Pearl Lorentzen
For South Peace News
“It’s very important we opened the cultural camp,” says Peerless Trout First Nation Chief Gilbert Okemow.
“It means a lot. It means looking at our membership, our children and our children’s children in the future.”
Along with the kids, adds Chief Okemow, “it’s about our knowledge keepers who are our Elders.”
At the camp, Elders teach children traditional skills such as butchering and drying moose meat, fishing with a net, smoking fish, snowshoeing, trapping, etc.
This type of land-based-learning is connected with Indigenous “ways of being,” says Okemow. “They (the Elders) have that knowledge that they can teach our young ones.”
“They’re really excited about this camp, the Elders,” says Elizabeth Cardinal, PTFN youth and cultural coordinator.
“They’re really looking forward to coming out.”
The Loonskin Bay Cultural Camp is on Graham Lake, also called Trout Lake, which is namekos sakahikan in Cree.
The buildings are new, but the site isn’t.
“It’s always been used for hundreds of years,” says Vernon Alook, PTFN band manager, “as a homestead for some families.”
The camp has eight log cabins, which are named after lakes in the area which are important to the community.
“These names were chosen by our Elders,” says Alook.
At the grand opening on July 7, PTFN Elders had the honour of putting up the name plates.
Near the shore of the lake is also the a gazebo-like structure which has a fire pit in the middle and a place for people to sit and learn. It was built by local craftsmen.
It is called “the old post learning area in Cree,” says Alook.
The old post is a nickname for the community of Trout Lake, which refers to the Hudson Bay Company post.
The camp also has skid shacks that have a kitchen, dining room, washrooms, showers and extra sleeping areas.
“The best part of this camp,” says Cardinal, “where it’s at, there’s no wifi and no cell service. They (the kids and youth) have to keep themselves busy out there, which is good.”
This August will be the fourth year that PTFN holds a cultural camp for 13- to 17-year-olds.
“The numbers keep going up year by year,” says Cardinal.
In 2022, the teen camp had a record 36 kids and Cardinal expects this year to be higher.
July 11-13, it held its first two-night camp for kids 10-12 years old. At least 35 kids registered.
“We’re just trying to see how it goes,” says Cardinal.
Later in the summer, there will be a one-night camp for 7-9-year-olds.
Community members, Elders, and KTC Child and Family Services help at the camps.
“It’s good to see the community come together when we hold the camps,” says Cardinal.
The camp will also be used in the winter.
During the year, Cardinal also organizes youth and cultural events in the PTFN communities.
Peerless Trout has two communities – Peerless Lake and Trout Lake. By road, the farther one, Trout Lake, is 256 km north of Slave Lake and west of Red Earth Creek on Hwy. 686 which is gravel.
In the spring 2023, the Alberta government promised to pave Hwy. 686 to Peerless Lake and to extend it to Fort McMurray. The new road will be 218 km of two-lane gravel road. Paving the existing portion of Hwy. 686 is expected to start in 2024 and take two to three years. The dates of the Hwy. 686 extension weren’t mentioned in the announcement, but will take five years.
In the meantime, PTFN council is looking to “have something in place for tourism,” says Okemow. This may include the culture camp. Nothing has been decided yet, but council will be having discussions now that the camp is built.
Many of the Peerless Trout Elders are concerned about protecting the lakes, adds Okemow. PTFN council plans to balance this with economic considerations such as tourism.
“We live by one of the cleanest lakes in Alberta,” says Okemow.
The lakes around Peerless and Trout Lakes drain into the Wabasca River, which flows into the Peace River, which flows into the Slave River before leaving Alberta. The Athabasca River flows into Lake Athabasca and the water also eventually reaches the Arctic Ocean.
When it comes to protecting the watersheds (land that surrounds lakes and rivers), the Alberta government has various regulations.
“We will be working with them (government),” says Okemow.