A Wood Buffalo National Park cabin has been destroyed, and the Fort Chipewyan Cree trapper who built the structure is protesting the destruction. 31 year old Robert Grandjambe Jr. is now considering exactly what his legal options are after the cabin that he started constructing over a year ago has been demolished due to complaints from two First Nations bands and Parks Canada. According to Grandjambe trapping and hunting are his main lifestyle, and he started constructing a cabin on Pine Lake’s south side located in Wood Buffalo National Park. While Robert spends most of each year outdoors hunting and trapping he also works as a millwright during part of the year in the off season. As a Mikisew Cree First Nation member Grandjambe has the right to hunt and trap in the area and he has not been banned, but his cabin was demolished.

Fort Chipewyan Cree Trapper Robert Grandjambe Jr. strategically chose the cabin location in Wood Buffalo National Park because the site had not been harvested for at least two decades but it was still extremely accessible for any groups that wanted to learn about a harvesting lifestyle. According to Grandjambe “It’s a dying art and a dying culture that is hundreds of years old, interrupted in the 1980s with groups like PETA and the anti-fur, anti-hunting movement that doesn’t understand the culture. I’m a fourth generation trapper in this area. Forty years ago, there were many families constantly on the land and it was thriving. These days, the only person I will bump into sometimes is my father.”