Energy board winds up Epcor hearings

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The struggle concerning a burial ground between Epcor and representatives of the Aboriginal community may be ongoing, but the public hearings are over.

The controversy stems from Epcor's request to build a 170-megawatt, gas-fired turbine in the Rossdale Flats, immediately south of downtown Edmonton in the North Saskatchewan River valley.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) has wound up its Jan. 9 to 24 public hearings in Edmonton regarding Epcor's proposal. That followed a 25-day earlier hearing that ran last October and November.

A portion of Edmonton's first-known cemetery is situated under the existing Rossdale Road as well as beneath Epcor's property. It is believed to contain approximately 200 human remains of Cree, Blackfoot, Metis and non-Aboriginal people who were buried on the site between 1801 and 1886. Over the past 60 years, according to University of Alberta records, about 60 human remains have been uncovered through occurrences such as construction work.

Several of the Native and non-Native interveners that made presentations included descendants of some of those buried in the cemetery and descendants of the Papaschase Indians who once inhabited the region. Interveners included the French Canadian Association of Alberta; Metis Nation; Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations; Mother Earth Healing Society; the Lagimodiere Family, Mountain Cree Smallboy Camp; Blackfoot First Thunder Society; the Historical Society of Alberta and others.

They requested that the buried remains be respected and that a special monument or plaque be placed at the site to acknowledge the burials. They also said an interpretive centre would be welcome.

Calvin Desjarlais, a descendant of the Papaschase band, Duane Goodstriker of the First Thunder Society and Metis Nation spokesman Philip Coutu have publicly protested against the Epcor expansion plan and any further diggings.

Desjarlais said he'd like to see "Epcor decommissioned and move to a different site." As far as he's concerned, "they and the city have been making money off our relatives' graves since 1894."

Many also requested the reburial of those remains that have been unearthed, such as those uncovered in 1967 that are presently housed at the University of Alberta.

Mountain Cree chief Wayne Roan, a direct descendant of one of those buried at the site has been one voice of the people opposing Epcor's plan. So, too, have been Elder Fred Nadeau, former chief Jim Badger, Blackfoot Confederacy Elders Tom Crane Bear, Wilfred Yellow Wings, Andy Blackwater, Ann McMaster, Mark Wolfleg Sr. and others.

"We were taught never to disturb a burial site. Once buried, stay there," stated Yellow Wings.

Blackwater said, "There is the possibility that our ancestors' spirits still linger in the area . . . do not want to leave those places."

(See Epcor on page 7.)

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Others expressed their concern while showing an appreciation for the process. Elder Tom Black Weasel stated that he has ?some concerns about the burial grounds.? On the other hand, he commended Epcor for making an effort to talk with Aboriginal people.

"They should have consulted the Elders," said Crane Bear. He suggested that the remains be reburied. "They shouldn't be tampered with."

The Blackfoot Elders plan to return to their communities and report to their chiefs and councils what they learned from the hearings, said Yellow Wings.

Lorraine Sinclair, a Metis, praised the input of the Elders. "They spoke from the heart." She also said Epcor promised to work with Aboriginal people. In the meantime, they should hold off on expansion, and the EUB should consider "a two- to four-year moratorium."

In a Jan. 5 letter on behalf of the Mountain Cree Camp Syllabic Institute, Buff Parry requested, "a full-scale archaeological, ethnological and historical investigation of the unexplored bounty of data along the North Saskatchewan River up and downstream from Rossdale Flats."

He furthesisted, "that the proposed interpretive centre properly reflect the two human histories (Native and non-Native) and . . . the preponderance of Papaschase interests."

Provincial archaeologist Jack W. Ives admitted that the site in question housed Ft. Edmonton and other fur trading posts from 1801 and 1830 and that excavations found evidence going back 8,000 years of Indian camps in the area.

EUB spokesman Dave Morris informed Sweetgrass the board will assess and deliberate the arguments and evidence presented. That could take several months, but he hopes it will be much sooner.

The hearings involved at least 250 exhibits and testimony that filled thousands of pages.