Fisher River Cree Nation
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Fisher River Cree Nation Band number: 264 |
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 Fisher River Cree Nation
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| Coordinates: 51°26′20″N 97°22′00″W / 51.43889°N 97.36667°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Government | |
| • Type | First Nations Council |
| • Chief | David Crate |
| • Councillors | Shirley Cochrane, Carl Cochrane, Darrell Thaddeus, Vince Crate, |
| Time zone | GMT ([[UTCUTC−6]]) |
| • Summer (DST) | DST (UTC) |
| Postal code span | R0C 1S0 |
| Area code(s) | 204 |
| Website | Official Website |
| Box 367, Koostatak, MB, R0C 1S0 | |
Fisher River (Ochekwi-Sipi) is a Cree First Nations reserve located approximately 193 km north of Manitoba's capital city, Winnipeg. The Fisher River Cree Nation is composed of two reserves; Fisher River 44 and Fisher River 44A. The reserve population is 1945, the off reserve population is 1934 for a total of 3879 band members as of June 2017. Fisher River is 15,614 acres (6,319 hectares).
Fisher River is named after the fisher, a North American mammal which belongs to the same family as weasels and skunks.
The Chief of Fisher River is David Crate.
The Fisher River Cree Nation were among the hundreds of Cree who began trading at Norway House—the administrative centre for Rupert’s Land—the watershed stretching from Hudson Bay to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and trading hub of Hudson's Bay Company. Furs from Great Slave Lake were traded at Norway House for goods such as metal and cloth from England. By 1875 there were 800 Cree people—mainly from the Hayes and Nelson River systems—living at the Norway House settlement with hundreds employed by the HBC. By the 1870s the natural resources area around Norway House had been depleted and the Hudson's Bay Company scaled back its operations. In 1869 the Government of Canada took over the vast area controlled by the HBC.
In the 1870s when the Hudson's Bay Company replaced York boats with steamboat transportation on Lake Winnipeg the 200 Cree who operated the York boats in the inland waterways for the HBC lost their jobs.
In 1840 the Methodists established the Rossville mission—the first Methodist mission station West of Lake Superior in British North America—and by 1875 most Christian Crees lived near the Rossville mission. It was established in 1810 on the eastern channel of the Nelson River just below the northern outlet of Lake Winnipeg.' Six years later, it had grown into a village, consisting of about thirty houses and a church. In the 1870s As the economic situation deteriorated for the Rossville Cree, local missionaries encouraged them to locate further inland on lands more favourable for agriculture and other traditional activities. HBC Chief Factor Roderick Ross reported to James A. Graham that during the 1870s the village of Rossville was in a chronic state of starvation and needed assistance from the HBC Post. This situation was relieved only when its "surplus population" of 180 Cree moved to Fisher River in 1877 and 1888. The HBC earned $1000 in revenue by assisting with the move.
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