Photo: MCFN elder and trapper, Fred Vermillion, studies the Peace Point rapids before attempting to run them. Before BC Hydro regulation in the late 1960’s, the rapids were not a barrier to MCFN members use of the Peace River. Since BC Hydro regulation, regular low water on the Peace in spring and summer, and dangerous open water in winter, means that Fred is often not able to access his family cabins or trap line, where he and his brothers were raised, and where he plans to retire. When he can access his cabins, once plentiful muskrat and beaver are now rare, and large sandbars impair his ability to visit nearby family and friends. Mikisew Cree First Nation Report on Peace River Knowledge and Use for BC Hydro’s Proposed Site C Project September 20, 2013 Craig Candler, Ph.D. and the Firelight Group Research Cooperative with the Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) Mikisew Cree First Nation Report on Peace River Knowledge and Use for BC Hydro’s Proposed Site C Project Prepared and authored by: Craig Candler (Ph.D), and the Firelight Group Research Cooperative with the Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) On behalf of: Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) Submitted to: Melody Lepine Mikisew Cree First Nation Government and Industry Relations Thanks and acknowledgements go to the MCFN elders, knowledge holders, staff, and leadership who contributed. This report could not have been completed without their support and expert knowledge. MCFN Knowledge and Use Report for BC Hydro’s Proposed Site C Project 09/20/2013 Executive Summary This report is based on information provided by Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) knowledge holders regarding the Peace River and the Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD or delta). It builds on initial reports completed for MCFN and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) in January and July 2013 and provides additional detail regarding MCFN knowledge, use and practice of treaty and aboriginal rights on the Peace River and within the PAD, trends over time, and likely pathways of effect on the PAD and lower Peace River from BC Hydro’s Site C project (the Project), including increased BC Hydro capacity to control and alter seasonal flows and ice dynamics on the lower Peace and in the PAD. This report is based on review of existing documents, one MCFN focus group interviews conducted in early July 2013, and a limited set of seven semi-formal follow-up interviews held in September 2013 with nine MCFN elders or knowledge holders, including two MCFN members from Garden River. Interviews were facilitated and recorded by MCFN GIR staff and researchers from the Firelight Group. They were guided by a series of questions designed to elicit MCFN traditional knowledge regarding relationships between Peace River flows and the Peace-Athabasca Delta, experience with past BC Hydro dams, and likely or anticipated effects of the proposed Site C Project based on past MCFN experience and traditional knowledge. The knowledge of MCFN members regarding the PAD and the Peace River is rich, detailed, complex and current. Given budget and time constraints, this report provides an overview of detailed Sakaw Nehiyâwewin (Northern or Bush Cree) understandings regarding the Peace River, including that: • The flow of the Peace River and the PAD are connected and MCFN knowledge holders see BC Hydro’s influence on the flow of the Peace River as one of the most important influences on the ability of MCFN members to practice knowledge, use and rights on both the main stream of the lower Peace River, and throughout the PAD inside and outside of WBNP, including on and near MCFN reserve lands. • Despite changes, MCFN use of the lower Peace and adjacent portions of the PAD is intense, active and ongoing. Documented MCFN use and practice extends throughout the Peace River and throughout the PAD, including areas inside and outside WBNP. Specific areas and issues of particular concern include: o Project and cumulative impacts to MCFN subsistence, habitation, transportation, environmental feature, and cultural/spiritual values within WBNP and beyond, and especially areas near Mouth of the Peace, Rocky Point, Peace Point, Moose Island, Big Slough, and other locations along the Peace River, as well as Birch River, Buckton Creek, Quatre Fourche, and other places within the wider PAD, including Lake Claire and Lake www.thefirelightgroup.com ii MCFN Knowledge and Use Report for BC Hydro’s Proposed Site C Project 09/20/2013 Mamawi, where MCFN members and families maintain cabins, permanent residences, and preferred harvesting areas that depend on Peace River flows and ice conditions in all seasons for access and ecological health. o Project and cumulative impacts to MCFN reserve lands, traplines, and concentrations of subsistence, habitation, transportation, environmental and cultural/spiritual values in PAD areas outside of WBNP that are influenced by the flow of the Peace River. o Project and cumulative impacts to MCFNs ability to use key Peace River and PAD waterways for transportation and access to traditional lands and preferred harvest areas in all seasons, including winter. o Project and cumulative impacts to key PAD dependent resources which are already impacted by BC Hydro’s existing dams, and that threaten to further constrain the ability of MCFN members to harvest muskrat, beaver, mink and otter, migratory birds (especially ducks and geese), fish (especially white fish), and other delta resources that depend on the flow of the Peace River and seasonal flooding of the PAD. • Past and ongoing impacts due to BC Hydro dams on the Peace have had, and continue to have, important adverse impacts that make both the PAD, and the PAD dependent way of life of MCFN members, especially vulnerable to change in the magnitude, seasonality, duration and frequency of high water on the Peace River; • MCFN members expect that, if built, BC Hydro’s proposed Site C Project will worsen existing impacts to their lands, waters, and way of life including areas inside and outside Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP). These expected effects are based on at least two major pathways anticipated by MCFN knowledge holders based on past experience: o Increased BC Hydro control of the Peace River and reduced magnitude, duration, and frequency of natural (unmanaged) high spring and summer Peace River flows essential to hydraulic dam conditions on the Peace, and resulting reverse flows and beneficial flooding in the delta. Based on MCFN knowledge and experience, the Bennett Dam has reduced the frequency of flooding in the PAD substantially and, if built, Site C is likely to reduce it further. o Increased BC Hydro control of the Peace River and potential increased magnitude, duration, and frequency of irregular and unnatural (managed) winter Peace River flows that kill ice and water dependent wildlife in the delta and along the Peace (especially muskrat and beaver), make ice based transport (by ice road, foot, or sled / snow machine) dangerous, difficult, or impossible, especially near Rocky Point, and increase unnatural winter flooding and high winter flows under ice leading to weaker, thinner, and more sediment loaded ice, and reducing potential for spring ice damming, and beneficial flooding, on the Peace. The importance of the lower Peace River and adjacent portions of the PAD to ongoing MCFN knowledge, use, and practice of rights cannot be overstated. www.thefirelightgroup.com iii MCFN Knowledge and Use Report for BC Hydro’s Proposed Site C Project 09/20/2013 MCFN knowledge holders report that before BC Hydro regulation, the Peace River reached spring high levels adequate to create hydraulic damming and reverse flows to the PAD every five years. Since regulation, levels adequate to reverse flow are reported to have occurred in only three years, including 2013. These now rare years of high water offer ‘glimmers of hope’ for the delta and for Mikisew knowledge, culture and use that depends on the delta. MCFN knowledge holders expect that Site C would make the frequency of these ‘glimmers of hope’ even more rare, and potentially cause cascading effects on both PAD ecology and the transmission and practice of PAD dependent knowledge and use within the MCFN community. BC Hydro has not included information, or conducted an assessment, of potential Site C effects on the lower Peace and PAD. In the absence of information or funding from BC Hydro, the MCFN has not attempted to fully assess the anticipated effects of Site C on MCFN values, rights, or interests. However, MCFN anticipates that the effects of Site C will be adverse, and will act cumulatively with already existing and very significant effects of existing BC Hydro dams and management on the Peace River. Beyond providing experience, understanding and analysis within the focus groups and interviews, MCFN knowledge holders also expressed enormous frustration with BC Hydro, and the assessment processes, because of the lack of consideration of potential Site C impacts on the PAD and lower Peace despite more than four decades of MCFN suffering and loss in the delta, continual effort by MCFN to articulate and explain the impacts of BC Hydro’s existing dams on the PAD, court actions regarding the impacts of BC Hydro dams on MCFN lands, and ample published documentation and research demonstrating the relationship between the Peace River and the PAD. For elders and knowledge holders who remember interactions with BC Hydro from the 1970’s, who have participated and explained to BC Hydro through past meetings, studies, and legal actions, and who have lived most of their lives with the legacy of BC Hydro’s Peace River dams on their lands, waters, and families, the sense of betrayal, of governmental dishonesty or willful blindness, and of history repeating itself through the Site C process, was clear.