum, Chief of Oujé- INSTALLATION Bougoumou, at the local rink.

Like most Cree families, the Bosums hunted together, mostly on LOCATION INSTALLATION the Happyjack trapline near Ramsey Bay. Growing up, Curtis took his little brother Nathaniel under his wing. When Nathaniel was a baby, Curtis changed his diapers. When Nathaniel got older, Curtis hunted and fished with him. And when Nathaniel became a professional motocross rider, Curtis was his manager. When At about six in the evening, Wally, ing his daughters, Megan, six, Leah, the accident happened, Curtis was the Linda and Amberlynn get on the road eight, and Leanne, his stepdaughter, first to get the call. He had to tell the back to Oujé-Bougoumou. With the sun also eight, figure skate. Unlike most rest of the family Nathaniel was gone. setting and our appetites sated, Cynthia, Cree kids, Curtis grew up middle- “That was tough,” says Curtis. “I still John and a few others set out toward class and played hockey at this rink. hear the screams and crying.” Gawashebuggidnajj in two trucks. With While relative privilege afforded him As Curtis tells the story, his son John in the lead, we bounce around on the opportunity to skate, it didn’t spare Alexandre, Megan’s twin, comes and bumpy backroads. Every so often, John him from racism. Curtis remembers sits in his dad’s lap. Alexandre was stops the car and looks out across the opposing players calling him kawish, born without a left eye, a one-in-a- swampy shorelines of the lakes for a French epithet for Natives, and aits million case, but still plays hockey and moose feeding in the shallows, as the asti Indien, the equivalent of “fucking other sports. Curtis speaks French to Wapachee have done for generations. Indian.” He remembers the prejudice the boy and hands him a credit card to “Don’t be surprised if John stops and of his friends’ parents. And he remem- buy poutine. The Bosum household is shoots a moose,” says Cynthia. During bers how he overcame it: by hanging in trilingual, with the kids speaking the drive, we pass an old gold shaft, there, by having tough and thoughtful French, English and a little Cree. For called Le Moine, and then the Black- conversations. Hockey helped. Curtis a man who has spent his life navigat- Rock campsite. learned how to listen to the coach and ing the seams between Cree, As we start to climb Gawashebug- how to be a team player, which to him Québécois and Canadian worlds, this gidnajj, I see the birch bark trees for meant that despite differences, team- feels appropriate. which the Wapachees named the mates stuck together on the ice. Curtis In August 2019, Curtis was re- mountain in their mother tongue, remembers how his Quebecois line elected Chief for another four-year clear-cut and stacked two metres high, mates would stand up for him, the only term. He views his role as Chief not with the trunks’ round bottoms facing Native in the rink, against all-white unlike his role as a teammate, the road. We drive deeper into the teams from Val-d’Or and the Lac Saint- brother and father: it’s all about bal- bush: 30, 45 minutes, our eyes peeled Jean area. “That felt good,” he says. ance. As Chief, Curtis must balance for wildlife, our wheels skirting axel- Curtis’s opportunities reflect the for- the need to address pressing social breaking potholes every few dozen titude of his parents. Neither Abel nor issues like education and unemploy- metres. There isn’t an animal in sight. Sophie spoke about the abuses they ment with his responsibility to But then, as we approach the sum- suffered at La Tuque, to spare their chil- protect and preserve the territory and mit, John spots something moving in dren from the ripple effects now well culture of the nation. This is not the bushes and stops the truck. He documented by the Truth and Reconcili- always easy. Although he knows fetches his .30-30 rifle, used for big ation Commission. Abel, in particular, development will harm wildlife and game, and takes aim. was a disciplinarian. There were, the environment, Curtis sees mines according to Curtis, rules and regula- like BlackRock as an opportunity to CHIEF CURTIS BOSUM sits in tions: no swearing, no hitting, no provide jobs and create businesses in the stands of the Chibougamau Arena wasting food — especially meat. And if a community that needs a lot more of in a Blue Jays cap and zip-up, watch- you didn’t listen: “there was the belt.” those. He says he has done his best

58 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MARCH/APRIL 2020 to represent the interests of the Oujé- A MAMA BEAR STANDS up on The Wapachee family has hunted near the Bougoumou Cree while giving voice her hind legs in the bushes, sniffing mountain they call Gawashebuggidnajj to the Wapachee family’s concerns. the air. When she spots the trucks, for generations. The area may soon become He too recognizes the loss the mine she takes off into the trees, three baby a mine, forcing them to move on again. will represent. “There won’t be any bears following behind. John lowers more mountain,” he says, sitting on his gun. The Cree don’t take mothers blue-grey swamps and among the the cold metal stands. “Digesting it, with cubs. We hop back in the trucks birch trees of the mountain. After a it’s a little tough.” and finish the treacherous drive to successful hunt, they would return Curtis takes Alexandre down to the the peak of Gawashebuggidnajj, the to lakeside homes, a slain beast in locker room to get suited up for prac- Wapachees’ traditional moose hunt- tow. From the summit, the distance tice. The Chief gets his son fully dressed ing grounds. the Wapachees, their forebears and and gives the boy a big, enthusiastic “They say the mountain here is all the Oujé-Bougoumou have travelled high-five before lacing up his own going to be extracted. There will be appears formidable, but not insur- skates. On the march to the ice, the no mountain here,” says Cynthia mountable or irreversible. If mites in their Timbits jerseys — mostly Wapachee, as though she can hardly investors have their way and turn this boys, but a few girls, too — look like a believe it. She pauses, before add- mountain into little more than a kilo- gaggle of bowlegged astronauts: their ing: “It devastates me knowing that metre-long hole in the ground — the pants a bit too long, their helmets a bit there’s history,” she gestures to the titanium, vanadium and iron beneath too big, their sticks, unwieldy. exposed granite mountaintop shipped off to China and wrought At the gate, Alexandre takes off in a beneath her feet. She lifts her into batteries, wind turbines, electric circle. Once all the players file out glasses to wipe the tears welling vehicles, implants — maybe then onto the rink, the coaches follow from her eyes. the distance between the past behind, the sound of laughter and She looks out across the land: the at Doré Lake and the present at little skates scraping the ice fill the forest spotted with silver lakes and Gawashebuggidnajj will be flattened arena. A whistle blows, and the kids streaked with trees turning yellow and imperceptible. reverse direction. Another whistle, with the changing season. In the and they practise skating backward. distance is Chibougamau Lake, and Visit cangeo.ca/relocation for an inter­ Curtis approaches a tyke in a red jer- just beyond that the sliver of Doré active map of select community reloca- sey and shows him how to make a Lake. The Wapachees have traversed tions across the country, including the C-cut, the fundamental technique for this land countless times, stalking story behind each relocation, as well as backward movement. antlered giants on the shores of the photos and videos.

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