Jimmy noted that three current projects in Rossdale are treating Indigenous engagement differently, while following city policies. The River Crossing Business Plan and the Heritage Interpretive Plan require Indigenous engagement for projects within their scope. Meanwhile, the city is also in the planning and design phase for neighbourhood renewal in Rossdale, and that “requires zero Indigenous engagement, even though it’s ground disturbance and it’s impacting vegetation and mammals, just like the River Crossing project will,” Jimmy said.
Then there’s the site of the Rossdale Brewery, on which Dub Architects is proposing to build a set of towers. Because it’s a private development, it requires no Indigenous engagement, though the city says it encourages private developers to do their own engagement.
The land is important to Indigenous people regardless of whether the construction crew digging into it is public or private, Jimmy said, “but the city sees it as these definitive boundaries that don’t impact each other.”
The provincial Historical Resources Act mandates that all city projects in the river valley must have Indigenous monitoring, and the city said it is discussing what Indigenous monitoring will be required during the neighbourhood renewal project.
Indigenous monitors work on construction sites, often sifting through piles of dirt to watch for tiny artifacts such as stone tool flakes or bone shards. The monitors track where in the dig site the dirt piles come from and halt digging if something is found.
Rossdale is one of the most archaeologically rich places in Edmonton, Supernant said. While the Rossdale Burial Site is well-known and marked, she said there are likely many other types of materials throughout the River Crossing scope and the wider river valley. That could include Indigenous artifacts from before European contact, or post-contact materials such as glass, pieces of metal, or beads, which can sometimes be seen as garbage.
“Now, a trained archaeologist should be able to distinguish between them, but there is a challenge in that, (to) a construction worker … it’s just some old glass,” Supernant said. “But that is literally the belongings of our ancestors and our relatives that got discarded there.”
Should development go ahead in Rossdale, Supernant said, it should be monitored by well-trained Indigenous representatives, and rights-holding communities should be notified if artifacts are found.
For much more, including further discussion of the archaeological significance of the river valley and how that history could be honoured through heritage interpretation, stay tuned for the July 24 episode of Speaking Municipally.