Trapping sustains life of Metis pioneer

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While other Metis were moving away from Wolf Lake Metis Settlement "like flies," Isadore Cardinal was holding his ground.

Twenty-nine years after the former colony had its status as a settlement rescinded in 1960, he's still there.

And he'll probably die there, he said.

Raised in the bush in and around the northeastern Alberta community, the 69 year old Cardinal is the last of the settlement members still living within the boundaries of the former

Metis colony.

"I'm not leaving," he insists." I told (Alberta) Forestry I'm not leaving. I grew up here. I have to do like my parents."

Cardinal was born across the lake 19 km north of where he now lives with his common-law wife Dorothy Spikes, four grandchildren (Gus, Leslie-Ann, Jackie and Lloyd) and his son

Willie. Their home is 55 km northeast of Bonnyville.

His first wife, Victoria, died about 11 years ago of cancer and was buried at La Corey Cemetery.

Today, there's nothing at the Wolf Lake Settlement except a tower, a campsite, traplines and the cemetery where many of Isadore's relatives are buried such as his father who died

60 years ago at the age of 35.

Cardinal was nine when a flu epidemic swept through the settlement claiming the lives of many people, including his father, his oldest brother Arcienne and many relatives. He was

hospitalized himself for two months in St. Paul.

Government promises of better times lured the Wolf Lake settlers away to places like High Prairie and Fishing Lake.

But they were empty promises, according to the couple.

"They promised them a lot of things they never got," says Dorothy, 39, a treaty Indian from Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask. with C-31 status.

"They were pretty disillusioned. They went up there for nothing. They had to move into town or wherever else they could live," she said.

Like his father before him, Cardinal is a trapper.

After a winter of trapping, his father would have enough money to support the 11 children for a full year and they'd make their annual trip to Lac La Biche for supplies.

Trapping is in his blood, says Cardinal who has been trapping since he was nine years old. It would be tough to give it up although he might just do that in three or four years.

"I can't quit. I have to trap and trap and trap. When the fall comes, I have to go," he said.

Cardinal traps foxes, lynx, fishers, mink coyotes, beavers and timber wolves.

He says trapping has changed a lot over the years.

When he first started, he had to pull a toboggan behind him. Then he got a dog team to help with the heavy load. Horses were next.

Now he uses snowmobiles. He'd probably have quit trapping if it wasn't for the snow machines, he said. Riding a toboggan behind a dog team is "pretty hard."

With the machines, he can do the entire trapline in one hour.

The bottom has fallen out of the fur market - prices have plummeted, because of protests in Europe.

"People aren't buying fur coats. A lot of people are kicking. They don't want to buy fur overseas," said Cardinal.

"I don't make nothing now. Last year I went into the hole with the cost of gas, oil and a new machine," he said.

The development of the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range north of Wolf Lake forced Isadore to move his trapline a couple of decades ago.

Out on his line just south of the range, bombs were heard going off in the distance, making Isadore jump several feet off the ground. The bombing can even be heard at the family's

trailer.

"Sometimes this trailer it's shaking, especially my cabin, which is only one and a half miles from the range. At first I had a tough time," he said.

During the summer, Cardinal is a caretaker at the Wolf Lake Campground. His duties are to cut grass, clean the five fishstands, pick up the garbage and clean the toilets. There's

often as many as 140 campers in the 64 campsites.

He starts the job in April and it peaks in July and August when he's working non-stop. It winds down in October just as trapping season gets under way.

By te tim trapping season comes to an end, it's time to start looking after the camp sites again, a routine Cardinal has been doing for the last seven years.

There's been some talk about trying to have the settlement status revived, but little has been done about it.

Former members had fought for about five years to get the status back, but dropped the fight in 1974 when it seemed like the fight was going nowhere, according to Isadore.

However, a lawyer from the Metis Association of Alberta did pay Isadore a recent visit to see if he could represent him but the couple is unclear about what's happening now.

"He was very, very vague about what they were going to do," says Dorothy. "They were too vague. They didn't answer enough questions."

Raised in the bush, Cardinal has never been to school. He's in pretty good health, he says. Eating wild meat has made him strong. And he still practises Indian medicine traditions.

The family only received running water and indoor plumbing last year and electricity came in three to four years ago.

Living in town doesn't appeal to Cardinal.

He's happier and healthier in the bush. "I just go in to (town) to shop and come back right away.

"I like it in the bush. That's my fun, trapping and bush country," he smiled, as he prepared to go out on the trapline once again.