In 2023, members of Samson Cree Nation gathered along the shores of Mîmîw Sâkahikan (Pigeon Lake) in a water ceremony led by Elders Bernice Stoney and Mary Rose Johnson. The powerful moment was part of an Indigenous-led project to revitalize awareness of Cree traditions and strengthen local capacity to steward the lake.

Roughly 16 kilometres long and 7.5 kilometres wide, Pigeon Lake lies midway between Edmonton and Red Deer within the ancestral homeland of the Maskwacîs Cree Peoples. For generations, the lake has been deeply connected to their culture, spirituality and traditional ways of life.

“Mîmîw Sâkahikan is a gem,” says Project Manager Glinis Buffalo, Glinis Buffalo Consulting and Samson Cree Nation member. “It brings you peace.”

Today, it remains important for exercising Treaty Rights, including fishing, hunting and gathering medicines. But concerns about water quality had left many community members afraid to swim or fish here — concerns the federally funded restoration initiative aimed to address.

Samson Cree Nation youth Pierce Kiskotagan ice fishing at Pigeon Lake.

Gathering data, sharing knowledge

A key part of the project was summer and winter land camps where youth learned how to collect and test water samples for a variety of parameters. But that was just the beginning. “You can’t just gather data and that’s it,” Buffalo explains. “It’s missing the relationship with the water and fish.”

So, they caught and identified fish — with the help of Government of Alberta fishery scientists Drs. Michael Sullivan and Stephen Spencer — and discussed the impacts of surrounding land uses.

Elders shared Cree traditions, language and culture. Participants learned how access to the lake and its fish as part of their Treaty Rights. And they did hands-on restoration work, harvesting willow and planting it along the shoreline to stabilize banks and reduce soil erosion.

“It was technical, it was spiritual, it was Traditional Knowledge all combined,” says Buffalo, whose consulting company managed the project.

Elder Bernice Stoney, Pigeon Lake Resident, Samson Cree Nation, sharing her knowledge of water and fish with youth at an ice fishing event in Pigeon Lake.

Restoring connections to the land and water

Their monitoring revealed the lake meets recreational water quality guidelines for swimming and fishing.

Sharing the information was an important part of demonstrating Samson Cree Nation’s commitment to protecting Pigeon Lake. “This is a First Nation-led project, and it’s important that we share our results with the world,” says Buffalo. Lake Winnipeg DataStream made that easy — and aligned with the Nation’s data sovereignty values.

Samson Cree Nation youth Audrina Buffalo collecting water samples at Pigeon Lake.

Ultimately, however, the Mîmîw Sâkahikan Restoration Project is about more than monitoring. It’s about renewing relationships — between people, water, fish and culture — while ensuring the lake remains healthy for future generations.

As Elder Bernice Stoney says: “You came to live life here on mother earth and because the Creator blessed your life as an Indigenous person, he equipped you with everything within the environment for you to keep strong as an Indigenous person, so it is up to us to take care of the water, to protect the water and to respect the water. The preservation of healthy water will produce healthy, edible fish.”

View Dataset: https://doi.org/10.25976/5h57-kx17