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Neskantaga First Nation (formerly known as Lansdowne House Indian Band) is a remote
Oji-Cree The Oji-Cree are a First Nation in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, residing in a narrow band extending from the Missinaibi River region in Northeastern Ontario at the east to Lake Winnipeg at the west. The Oji-Cree people are des ...
First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
band government In Canada, an Indian band or band (french: bande indienne, link=no), sometimes referred to as a First Nation band (french: bande de la Première Nation, link=no) or simply a First Nation, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subjec ...
in the northern reaches of the
Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
of
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, situated along the shore of
Attawapiskat Lake Attawapiskat Lake () is a lake in Kenora District, Ontario, Canada. The primary inflows are the Otoskwin River, the Marten-Drinking River and the Pineimuta River. The two outflows are the Attawapiskat River and the North Channel, which itself f ...
in the District of Kenora. The First Nation is a signatory to
Treaty 9 ''Treaty No. 9'' (also known as ''The James Bay Treaty'') is a numbered treaty first signed in 1905-1906 between Anishinaabe (Algonquin and Ojibway) and Omushkegowuk Cree communities and the Canadian Crown, which includes both the governm ...
(originally as part of the Fort Hope Band) and has reserved for itself the Neskantaga
Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." Ind ...
, containing the main community of Lansdowne House Indian Settlement on
Attawapiskat Lake Attawapiskat Lake () is a lake in Kenora District, Ontario, Canada. The primary inflows are the Otoskwin River, the Marten-Drinking River and the Pineimuta River. The two outflows are the Attawapiskat River and the North Channel, which itself f ...
, on the west side of the lake, which is currently the community's water source. Associated with the Neskantaga First Nation is the Summer Beaver Indian Settlement, which is shared with
Nibinamik First Nation Nibinamik First Nation (Ojibway language: ᓃᐱᓇᒥᐦᐠ (''Niibinamik'', "Summerbeaver"); unpointed: ᓂᐱᓇᒥᐠ), also known as Summer Beaver Band, is a small Oji-Cree First Nation reserve in Northern Ontario, located on the Summer B ...
. The Lansdowne House is linked to the rest of Ontario by the Lansdowne House Airport, and by
winter road A winter road is a seasonal road only usable during the winter, i.e. it has to be re-built every year. This road typically runs over land and over frozen lakes, rivers, swamps, and sea ice.Proskin et al, 2011. Guidelines for the Construction an ...
s and
ice road An ice road or ice bridge is a human-made structure that runs on a frozen water surface (a river, a lake or a sea water expanse).Masterson, D. and Løset, S., 2011, ISO 19906: Bearing capacity of ice and ice roads, Proceedings of the 21st Inte ...
s to points south, via the
Northern Ontario Resource Trail The Northern Ontario Resource Trail (NORT) is the designation of two mainly gravel roads in the Canadian province of Ontario. One road travels north from Pickle Lake to the northern shore of Windigo Lake, then to the North Caribou Lake First Na ...
. As of November 2011, there is a total registered population of 414 people, of whom 304 people live on their own reserve. Neskantaga is a fly-in community and is therefore not accessible by year-round road. The Ring of Fire is 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay in the remote James Bay lowlands, and contains a vast, rich and untapped mineral camp of world-class chromite, nickel, copper and palladium deposits. Northern Light Mission Trips have been conducted for the children of the community by members of the Tintern Church of Christ in Beamsville, Ontario.


Governance

The First Nation elects its officials under the Custom Electoral System. The most recent officials were Peter Moonias as Chief, and Bill Mequanawap, Christopher Moonias, Kelvin Moonias and William Moonias as Councillors; their two-year term ended on 03/31/2013. The First Nation's council is a member of the
Matawa First Nations Matawa First Nations (Ojibwe: ᒫᑕᐙ (''maadawaa'', "to fork, to confluence"); unpointed: ᒪᑕᐧᐊ), officially as the Matawa First Nations Management, Inc., is a non-profit Regional Chiefs' Council representing Ojibway and Cree First Natio ...
, a local Chiefs Council, and of
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Nishnawbe Aski Nation (ᐊᓂᐦᔑᓈᐯ ᐊᔅᑭ ᐃᔥᑯᓂᑲᓇᓐ ᐅᑭᒫᐎᓐ (''Anishinaabe-aski Ishkoniganan Ogimaawin''), unpointed: ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯ ᐊᔅᑭ ᐃᔥᑯᓂᐊᓇᓐ ᐅᑭᒪᐎᓐ; NAN for short) is a political orga ...
, a Tribal Political Organisation representing most of the First Nations in northern Ontario.


Location

The Neskantaga First Nations is about 450 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Neskantaga is at the headwaters of the Attawapiskat River in the James Bay Lowlands, in a "pristine boreal setting known for bears, wolverines and excellent fishing" with many bodies of water and a "landscape weaving among them". The community was relocated in the late 1980s to a peninsula known as on Grandmother's Point, on the west side of Attawapiskat Lake.


History

According to their website, the "ancient Anishnawbe communities
ate Ate or ATE may refer to: Organizations * Active Training and Education Trust, a not-for-profit organization providing "Superweeks", holidays for children in the United Kingdom * Association of Technical Employees, a trade union, now called the Nat ...
back to at least 3000 BC." The "Attawapiskat and Otoskwin rivers surrounding Neskantaga merge into a delta with significant brackish tidal marshes" and the area was once "part of a major trade route". There were fur-trading sites since the early 1880s in the area. Until the 1980s, the community members had lived for many years in log cabins in Lansdowne House where the Indian Affairs agency had a cabin. For many years they fetched their water from the agency's cabin as it was the only building to have plumbing. Because of ongoing issues with both infrastructure and flooding, the community was relocated in the 1980s to its current site, which is about a 20 km from its previous location. A 2020 CBC article described how the community members had given up their cabins, which were then demolished "for the promise of a better life at a new location with improved services, including clean running water in each house."


Ring of Fire

The Neskantaga First Nation is one of three First Nations that are most profoundly impacted by the Northern Ontario Ring of Fire, along with the
Marten Falls First Nation Marten Falls First Nation is an Anishinaabe First Nation reserve located in northern Ontario. The First Nation occupies communities on both sides of the Albany River in Northern Ontario, including Ogoki Post (Ojibwe: ''Ogookiing'') in the Cochran ...
, and the
Webequie First Nation Webequie First Nation is located on the northern peninsula of Eastwood Island on Winisk Lake, 540 km (336 mi) north of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada. Webequie is a fly-in community with no summer road access. The primary way into the c ...
. An open pit mine proposed by Cliffs is on Neskantaga First Nation land. On February 7, 2009, Ontario Minister
Rick Bartolucci Rick Bartolucci (born October 10, 1943) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He represented the riding of Sudbury and was a cabinet minister in the governm ...
released the White Paper regarding the Northern Ontario Ring of Fire, including the announcement of decisions made regarding Cliffs and the province that would negatively impact
Treaty 9 ''Treaty No. 9'' (also known as ''The James Bay Treaty'') is a numbered treaty first signed in 1905-1906 between Anishinaabe (Algonquin and Ojibway) and Omushkegowuk Cree communities and the Canadian Crown, which includes both the governm ...
land. According to the Neskantaga First Nation, the agreements with Cliffs about Treaty 9 lands, was a "blatant and illegal attempt by Ontario to expand its own influence and jurisdiction in Treaty No. 9. "Ontario has twice pushed back the deadline for input" in Ring of Fire planning, but the community says it has not enough time. By December 2020, Ontario there were tensions between the Ontario government, Neskantaga First Nation, and the nearby Webequie First Nation. The Webequie First Nation was leading an "environmental assessment process for a supply road leading to the Ring of Fire mining region" but the Neskantaga First Nation raised concerns about their own lack of meaningful participation in the assessment process during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participation of the Neskantaga First Nation was further complicated by a forced evacuation in October 2020 caused by the community's "precarious water supply." On April 5, 2021, the Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, and Neskantaga First Nations declared a moratorium on Ring of Fire development.


Long-term drinking water advisories (DWA)

The water source for the Neskantaga community is Attawapiskat Lake. The lake often has a "naturally occurring “colour” from the roots of trees, plants and other organic matter" and has to be filtered before it can be used as drinking water. By June 2021, the Neskantaga First Nation was still under a Long-term Drinking Water Advisory, which was first put in place in 1995. The 300 community members rely on the community’s
Reverse osmosis Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pre ...
(RO) machine for water. It is a "laborious process" in which individual households have to haul sleds several times a week to and from the local hotel to use the unreliable machine. They also depend on shipments of bottled water. The DWA is the longest in Canada and it began to gain national attention when Canadian news outlets began to cover the story from 2004 to 2016 about the unsafe water supply. In 2006, the 2005 government plan to modernize water supplies was cancelled following a change of government. East of Neskantaga and west of
Attawapiskat First Nation The Attawapiskat First Nation ( Cree: , "People of the parting of the rocks"; unpointed: ) is an isolated First Nation located in Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on James Bay. The traditional ...
, in the
Northern Ontario Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire is the name given to a massive planned chromite mining and smelting development project in the mineral-rich James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario.Ontario's Far North is designated under the ''Far North Act 2010''. The Ring of Fir ...
, in the
James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...
Lowlands,
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
'
Victor Diamond Mine The Victor Mine was the first Canadian diamond mine located in Ontario, and De Beers' second diamond mine in Canada (after the Snap Lake Diamond Mine). It is located in the Northern Ontario Ring of Fire, in the James Bay Lowlands west of Atta ...
—which was operational from 2009 until 2020 when it was decommissioned—had provided "clean water for hundreds of workers" on its open pit mining site. To community members, this is evidence that the inability to provide drinking water is not a technical but a political issue. In 1993, the federal
Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and Al ...
department "paid for the construction of a natural sand, low-filter water treatment plant" to filter the water from Lake Neskantaga. By February 1, 1995, it was evident that the water treatment plant had not been "built properly", and was not adequately disinfecting the water. The community was placed under a "boil water advisory" which has remained in place ever since. In 2016, then-Indigenous Affairs Minister
Carolyn Bennett Carolyn Ann Bennett (born December 20, 1950) is a Canadian physician and politician who has served as minister of mental health and addictions, and associate minister of health since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, she has repre ...
visited Neskantaga, which at that time had a population of 350, and announced that the federal government would "invest approximately $8.8 million to help upgrade the community's water treatment system, including an addition to the existing water plant with new treatment technology and additional reservoir storage capacity to meet the community's long-term needs." In October 2020, the Neskantaga First Nation fully evacuated the reserve after test results showed high levels of hydrocarbons in the water supply, caused by a faulty pump installed by Razar Contracting Services. On December 21, 2020, over 250 members returned to the reserve. By December 2020, the new water treatment plant was commissioned and by March 2021, the upgrade and expansion was approaching final completion. There were 374 people living on the reserve and the boil water advisory affected "76 households and 6 community buildings."


Climate

Neskantaga First Nation has a
subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
( Dfc). Summers consist of mild, sometimes warm days with cool nights and rain usually falling on a little more than half of all summer days. Winters are brutally cold with nights reaching dangerously cold temperatures and annual snowfall averaging 95.1 inches, (241.6 cm) falling on 89 separate days. Winter usually begins sometime during October and can easily last well into April.


Notes


References


External links


AANDC profile
{{authority control Communities in Kenora District Nishnawbe Aski Nation Oji-Cree reserves in Ontario Road-inaccessible communities of Ontario Political scandals in Canada Health disasters in Canada