How five Cree nations in Manitoba are uniting to regain sovereignty and conserve lands – The Narwhal

Nov. 1, 2024

As huge hydroelectric dams blocked most major rivers in northern Manitoba, life for some First Nations forever changed. Five Cree Nations share their stories of the long road back to sovereignty

A little ways upstream, the path is cut off by the Long Spruce hydroelectric dam. It’s unassuming from here, dwarfed by the sheer breadth of the river. Still, West doesn’t venture much closer. It’s time to turn around. The former Manitoba Hydro millwright — who now leads land-based education programs for youth in his home community, Fox Lake Cree Nation — says the river didn’t always look this way. His grandparents would paddle its churning rapids and precarious falls all the way to the Hudson Bay coastline to hunt, fish and trap. The water was crystal clear then, and good to drink.

Nowadays the Nelson is a swollen and, sluggish thing. West reckons if you could peer beneath its murky grey-green surface, you’d see the tops of trees drowned by repeated flooding from the dams. Erosion has eaten away at the banks, swallowing trees and spitting them back out as driftwood on the beaches.

“It hurts,” West says, his voice barely audible over the motor.