Chief Hector Lake & Mount Yamnuska

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This lake is situated in the Stoney Indian Reserve, right next to Nakoda Lodge. This native reserve (the term Indian is not polite) is not very much like what an unsavvy European would expect. You most certainly will not find teepees and people riding horses while wearing colourful headdresses.

The information about the reserves is very mixed. On one side you are made to believe that things on the reserves are well organised and that the people living there are supported very well financially by the authorities as promised in several treaties signed in the times when the frontier was still being pushed westwards. On the other side however are stories about extremely bad conditions in the reserves. These people have indeed been given land and still receive money regularly as said, but some say that these reserves are more like prisons without bars. The people of the Stoney Indian Reserve once roamed in large parts of Alberta and British Columbia, but now several tribes -some of which were enemies in times past- have been put together into much much smaller areas. This last point still causes trouble on a regular basis. The people are kept in that 'prison' by the fact that many of them don't want to give up what they are, which is what they must do to integrate with the settlers. But because the 'old way of life' is no longer really possible and because work is not easy to find in the reserves, boredom, frustration, alcohol abuse etc. are the result. It would not be fair to paint too black an image, because good things are happening in the reserves, but the fate of these people is really not what they deserve. After all, they have been pushed aside to accomodate the settlers...

Suggested readings:
http://www.stoney-nation.com/index.htm
http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011378

Image number: ASP1849LCA