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Blood Tribe, Alberta
Blood Tribe at a GlanceWith over 500 square miles of land, the Blood Tribe is one of the largest reserves in Canada. Made up of 26 separate entities, the Blood Tribe Chief and Council oversee land management decisions with input from their various departments. Their ever-increasing population currently stands at about 9,000 people,with 6,000 to 7,000 people living on the reserve. The emergency response pilot project uses GIS to cover the entire reserve and will assist fire, ambulance, and police departments with accurate emergency routes and distance times. |
The Blood Tribe considers land as an extension of their cultural and traditional connection to nature. "Land provides cultural and economic opportunities for our people," says Calvin Crosschild, Technical Services Advisor with Blood Tribe Land Management. "By maintaining control of our land and managing it effectively, we can maximize those opportunities."
The Blood Tribe began using geographical information (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) to design an emergency response program. With over 500 square miles of land, 500 miles of secondary roads, and 100 miles of primary roads, emergency crews did not have access to the most efficient and fastest access routes.
"There was nothing in place before this, and many employees weren't used to the overall geography of the Blood Tribe," says Mr. Crosschild. As a direct result of the project, they will also be linking up with the 9-1-1 Emergency Services in Southern Alberta, and are exploring partnerships with three major utility companies to share data. Paulette Fox applied for and was chosen as one of four land management trainees for the project. She recently graduated with a degree in environmental science and has been trained in GIS, surveying, and various data systems.
"Right now I'm working on the emergency response plan, putting in all the houses and training myself on the GPS. We've also created a working relationship with the local housing and public works departments so that we can share the data." Ms. Fox finds it personally satisfying to be working on such an important project.
"The fire department doesn't have this kind of software, and it's vital to the community." GeoConnections' Sustainable Communities Initiative provided funding for computer hardware and software, and training expenses. "We had SCI's full support and without their contribution this project couldn't have gotten off the ground," Mr. Crosschild said. "All the dollars in the Blood Tribe are currently expended, so there wouldn't have been money available for this type of 21st century technology."
Vicki Grant of Natural Resources' Legal Surveys Division in Alberta believes that Blood Tribe's approach to the project will help expand economic opportunities for their young people. "When they began recruiting for trainees, the criteria was very high. It speaks a lot about the Blood Tribe and as a result they have a good bank of young, aspiring scientists that can do the work on their own reserve."
Blood Tribe is also using GIS to identify agricultural and other land uses, mineral mining, and oil and gas exploration to plan for future land management decisions. "For example, we have a problem with a noxious weed that's impossible to eradicate, but that can be controlled by biological means, such as beetles," Mr. Crosschild explains. "So we are working with the agricultural research station in Lethbridge and using GPS to identify beetle sites." Many of the reserve's environmental aspects haven't yet been touched on, but Blood Tribe has plans to include data on such things as livestock, endangered species, and wildlife into their system.
They are also mapping archeological sites, such as burial sites, medicine wheels, and other historical or sacred areas. To date, over 100 such sites have been mapped. "We identified one area where an oil site was planned immediately adjacent to a burial site and a medicine wheel. As a result of Paulette's analysis, Chief and Council made a motion that no development could be made so close to the medicine wheel and burial site. There are already positive results out of this project."