Miskwaham

Miskwaham is an Urban Service Area in the Regional Municipality of Matawa in the province of Muskegon, Albion. It is the country's easternmost municipality of greater than 25,000 people and the third-largest municipality in Muskegon, at a population of 50,538 (2020). It has played a significant role in the development of Albion's chromium mining industry.

Miskwaham is one of the fastest-growing communities in Albion, driven primarily by the mining sector, and represents a success story in the New Towns program of the 1980s.

Name
The city's name comes from the Cree word mîskwaham, meaning "s/he discovers" or "s/he strikes" (with a tool). It derives from the mineral exploration that unearthed valuable finds at nearby McFaulds Lake. The name was chosen over a selection of other options via public poll, with the finalists being Miskwaham, Fort Muketei or McFauldsville.

History
The broad region was largely unsettled due to the general inhospitable terrain and chilly climate of the Canadian Shield. The area was inhabited mainly by small groups of Indigenous Albans, primarily the Cree. The nearest settlement was the primarily Ojibwe community of Webequie, about 100 kilometres away.

The discovery of the Ring of Fire in eastern Albion, beginning in the late 1970s, exposed immense deposits of minerals in the vicinity of McFaulds Lake. The deposits include chromite, palladium and vanadium as well as diamond, platinum, gold, copper and nickel. The federal and provincial governments of the day - both Liberal throughout the 1980s - launched a process to distribute mining rights in the area. Dozens of companies staked claims and established agreements with local First Nations throughout the 1980s, with the most important deal being brokered between the federal government and the Matawa First Nations to establish a permanent settlement near the lake. The nearby Muketei River was chosen, as a rough airstrip had already been cut nearby and no Indigenous settlements occupied that particular plot of land.

The settlement site chosen was situated at a fork in the river, west of McFaulds Lake by a few kilometres and north of the existing airstrip. Initial settlement began in 1987 in the form of temporary construction camps and early roadwork. By 1991, the first homes and service centres were beginning to go up, and the settlement was formally incorporated as an Urban Service Area in 1993.

It would take much of the 1990s to bring mining efforts online, a process slowed somewhat by disagreements with regional First Nations over employment quotas and profit-sharing. Canchrome, the largest company in the region, briefly took the government of Prime Minister Isaiah Hunter to court with the support of the Liberal provincial government over federal regulations requiring a greater share of revenue to be diverted to First Nations than the federal Liberals had previously called for. The dispute landed in the Supreme Court of Albion, where the Liberal government found in favour of the First Nations. Canchrome moved to divest from their share of the project, which was nationalized by the Glen government and then sold to a First Nations concern operating as Great Matawa Mining. GMM remains a key stakeholder in the mining sector, with much of the profit from the GMM chromium mine flowing directly to the Webequie and Martin Falls Indigenous communities.

Beginning in 1999, Miskwaham experienced several years of explosive population growth driven by the opening of new mines and the demand for jobs. Carve-outs secured by the federal and provincial governments ensured many of the mining jobs created in the area were set aside for Indigenous Albans from Miskwaham. Still more residents migrated from elsewhere in the country, particularly from areas where jobs were more scarce. A disproportionate number of migrants to Miskwaham came from and continue to come from the provinces of Stikine and Kootenay. The implementation of a foreign-workers program also resulted in a significant foreign-born population, a factor which led to the development of a significant South Indian community.

In 2007, Miskwaham received Provincial sanction to transition from an urban service area to a full City, but the move was never implemented following a narrow rejection by the Matawa district council and allied First Nations, who feared the separation of the City would result in staggering inequality between the urban and rural areas. Miskwaham remains part of the broader Matawa Region and is governed by the district mayor and council, though it makes up by far the most politically significant chunk of the region.

Landmarks
Miskwaham's overall urban landscape is significantly different from most communities in Albion. The city was largely planned in the 1980s and '90s, and the primary employment area lies well outside the urban centre. Accordingly, Miskwaham developed as essentially a giant bedroom settlement for mine workers, with services developing later and in a somewhat unorganized fashion.

A few of the local landmarks are as follows:


 * Riverside Park, on the north side of the three-way junction in the Muketei River. It's a mostly natural area with a nice rock-lined shore and areas to launch kayaks and such from. The closest thing the city has to a downtown park.
 * Matawa Regional Headquarters, an impressive modernist complex sitting with a river view on the edge of the city centre. It's a three-storey concrete complex with a larger five-storey block in the centre, notable for several colourful murals painted by Ojibwe artists. The Mayor and District Council meet here.
 * The Great Matawa Centre, built on a site close to Riverside Park that used to be a fenced-off eyesore set aside for a housing development that never came. It's a 4,500-seat arena and the home of the Miskwaham Fury of the junior-A Eastern Hockey League.
 * Anco Field, a large soccer field on the outskirts of the city. It is home to the Matawa Pioneers soccer team.
 * The Longfield Bridge, the main roadway carrying traffic east over the Muketei from the city centre. It was formerly known as the Highway 31 Bridge but was later renamed for the late Prime Minister Mark Longfield. It's really just a four-lane concrete box girder bridge.

Air
Miskwaham is served by the Matawa Regional Airport, a two-runway airport lying south of the urban area. This airport also services broader Ojibwe, Cree and Oji-Cree settlements in the area, including major traffic to and from the township of Webequie.