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TRAPLINE VC24Land Use Before the La Grande Complex

Trapline Background Information

The trapline is located about 200km east of Wemindji and covers and area of1 232 km2. The trapline is entirely located on Category III Land. John Matches hasbeen the tallyman of VC24 since a long time. He replaced his father in law who decidedto pass his title on to him because his own sons were too young and less experienced.Two mining exploration camps were located in the south-east part of Guyer Lake andthe tallyman mentioned that the sites were not cleaned up after the activities were over.

Impacts Related to the La Grande Complex:

• The La Grande-3 Reservoir (1981): flooding of 471,8 km2 (38,3%) of the traplinearea (410,5 km2 (33,3%) of land and 61,4 km2 (5%) of natural water plans.

• The Transtaïga Road crossing the trapline N/S at its western part (1977).• Two 735 kV transmission lines crossing the trapline N/S at its western part. One

is the 12th line going from Chissibi to Albanel substations (1982-1983) and theother one is the line going from Chissibi to Le Moyne substations.

• The access road going to the dykes TA-30, TA-29B and 29C, TA-28A, 28B, 28Cand 28D, TA-27C, TA-LSH and TA-LSJ.

• The access road going to the dykes TA-31A, 31-B and 31-C.• 32 dykes located around the western shore of the reservoir.

Trapline Land Use Before the La Grande Complex

Four main areas of activity can be identified on the trapline prior to the project. The firstarea is located at the central western part of the trapline. This area may be divided intotwo sectors. One is the main campsite where two moss and log houses were located.This was a gathering place in any season. The La Grande River at this point formed akind of round basin. It was a particularly nice place with waterfalls and nice swimmingspots. There was a lot of good vegetation for waterfowl there, so this campsite wasparticularly appreciated as a spring camp where ducks and goose hunting was done.The fact that the ice melted as soon as April in this sector improved the good springhunting conditions. A camp with a teepee is also located in the area and was used asa spring camp. Another very old spring camp was located nearby. Following thetributaries south of this basin, one arrived at the second sector, where many maincamps were found around a smaller lake. Moss and log houses were built at thelocation of three campsites and a teepee, used as a spring camp was also locatedaround this lake This whole main area of activities was a valued area for the trapline

SUMMARY OF TRAPLINE LAND USE BEFORE THE LA GRANDE PROJECT

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users as the resources were plentiful and also because this place is steeped in familymemories and history.

The second main area of activities surrounds the big lakes located in the very centre ofthe trapline. Three main camps, all moss and log houses, were located around thecentral lake. A teepee camp was used as a fall camp, before freeze-up. On the westernside of this lake there was another teepee used as a fall camp (#12), and in the easternpart of the area, there was a temporary campsite where small teepees were set up bythe men when trapping in the area. This area was also considered as a valued areabased on the fact that the resources were plentiful. North of these lakes, a temporaryshelter was located on the northern shore of an arm of the La Grande River. It couldbe used during the trapping season but was mostly used as a fall or spring camp sinceit was a good landing and fishing site from where the family traveled by canoe to thecamp since it was located at a spot where a plane could not land.

Two moss and log houses were the main camps of the third important area ofactivities located on the western part of Guyer Lake. Finally, for the fourth area ofactivity on the eastern extremity of the trapline, another moss and log house waslocated on the eastern part of Guyer Lake, right on the border between the traplinesVC24 and VC26. This area was exploited by relatives and the camp on the eastern partof Guyer Lake was shared between the families using the two traplines.

A trapping route crossed the trapline from its western to its eastern border. Four campswere located along this route, west of the first main area of activity noted above.Temporary winter camps were used by the trappers while traveling in the area. Goingwest there was a moss and log house that was sometimes used as a main camp duringthe trapping season and finally on the western extremity of the trapline, a fishing campwith a teepee was located on an island of the Chinusas Lake. All these camps weretraditionally used when going back by foot to the community in the spring time, as thiswas a traditional traveling route.

This was a snowshoe route after freeze up. However, during the fall, it was also usedas a canoe route to travel within the trapline. The traditional canoe route that was usedto reach the trapline traversed the Sakami River, taking the Meechishgosheesh Riverand going up to the main camp on La Grande River. The people started using the planeto reach the trapline about 45 years ago when they moved from Old Factory toWemindji. They rarely paddled up to the trapline from Wemindji as the Makuata River isnot easy to travel on compared to the canoe route leaving from Old Factory. Sevenlanding sites have been located close to main camps with one often used located infront of the camp on the arm of La Grande River where they left to reach 8 other campslocated as far as a lake south of the western extremity of Guyer Lake and another oneat the eastern extremity of Guyer Lake. Another important landing site was identified onwhat was described as a good fishing lake north of Guyer Lake in the central easternpart of the trapline. The canoe was brought on the plane and the main camps werereached by canoe from the landing spots. When going back to the community in thespringtime, sometimes the women and children would take the plane with all theequipment that they were able to take with them while the men would walk down to the

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community, using the traditional snowshoe route.

Rotations were done over the years with a zone being trapped for a couple of yearsbefore changing the location of the trapping activities for another couple of years inorder to adequately manage the beaver resources. Smaller trapping areas werecovered around the main camps before freeze-up, a larger area being covered afterfreeze-up by snowshoe. Such “before freeze up” trapping areas have been located,one on the western side of the first area of activities and one on the central part.Another trapping area that was trapped either from four camps on Guyer Lake was theeastern part of the La Grande River along with the lakes north of Guyer Lake. Whenstaying at camp on the western of Guyer Lake the trappers covered the eastern part ofthe land.

Four families could stay at the same camp during the fall before leaving to trap on theirown traplines. Camp #1 was such a gathering place, where the families could alsogather for Christmas or for the spring time. Two families from Chisasibi, who have theirtrapline north of VC24 yet still south of the main arm La Grande River, could also join inor come by if short of supplies. Moose hunting was done all over the central andeastern part of the trapline, often just prior to coming back to the community forChristmas or during the spring time in order to bring back fresh meat for the communityfeasts. A DC-3 plane or an Otter plane was called in for pick-up, the plane trip costingsome 700$ back to Wemindji.

Fishing was an important activity on the trapline as fish were a resource that the userscould always count on. When trapping and hunting activities were poor during thewinter, they could always count on fish. Generally, the moss and log houses were themain camps, and were consequently located in front of good fishing sites. Pike,whitefish, trout and sucker, but no walleye were plentiful in the pool in front of camps #1(yet), while trout were abundant all along the La Grande River. Good lake trout fishingareas have been located in all the lakes in the centre of the trapline. Lake trout wasalso fished in Guyer Lake and in the lakes lying between Guyer Lake and the LaGrande River. In addition to lake trout, whitefish, pike, burbot, suckers, speckle troutand walleye were fished from camps located in the other parts of Guyer Lake.

Fishing camps were also located along the travel route on the western part of thetrapline where ice fishing for speckle trout took place. The trout had a reputation forbeing very big in one of the small lakes on this trail that was used for ice fishing. InChinusas Lake, pike and whitefish fishing was done when staying at camp #21.

Vegetation that was very good for the animals to feed on grew in the two valued areasin the centre of the trapline. The tallyman remembers that in addition to beavertrapping, these areas were notably very good for muskrats trapping, waterfowl huntingand lake trout fishing.

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Other Valued Areas

Among the other valued sites on the trapline were four burial sites and five birth siteswere located. One burial site was close to camps in the main trapping areas and oneon the north shore of the La Grande River. The names and exact locations are knownfor all of the birth places. Finally, the La Grande River, located on the border of VC24and CH-20 was identified as a valued site, as it would be the location of a caveoccupied by a creature described as a kind of “big otter”, the “Mantu” of the legendrecalled by the tallyman, explaining the sinuous character of the La Grande River onthe trapline, and the creation of the big basin with waterfalls that was described above..

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