First Nation Blockade Halts Access To 3 Manitoba Hydro Sites After Ceremonial Land Desecrated

Fox Lake Cree Nation has blocked Highway 290, preventing workers from accessing three Manitoba Hydro sites. (Fox Lake Cree Nation)

By Red Power Media, Staff / May 12, 2016

Fox Lake Cree Nation suspects Manitoba Hydro involved after sacred site destroyed

A remote Cree Nation about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, has put up a blockade to keep workers from three Manitoba Hydro sites, after band members discovered ceremonial land desecrated.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Fox Lake Cree Nation members began a blockade Thursday morning at the junction of the reserve and Highway 290, blocking access to Hydro’s Limestone Generation station, Keewatinohk Access Gate and Henday Converter Station.

The blockade comes after members of the band discovered ceremonial land, adorned with prayer flags and tobacco ties, was destroyed. Several trees were uprooted, flags were found on the ground and the tobacco ties were disrupted, said Chief Walter Spence of Fox Lake Cree Nation.

These prayer flags (left) and ceremonial tobacco ties (right) were desecrated by Manitoba Hydro workers (Fox Lake Cree Nation)

The prayer flags and tobacco ties signified the land as a sacred site.

“We were just horrified because for the past few decades now, whenever Manitoba announces they are going to start construction, there is an agreement that our people would do a sacred ceremony because we know Manitoba Hydro is changing the landscape,” Spence said.

“We are shocked that it occurred one more time and when we reported it to our band members they were quite hurt and we decided we needed to take social action.”

A similar incident was reported by the Cree Nation in 2007, when a burial site was disturbed by Manitoba Hydro crews working on stripping the land.

Manitoba Hydro investigating incident

CBC News reports, Spence has spoken to Manitoba Hydro President and CEO Kelvin Shepherd and he feels that Hydro is taking the community’s concern seriously.

Thursday afternoon, Scott Powell, a spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro said the corporation is doing an investigation into who may have done this and why, adding that Hydro’s CEO will travel to Fox Lake as soon as weather permits.

The ceremonial land was off limits to workers, as per an agreement the First Nation made with Manitoba Hydro.

The blockade does not affect regular traffic, and hasn’t impacted ongoing work at the three sites, but has blocked access in and out of the sites for Hydro’s 280 workers.

Sacred Buffalo Child Stone Blown Up In 1966 For Dam Project Lies Underwater

Video: Search for Buffalo Child Stone

By Black Powder | Red Power Media

The sacred Buffalo Child Stone was blown to pieces with dynamite in 1966 to make way for the South Saskatchewan River Dam Project.

For hundreds of years, the 400-ton rock, —known in Cree as Mistassini (Big Rock)— that resembled a resting buffalo was a sacred meeting place to the Assiniboine and Cree nations.

Despite heroic efforts by First Nations groups to preserve  the Buffalo Child Stone, it was blown up by the Saskatchewan Government and now lies on the floor of Lake Diefenbaker.

Last year, a Saskatoon-based diver, was the first person in nearly 50 years to lay eyes on what remains of the important First Nations’ sacred site.

Neil Fisher, left, and Steven Thair prepare to dive. (Submitted photo/StarPhoenix)

Diver, Steven Thair, located the rock at a depth of 21 metres. As he was securing a search line, he lost his balance. When he put his hand out to steady himself, he touched the sharp edge of dynamited rock. He says it is a difficult dive, with visibility at less than 2 metres, with lights.

Tyrone Tootoosis, a member of the Poundmaker Cree Nation, was a part of the discovery team. His father, Wilfred Tootoosis, was one of the elders who fought the destruction of the consecrated site.

Elder Wilfred Tootoosis stands by Buffalo Child Stone. Photo courtesy of the Saskatchewan Archeological Society.

In a News Talk article, Thair, recalled how Tyrone, an aboriginal advisor present during the search, said he was honoured to be one of the first people to touch fragments of the stone since it was lost underwater.

“This sacred rock being destroyed, it’s not the first time that’s happened. Now that we are aware of what has happened here in this country in the last 100 some years, we don’t want to see it happen again. I mean, it would be akin to dynamiting Stonehenge because there was going to be a building put there,” Tyrone said.

A remnant of Mistaseni sits on the bottom of Lake Diefenbaker. (Submitted photo/StarPhoenix)

Thair said, he does want to tell the story of what happened in 1966, but also he wants to be point out that he doesn’t think it would happen now.

“I don’t think any government would blow the rock up if the circumstances were what they are today, and I don’t think the aboriginal community would stand for it,” he told The Star-Phoenix.

Read more about the Buffalo Child Stone, as told by Barry Ahenakew, an elder of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, to Star-Phoenix reporter Hannah Spray here.