Loon Lake: A way of life under siege

Page 7

When I first met Mable Chomiak at her Loon Lake home in northern Alberta she was busy foaming her living room rug, preparing for her birthday party.

But she was kind enough to offer a weary reporter a cup of hot coffee and some friendly conversation. Her hospitality was indeed a sign the north is full of down-home country folk.

According to Mable everybody in Loon Lake is friendly ever since a pioneer named Clarence Jaycox first settled there in the early 1900s.

"When Clarence came here Loon Lake was known in Cree as Little Creek. He started a small school here."

About that time people were scattered throughout the district. But with the coming of schools and missionaries, many people settled at Peerless Lake, Trout Lake and Loon Lake.

Today 43 families - totalling about 350 people - live at Loon Lake which borders the new town of Red Earth, some 185 km north of Slave Lake.

Over a second cup of coffee I asked Mable if anybody still trapped in the district. Her answer was somewhat startling.

"Very few people trap anymore."

"If you take a drive to the industrial park at Red Earth, you'll see a trapper's cabin right across from all those huge buildings. That was once James Ward's trapline," she said.

The country surrounding Loon Lake can only be described as beautiful. Lakes, thick forests and marshland are home to northern geese, ducks, moose and many other forms of wildlife, which still abound there.

But the encroachment of modern day heavy duty equipment for felling timber, roads for oil rigs and cutlines are now showing signs Mable is indeed right - trapping for a living is dying out at Loon Lake.

One hundred and fifty yards across a newly graveled road from Ward's cabin are long lines of industrial buildings.

At Red Earth, motels and homes are being built on both sides of Route 88 which runs for about 450 km from Slave Lake north to Fort Vermillion. It also shows signs that Red Earth, located about halfway between the two northern towns, will be a major site for big business and tourism in a couple of years.

Although Mable understands people who live in areas like Loon Lake usually must make room for progress it still angers her. "With progress comes problems," she said.

"We've had horses stolen and shot at. We once had to close the road in our community because people were using it for a shortcut.

"And no one can really trap anymore. There is not that much fur in the area with all the work going on," Mable said.

Her feelings are shared by one-time trapper John Cardinal who lives about 85 km north of Loon Lake.

He said his community of Peerless Lake is rapidly becoming surrounded by timber and oil companies and it concerns him.

"It's bad enough we have to argue with the government to stay here at Peerless, but the animals can't argue? They simply leave the area and are gone for good," Cardinal said angrily.

"At one time people used to leave good by trapping, hunting and fishing for their food. There was only one store here and people would trade their fur for supplies to last through another winter of trapping."

"Today most of the people around here are on welfare," Cardinal said.

Mable admitted there is some employment offered in and around Loon Lake, but said they're basically in the same boat as the people at Peerless Lake.

"Four or five men work in the oilfield at Red Earth and some positions at the Northlands School are filled by residents from here."

Still Mable is optimistic employment opportunities will be more available to Native people in the Red Earth area with the involvement of the Peace Arch Project, which was founded in 1987.

Peace Arch officials recently opened an office at Red Earth. They intend to help Native people in the area find jobs.

"I hope it does some good," said Mable, a graduate of A.W. Pratt High School in High Prairie. Presently she teaches academic upgrading at Loon Lake's Alberta Vocational Center.

She believes the people in her community will face "head on the changes taking place near Loon Lake; they have the association to prove it - the Loon Lake Uspeyimoowin Association.

It means "you can depend on us," she said with a grin.