Split Lake is a First Nation community on the Split Lake Indian Reserve. The community is the home of the Split Lake Cree First Nation Band. Recently I have noticed that the community members are now referring to themselves as the Tataskweyak Cree Nation.
Split Lake is located approximately half way along the dirt and gravel highway that runs from Thompson to Gillam. The community is located just out of sight of the highway around a curve on a side road. The side road runs from the highway out on to a peninsula in the lake. The peninsula extends a long way out into the lake splitting the lake in half. Because of the peninsula the lake is named Split Lake and hence the band and community are also named Split Lake.
It takes approximately two hours for an experienced local driver in a 4 wheel drive pickup truck to travel from Thompson to Split Lake on days when the driving conditions are excellent. It would take a tourist considerably longer to make the trip. Flat tires, broken windshields and single vehicle accidents are common mishaps. Sliding off the road or getting your vehicle stuck when you encounter loose sand, mud, ice or snow are some of the perils of driving in the Split Lake area.
I taught in Split Lake during the 1999-2000 school year at the Chief Sam Cook Mahmuwee Education Centre. On a few Sunday afternoons when I was not working I took some photographs. Most of my photographs were taken in the fall between late September and early November 1999. By this time of year the leaves of the deciduous trees had already fallen on the ground after the first frost warned of the coming winter. If you look carefully you can see the ice starting to form on the lake. There is also ice on some of the shoreline rocks in a few of the photographs.
Some of my photographs were taken during the winter in late February or March 2000. The lake was frozen and the ground was covered with ice and snow. I found that it was very difficult to take photographs outside during the winter because the internal parts of my film camera kept freezing and jamming in the cold temperatures.
If you ever plan on visiting Split Lake then I suggest you bring some bottled drinking water with you. A local band member told me that the building of the hydro electric dams near Gillam years ago had a detrimental effect on the clarity and quality of Split Lake's water. I found both the water in the lake and the community water supply that came out of the taps was muddy with suspended sediment.
If you want further information about Split Lake then you can try visiting the Tataskweyak Cree Nation's website at: http://tataskweyak.mb.ca
The following three pages contain my photographs of Split Lake, Manitoba, Canada.
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