Cunningham Lake
Encyclopedia
Cunningham Lake is situated approximately 91 km from Fort St. James, British Columbia
Fort St. James, British Columbia
Fort St. James is a district municipality and former fur trading post in north-central British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country, at the northern terminus of Highway 27, which connects to Highway 16 at Vanderhoof...

 via Lind Pit Lake road. Nankut Creek connects Cunningham to Stuart Lake
Stuart Lake
Stuart Lake, or Nak'albun in the Carrier language is a lake situated in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The town of Fort St. James is situated by the lake near the outlet...

.

It is also the name of a tranquil little village nearby, used as a Summer-Fall camp for thousands of years by the Yekoochet'en people and other nearby Indigenous people. In fact, the Yekooche people's very name derrives from the area - Ye Koo refers to Yeko Bun (Cunningham Lake) and Che describes the tail end of Nankut Creek. Cunningham Lake Indian Reserve No. 11 is located on the south shore of the lake (officially to the Tl'azt'en Nation
Tl'azt'en Nation
Tl'azt'en Nation is an Indian band located along the north shore of Stuart Lake in the northern interior of British Columbia. The two main villages belonging to Tl'azt'en Nation are Tache , 60 km northwest of Fort St. James and Binche , 40 km northwest of Fort St. James...

 known as Ye Koos Lee Indian Reserve 11).

As well as a source of hay for cows and horses, the area provides Lake trout
Lake trout
Lake trout is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, lake char , touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, they can also be variously known as siscowet, paperbellies and leans...

, whitefish
Common whitefish
Coregonus lavaretus is a species of freshwater whitefish, in the family Salmonidae. It is the type species of its genus Coregonus.There are widely different concepts about the number of species in the genus Coregonus and the delimitation of the species Coregonus lavaretus.-Lavaret:In a narrow...

, kokanee
Sockeye salmon
Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...

, moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

, deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

, and beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...

 to hunters. Such food is dried or canned for winter, or historically, traded in Fort St. James for staples such as sugar, flour and rice.

There is a small island called Ruby Rock where the Joseph brothers have a Hunting/Fishing Guide Outfitting company. There is also a little peninsula, known as Yekoosle, where there are cabins owned by a family from Yekooche First Nation
Yekooche First Nation
Yekooche First Nation is based 75 kilometers northwest of Fort St. James, British Columbia at the north end of Stuart Lake on Yekooche reserves . It is known in English as Portage due to its location along the portage route between Babine Lake and Stuart Lake.Yekooche is a small community reserve...

. There are also small cabins belonging to the Joseph brothers on the small reservation nearby which they use for haying and hunting. At night, guests can hear loons calling in the distance, and wolves and coyotes howling.
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