Cree trappers paying
the cost

In the article in a recent Nation, “Members say Forestry board off to good start,” I wish I can say that about our traplines where the forestry companies are taking advantage of them, even more so after the A.I.P (Peace of the Brave), was signed.

I work for the local Cree Trappers Association here in Waswanipi. The tallyman, hunters and trappers bring their complaints here first in regards to illegal activities on lands they use now, by forestry companies, sports hunters, and fishermen. Also, all the illegal cabins that are there now and new ones being built, without the slightest notification to us Cree people or our leaders.

Forestry companies, MNR (Quebec) and the game wardens (Chasse et de la Peche) out in the field, on our traditional traplines, the relationship between us Cree and them is at its lowest point ever. (Maybe we have to face the fact, it was always like that and that it will never change.) At the moment, after the A.I.P. was signed, nothing has changed out there on our traplines for the Crees. Nothing.

Maybe the forestry companies’ behavior has something to do with it. I heard they felt left out or were not consulted about the A.I.P. before it was signed. I would like to tell them (forestry companies), welcome to the club of the “outcasts”. Maybe now the forestry companies will know how the Cree hunters and trappers feel.

The forestry companies are getting worse and more brave to claim the land for themselves. In the James Bay territory, MNR and Chasse et de la Peche (Chibougamau and Quevillon), the forestry companies are letting non-natives trap all the beaver along the main logging roads. To totally get rid of them without the consent of the tallyman of that trapline or other users of it. Beaver is our main diet in winter and fall months, stored away for summer consumption also.

I thought that this was against the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement? Illegal? As a Cree hunter and trapper out on the trapline, you can just forget mentioning the illegal sports hunting and fishing cabins to M.N.R. (Quebec) or the non-native game wardens (Wildlife Officers) you do not exist at all to them. If I were to mention every single complaint the hunters and trappers brought to my attention in the last 11 years I’ve been here, you would have a hard time to believe me.

The truth will just blow you away. The truth will hurt. It will make you sad. It will make you so angry, you will not want to stop shaking your fist. (This is only for one Cree community, Waswanipi). After listening carefully, you’d think a conspiracy was there, that everybody and everyone was and is working against the Cree trappers and hunters out there.

You will face the fact there will always be people who will work against us Cree people. Because we are in their way, that’s all. As an aboriginal and belonging to a hunting society in this world, you have to fight always to survive. For us, to defend the land, is to fight for life.

I thought that, at the least, signing the “Peace of the Brave” was about meeting halfway. The Cree hunters and trappers and their families are already at halfway point and nobody else is in sight. (Maybe it’s a good time to bring out marshmallows, Ha! Ha!).

I can just imagine the headaches the other Cree communities are having with forestry and other developments just wanting to bulldoze them over. After the signing of any agreement or treaty between two nations, it’s just not smooth sailing after that. I think we the Cree Nation should know better now. In any relationship (marriage) to stay together both parties have to give to the relationship hard, to make it work and that it stays together. We the Cree hunters and trappers did our part, to share the land. I think we are getting screwed over on this one, already! Somebody somewhere got their wires crossed. But, I know where the hatchet is buried!

In what I wrote, I mean no disrespect to anyone.

Respectfully,

Paul Dixon
Hunter/Trapper and Citizen of Waswanipi

What do you think?