page_title: Beaver Lake Cree Nation
section_title: Location on fur trade route
hierarchical_section_title: Beaver Lake Cree Nation / History / Location on fur trade route
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Physische Positionskarte von Saskatchewan, Kanada Quadratische Plattkarte, N-S-Streckung 170&#160;%. Geographische Begrenzung der Karte: N: 60.3° N S: 48.7° N W: 114.0° W O: 98.0° W English: Physical location map of Saskatchewan, Canada Equirectangular projection, N/S stretching 170&#160;%. Geographic limits of the map: N: 60.3° N S: 48.7° N W: 114.0° W E: 98.0° W
context_page_description: The Beaver Lake Cree Nation is a First Nations band government located 105 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, representing people of the Cree ethno-linguistic group in the area around Lac La Biche, Alberta, where the band office is currently located. Their treaty area is Treaty 6. The Intergovernmental Affairs office consults with persons on the Government treaty contacts list. There are two parcels of land reserved for the band by the Canadian Crown, Beaver Lake Indian Reserve No. 131 and Blue Quills First Nation Indian Reserve. The latter reserve is shared by six bands; Beaver Lake Cree Nations, Cold Lake First Nations, Frog Lake First Nation, Heart Lake First Nation, Kehewin Cree Nation, Saddle Lake Cree Nation.
  A Metis Settlement profile prepared by the Government of Alberta notes that their self defined tribal affiliation is Nîhithaw, or the Woodland Cree or Wood Cree and their linguistic group is Algonquian. Their population which includes 390 on reserve and 664 off-reserve, is 1,054 according to the Alberta government, as on 2012. Their land base by Reserve Beaver Lake is 131 6,145.3 total 6,145.3. Chief Henry Gladue is chief of Beaver Lake First Nation.
context_section_description: The traditional land of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation was on the historical voyageur route that linked the rich Athabaskan region to Hudson Bay. David Thompson and George Simpson used the fur-trade route via the Beaver River from the main Methye Portage route that reached the Athabasca River. David Thompson founded a trading post on Red Deers Lake now known as Lac La Biche in 1798-99 and overwintered there, entering copious notes in his diary on the Nahathaway (Cree), their customs, traditions and the Western Boreal forest including this passage,
  plenteous supply of white fish and beaver. On the region of the western forest land, at a fine Lake called the Red Deers Lake... at the head of the small streams which feed the Beaver River the southern branch of the Churchill River in October we erected a trading house and passed the winter.
  — Thompson 1916:304-5
   There was competition between the Canadian traders of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company.
  The Cree, one of the "largest tribes in Canada" were referred to by the early explorers and fur traders as Kristineaux, Kinisteneaux, Kiliston, Kree, Cris and various other names such as Nahathaway. Cree territory extended west from the Hudson-James Bay region to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and in Alberta, between the north banks of the north Saskatchewan River to Fort Chipewyan. This includes the Beaver, Athabaska and Peace River basins. It is noted in the department of Indian Affairs Annual Reports that Pee-ay-sis of the Lac La Biche band as far north as Great Slave Lake.
  Alexander Mackenzie who travelled from Montreal to the Arctic Ocean via the Methy Portage (see map) provided a detailed account of the Kinisteneaux (Cree) in 1789.
  An Oblate mission was established at Lac la Biche in 1853 and missionaries "visited the Cree on the South shore of Beaver Lake as early as 1856". The Blue Quill's Indian Residential School (AB-2a) in Lac La Biche, which opened in 1862, was one of the first residential schools in Alberta.
caption: Fur trade routes: The Beaver River flows from Beaver Lake near Lac La Biche into Lac Île-à-la-Crosse. The La Biche River flows from Lac La Biche to the Athabasca River.[Notes 1]
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