Cold Lake First Nation

Located in eastern Alberta, about 135 miles northeast of Edmonton, is the Chippewan (Chipewyan) and Anishinabe Cold Lake First Nation. There are five Reserves which make up this first nation. The total area of this First Nation is 20,852 hectares or 51,526 acres. Total population is 2,426. A little over half the population (1,264) lives on their Reserves or other Indian Reserves, while the remainder live with the whites. The Chippewan (Chipewyan) are really Anishinabek who absorbed a great many non Algonquian Indians amongst them. Many can trace their origins back to Montana, where they originally lived but were driven out by the whites, after the 1868-1886 war. Ogimak Big Bear or Sitting Bull, led them up to Canada.