Indigenous people in their oral tradition say they have been on this land from time immemorial. Elders here describe a migration pattern that brought people to Calling Lake for a time each year to benefit from the bounty of fish before moving a bit north to Rock Island Lake to hunt. Later, Indigenous peoples were the first humans to live here year round. We have much to learn about their stories over time. 

Studies along the lakeshore in the 1960s by Dr. Ruth Gruhn of the University of Alberta help to confirm oral histories, finding evidence of seasonal hunting or fishing camps at sites near the Calling River, on property owned by Ken Sutton and elsewhere. Those artifacts were dated back to 3000 BC, possibly before. Discoveries here and elsewhere raise intriguing questions about the lives and journeys of the region’s Indigenous ancestors.  

In the 1400s, far away and without consulting Indigenous peoples, papal bulls claimed legal title to any land not occupied by Christians in the so-called new world. Those “Doctrines of Discovery” set the stage for an influx of fur traders, missionaries, settlers and legislation that drastically changed life for Indigenous peoples of “turtle island,” including those with ties to Calling Lake. (Later popes revoked the decrees but heavy-handed colonization continued.)

By the late 1700s, fur traders had opened posts in what is now northern Alberta, beginning with Fort Chipewyan in 1788. In this region, as elsewhere, Indigenous people shared their knowledge of travel routes, food sources and natural cures even as European diseases such as smallpox claimed thousands. 

Indigenous people from communities such as Lac La Biche regularly came to Calling Lake to hunt and fish, but it seems there was no permanent habitation until the mid-1800s, when some families began moving here, drawing from the abundance of fish, fowl and furs to meet their needs.

Meanwhile, the Dominion of Canada formed in 1867 and assumed responsibility for “Indians and lands reserved for Indians.” Intending to open vast territories to settlers, the government proposed treaties exchanging Indigenous land rights for a system of reserves (treaty lands), cash payments, access to agricultural tools, and hunting and fishing rights. Eleven treaties are signed. The treaty applying to this region, Treaty 8, was signed June 21, 1898 at Lesser Slave Lake; the Bigstone people most predominant here adhered at Wabasca two months later, on August 14.  A Half-Breed Scrip Commission also traveled the territory, offering scrip to Métis people with similar intent. Local Métis people gathered at the mouth of the Calling River Sept. 14, 1899 to meet the commission.