Author: Janelle Marie Baker, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Athabasca University
The logging company, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc., conducted a “desktop” assessment. But no one physically visited the area, and the assessment missed identifying the trail.Article content In 1999, Alberta-Pacific funded and published a Bigstone Cree Nation land and occupancy study, and the trail is clearly marked on all base maps and in a specific section on traditional trails.Article content
One of the reasons that traditional trails are revered in sakawiyiniwak life is that trails link people and places. This means that ancient, ceremonial, camping and harvesting sites are all joined by trails. People care for and tend to trails as they do berry and medicine patches, and seasonal fishing and hunting camps.
Laura Golebiowski, who works as an Aboriginal consultation adviser for the Alberta Historic Resources Management Branch, has been working with Bigstone Cree Nation to record and protect cultural sites.
Can any business do anything in the resource sector without some native band saying they are being encroached on? This country is a banana republic
If this was visa versa, authorities would act quickly.