Moose and Whitefish Lake First Nation
Empirical data show young moose strongly avoid seismic and facilities,
which may in part explain WLFN community members’ observations about
declining moose populations in historic hunting grounds. Traditionally,
WFLN has always hunted within the local area (ranging about 5-10 km) to
harvest moose. Now, it takes 6 or 7 days of searching, and members must
go further into the bush to harvest moose since the moose population is
down and moose are using the landscape differently. Hunts taking longer
and requiring further travel takes members away from their land, further
eroding one of the key reasons members hunted. Extended travel times
result in WLFN members spending large amounts of money on gas and food
to go hunting and often must drive more than five hours. One of the
consequences of this change, which WLFN is concerned about, is the loss
of harvesting practices of the past. Traditionally, cows weren’t
harvested, but those practices aren’t followed these days because
members must take what they can when the opportunity comes (harvest when
seen). Members recognize that taking a cow takes out all its future
offspring. Thus, WLFN members feel they must bear the responsibility of
relearning how and where to hunt anew. Another consequence is the loss
of cultural knowledge for younger generations. Elders note that the
younger generation is choosing not to hunt because the changing moose
availability changes how it is used as a staple. This results in younger
members not only missing out on learning how to hunt but also missing
out on other important knowledge like how to track moose and how to look
for moose forage and other animal signs.
The cultural practice of hunting is not the only loss from changing
moose habitat. Members of WLFN note that moose are a very important
source of food and are deeply tied to the health of the land, water, and
plants. They note that if the overall environment is healthy, so is the
moose, and so is WLFN. WLFN members view eating moose regularly as
critical for community members to get naturally occurring minerals since
moose eat many medicinal plants. As they see a decline in important
plants due to post-harvest herbicide use, they recognize that
lower-quality medicinal plants result in lower-quality moose. This issue
is much broader than moose, though; warming lakes have resulted in more
algae, removing plants that WLFN uses and moose eat. WLFN community
members also have limited fishing due to mercury, and there are growing
concerns over waterfowl health – all issues that contribute to less and
less connection to the land and more reliance on Western staples.