Traplines, Métis Land-Use and Aboriginal Rights 1899-1980

“Do these Deskmen think a Trapper with a Family Can Afford Beef?”

Recently I made a presentation at the Métis Economic Development Symposium in Fort McMurray on the history of Traplines in Northeastern Alberta. This presentation is one attempt to grapple with a bigger question that I have been considering about the history of the region: How has Northeastern Alberta been transformed from effectively being an Aboriginal space to a non-Aboriginal or Western geographical and cultural space from the time of the Treaty/Scrip commissions (1899) to the present? As I argue in the presentation, modern state development and intervention - as expressed through Government policies to make the land "productive" - played a key role in the transformation of the region. For the Métis in particular, the domain in which the state has expropriated space and promoted commodity development has been trapline modernization. The response from the Métis has been an increasing awareness of and mobilization around Aboriginal rights. In future work I hope to explore additional examples of how the power of the state has been used to promote economic development based on resource extraction resulting in large-scale environmental change and the transformation of Northeastern Alberta from Aboriginal space into non-Aboriginal space. For now I hope you enjoy the presentation and if you have any questions please feel free to send me a note.

Cheers,
Peter