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Trapline Land Use Before the La Grande Project

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Trapline Land Use Before the La Grande Project SUMMARY OF TRAPLINE LAND USE BEFORE THE LA GRANDE PROJECT TRAPLINE RE2 Land Use Before the La Grande Complex Trapline Background Information Trapline RE2 is located about 27 km east of Eastmain and extends east for about 90 km along the southern shore of the Eastmain River which is the northern boundary and the À l’Eau Froide River that forms the southern boundary. The majority of the trapline is located on Category II land, except for the eastern part of it which is located on Category III land. Camp 381, the rest area on the James Bay Highway is located on the trapline. Clarence Mayappo has been the tallyman of the trapline RE2 for about ten years. He replaced his father who was the previous tallyman. Impacts Related to the La Grande Complex: • The James Bay Highway which crosses the trapline over 20 km on its eastern side (from km 375 to km 395) (1973). • Diversion of 100% of the Eastmain River flow toward the La Grande River watershed via the Opinaca Reservoir (1980). • A 450 kV transmission line (11th line) which crosses the trapline (S-N) in its eastern part. • Presence of a workers campsite and a winter road during the times of work, on the Eastmain River shore, for the construction of weir #3. Other Hydro-Quebec Infrastructure Present on the Trapline: • A 69 kV transmission line going from the Muskeg Substation to Eastmain, which crosses the trapline (E-W) on its south-eastern part. (1994) Trapline Land Use Before the La Grande Complex During the 1970s, the trapline users reached the trapline by plane and traveled by canoe within the trapline during the fall. A canoe route went all along the Eastmain River and was used to access the trapline every year until they started to use the plane. Two plane landing areas are located on the Eastmain River; the first one close to the main camp and the second one close to a storage place across the river from another main camp. After freeze-up, the tallyman and other users could also reach the trapline by dogsled or snowmobile after the mid 1970s, following the river. 1 A main winter trail was used to reach the other parts of the trapline. The trail left from a third camp traversing trapline RE3-A before reaching the first camp. It then followed the Miskimatao River before reaching the second camp from where it went all the way to the eastern border of the trapline, passing by a main camp located along a confluent of the Miskimatao River. Another winter trail linked the camp #4 on the shore of the Eastmain River to the trapping area around lakes Amiskw Matawaw and Nistam Siyachistawach. Two main camps were located around this trapping area. One, camp was located on the shore of a tributary of Amisk Matawaw Lake an another one, camp on the shore of Kapakupesakach Lake, which was notably used for winter caribou hunting. Three temporary winter camps, used during the trapping season, were also located around these lakes on the shore of Nistam Siyachistawach Lake, Amiskw Matawaw Lake and on an island of this same lake. Altogether the tallyman located 22 permanent or temporary camps that could be used during the time on the trapline each year. The users came back to the coast by foot or dog sled in late March. Ten main camps with moss and log houses have been located along the canoe route on the Eastmain River. This canoe route and the campsites along the river were also used during the fall by other families paddling up the river to reach their traplines, gathering fish along the way for the winter. The first camp met when entering the trapline by canoe was located just below the First Rapid. This was a community use site. Located upstream from the First Rapid, close to the Nistuchun Confluent, was a camp used during the winter while trapping in the area. Further upstream, on the southern shore of the river were two more camps that were community use campsites for fishing, but also main camps for the family during the trapping season. A couple of kms further upstream there was camp at the confluence with the Miskimatao River, which was a trapping and fishing camp, as were camp five other main camps used when trapping in different areas of the trapline. The tallyman would leave equipment, such as traps he needed the following year, at the storage place located on the northern shore of the Eastmain River across from the landing site. The whole family went on the trapline, traveling with relatives who also borrowed the Eastmain River to go to their own traplines, like for example, an uncle’s family who trapped on VC33. They stayed from September to April on the trapline, the women and children staying at the main camps while the men trapped all over the territory. Fishing activities were important on the Eastmain River. Pike, walleye, suckers, whitefish, ciscoes and sturgeons were fished, all the way from the First Rapid up to the Conglomerate Gorge. Fishing areas have been located in front of most of the 11 camps that were used by the tallyman and other Cree traveling on the Eastmain River camps, 10 were on the shore and one on an island. Fishing around this island was particularly good for sturgeon and pike, the fish being plentiful around there, and good fishing could be done at any time of the year there. Some tallymen including the previous tallyman would fish there to provide fish for the community during the spring and summer months. Five spawning areas were located between these two main rapids. Elsewhere, ice fishing for suckers, pike and whitefish was carried out on lakes Nistam Siyachistawach and 2 Amisk Matawaw while trapping in this area. Three spawning areas for these species of fish were located around these lakes. Four main trapping areas were identified by the tallyman for theperiod before the La Grande project. The first was around Kamisikamach Lake and Asiyan Akwakwatipusich Lake, on the eastern part of the trapline. The trappers would go there to trap for a few weeks during January and February while the women and children stayed at any of the main camps on the shore of the Eastmain River. A second area, along the river, was notably used to trap muskrat, otter and mink. Another trapping area followed the Miskimatao River and its tributaries, covering the central part of the trapline. A fourth trapping area on the southeastern part of the trapline circled lakes Nistam Siyachistawach and Amisk Matawaw. The trapping zones were rotated over the years in order to properly manage the beaver resource. Some moose hunting could be done along the river while paddling up during the fall and three winter moose hunting areas were located along the winter trails crossing the trapline. All the southern shore of the Eastmain River was identified as a summer moose hunting area because moose were feeding there during that season. However, little moose hunting was done at that time of the year because the tallyman and their families were normally in the community for the summer months. The lakes south of Amisk Matawaw Lake have also been identified as a moose hunting area and as a woodland caribou hunting area. Caribous were also hunted in lakes Amiskw Matawaw and Nistam Siyachistawach sector. Fall was also dedicated to berry picking and to do some bear hunting. Five bear hunting sites have been mentioned by the tallyman, four of them along the Eastmain River and one south of Amiskw Matawaw Lake. Rabbits and other small game were hunted around the camps during the trapping season for the winter consumption of meat. In April, the family went back to the coast for the goose hunting season, while the summer was spent close to the community, fishing with other families in the Eastmain River and in the Bay. Fishing activities were important on the Eastmain River. Pike, walleye, suckers, whitefish, ciscoes and sturgeons were fished, all the way from the First Rapid up to the Conglomerate Gorge. Fishing areas have been located in front of most of the 11 camps that were used by the tallyman and other Cree traveling on the Eastmain River camps, 10 were on the shore and one on an island. Fishing around this island was particularly good for sturgeon and pike, the fish being plentiful around there, and good fishing could be done at any time of the year there. Some tallymen including the previous tallyman would fish there to provide fish for the community during the spring and summer months. Five spawning areas were located between these two main rapids. Elsewhere, ice fishing for suckers, pike and whitefish was carried out on lakes Nistam Siyachistawach and Amisk Matawaw while trapping in this area. Three spawning areas for these species of fish were located around these lakes. 3 Valued Areas Among the valued sites mentioned by the tallyman and his family were three burial sites located at different places along the Eastmain River. One is their great grandmother’s burial site and the other two were the burial site of a members of two other families. In addition the tallyman said that many other burial sites were found along the river because people would be buried there if they died while traveling. Their sister’s birth site has also been located not too far east of camp #2. A few kms south from camp one of the camps is a hill, from the top of which it is possible to see the whole area.
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