Trail-blazing aboriginal doctor worries Fort Chipewyan residents not ready for major lifestyle change – Edmonton Journal
March 29, 2015
FORT CHIPEWYAN — A sign posted outside the medical clinic in Fort Chipewyan tells patients they may have to ring the buzzer to be let in. In winter, the front door freezes in the sub-arctic temperatures in one of Alberta’s most isolated aboriginal communities.
Once inside, patients stack their shoes near the entrance and wait to be seen by staff from the Nunee Health Society. In the waiting room, announcements advertise a Mooshum and Kokum grandparents’ pageant, a drum-making class for teens, and an effort to compile a database of missing and murdered family members.
It takes four hours in winter to drive from Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan on a devilish ice road. The rest of the year, the only way to reach the hamlet of 1,000 people more than 700 kilometres north of Edmonton is by air or a lengthy boat ride on the Athabasca River.
