Elder Robert Cree

For Robert Cree, an Elder and knowledge keeper with Fort McMurray First Nation (FMFN) #468, community and the welfare of that community has been at the heart of all he has undertaken.

It was that desire to help people that was a catalyst to his building the Mark Amy Treatment Centre while he was Chief.

He believes his experiences at the Ermineskin Residential School drives his commitment to help others.

“It’s probably what was pushing me. I didn’t want to see anymore of that happening to anybody because I went through it wasn’t very nice.  I did the best I can to get people educated, to get them sobered up, off addictions.”

Born in Fort McMurray where his family lived off-grid on the Clearwater River, Cree was two-years-old when his family moved to Lac La Biche. It was from there Cree, now 70, along with his brother and sisters were taken to residential school.

“The scoop was one morning at five o’clock, and myself and four siblings were taken off to Ermineskin. They were putting tags on us. They didn’t tell us where we were going.

“It was really, really, horrific. Harsh.

“My brother was four-years-old. My brother and I were split up from our sisters when we got to the residential school, and we only saw them maybe once or twice a year. We weren’t allowed to talk to girls; even our sisters.”

He remembers a “really good whooping” he received once trying to see his older sister.

From Ermineskin where he attended for four years, Cree was moved to Blue Quills where he finished his Grade 8. He then onto St. Paul High School for Grades 9 and 10 then St. Francis Xavier High School in Edmonton where he finished his schooling in 1970.

“I fell through the gaps. I ended up on the streets in Edmonton,” he remembers after aging out of the system at 18, with no life skills or street smarts.

“When I came out, there was lots of anger. I didn’t know what it was, but it was in me and it was in me to hurt people I hurt a lot of people for no reason at all. I used to like just to go out and get a scrap happening; four or five guys. I didn’t care how many. I got knocked out a few times.”

Soon realizing he wanted more from his life, Cree tried a number of different jobs to see what they were like, part of a self-education, and what he wanted to do.

“I wasn’t on the street all the time. I straightened up my life and started working. I went out and got jobs. I even went to a tannery.”

From there, other jobs included working in cement with his Uncle Ted then off to a farm.

Soon, news of the Great Canadian Oil Sands development ruled conversations.

“That’s all you heard in Edmonton. I thought I better go back and see what’s going on.”

When he returned north in 1972, he was employed with AMCO, one of the first SAG-D sites in the region.

He recalls that there wasn’t much happening on the reserve when he returned.

“There was no running water in any of the homes on the reserve. They were still heating their homes with propane gas tanks. There was one phone, and it was the XJ mobile phone and we had to dial an operator in Edmonton to connect us to the party.”

With the encouragement and support of community members, Cree ran for election as Band Councillor. Once elected, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work making improvements in his community. When he was elected Chief four years later in 1981, “I really went to work making better opportunities.

“I set up an office for the Nation; brought in all the necessary funding and requirements for the Band. I hired people from our community to work building the infrastructure and did the necessary clearing for the development. A lot of work went into building our community to bring it up to standards. It was a busy time, but it was worth all of it.”

That work included bringing in 44 brand-new homes from Uranium City, which was being decommissioned. When Cree retired from office in 1991, every home had running water and a telephone.  Mark Amy had also been built.

“I’ve set up businesses with the region. I actually negotiated an agreement with Syncrude back in the 80s when I was a Chief.

“I did a lot of work in the region here, setting up organizations. At one time, I had founded an organization called the Athabasca Native Development Council. I brought five Métis Locals to come and join with us, and then we went after Syncrude and negotiated employment contracts with them. Syncrude had a training program to get our people ready for work and then take them into work.”

Similarly, he worked with Alberta Pacific Forest Industries for employment contracts.

While others including First Nation-owned groups of companies started businesses, so did Cree, founding

Christina River Enterprises in 1987 for the benefit of his community.

Another initiative Cree is proud of is a change in logging practices he suggested. Instead of the traditional grid pattern, he suggested logging in wavy lines. This offers better protection for wildlife because hunters and predators don’t have clear sight lines to where the prey will emerge.

When he left politics, Cree went into business – again – founding R. Cree and Sons, a medical transportation service he started with his wife, Tina, in 1992.

They provided transportation to Northern Lights Regional Health Centre and medical appointments in Fort McMurray for people including those arriving from other locations, including Fort Chipewyan or Edmonton.

After earning his National Addictions Certification at Lakeland College in Slave Lake, he worked as an addictions counsellor from 2013 until 2020 for the FMFN#468 and it’s that career where he felt was the most rewarded.

Asked if he considers himself retired, Cree laughs and asks, “What’s that word? I don’t know what that word is.”

These days, he can still be found helping out at Mark Amy in addition to volunteering as vice president of the Multicultural Association of Wood Buffalo. He offers blessings at area events and ceremonies and has led walks to teach participants about traditional plants used for medicine. He recently volunteered as a translator for Elders at the Mikisew Cree First Nation elections.

“A lot of the work that I’ve done was for a purpose, for a reason,” acknowledges Cree, but it always has the common thread of helping others.

He’s also an author. He penned the auto-biography with help from Therese Greenwood and is optimistic it will be published early in the new year through the University of Alberta.

“It’s comprised of everything I went through.”

Through it all, though, his focus remains his family.

“My family’s health and prosperity comes first. My family always comes first.”