In the 1700s, the Cree of the Algonquian linguistic stock began to migrate westward from the Hudson Bay region, stimulated by the fur trade at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They moved gradually into the territory of the Beaver, with whom they engaged in inter-tribal warfare over a period extending roughly from 1717 until 1760 (H.B.C. Arch. 8239/a/1; Jenness 1972:385).
The As’in’i’wa’chi Niyawak are part of a larger group of the earliest people, the Rocky Mountain People, part of the Western subarctic and Interior linguistic cultural grouping who were the original inhabitants of this territory.
Kelly Lake is a Cree speaking community, and are classified under the term “Indian” in section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 which includes non-status Indians. The approximate citizenship to date numbers well over 800 Cree speaking people, who reside within northern eastern British Columbia and north western Alberta, which formed a permanent Indian community in its current location (55°N 15°W) sometime near or before the turn of the 18th century. This date should be viewed as a point in a continuum of use and occupancy, and not as definitive of occupancy.
The Cree, Iroquois (Mohawk) and Beaver (Dunne-zaa) are the descendants of the historical and ancient peoples who reside within the territory and collectively represent the Kelly Lake Cree Nation, also known in their language as the As’in’i’wa’chi Niyawak, which stems from the Cree term for 'Rocky Mountain People'.
The Cree language is the chief language, and some of the Beavers and Iroquois in the Peace River Valley took up the language in addition to their own. The cultural resources in the Peace River Valley are invaluable to the Indigenous peoples of this area. The traditional territory of the Kelly Lake Cree Nation straddles Northeastern B.C. and western Alberta some 40,000 square kilometers, encompassing as well in what is now known as Jasper National Park. The traditional territory is part of the Central Rocky Mountain and Peace Lowland Region and is in the heart of three ecozones: Montane, Boreal Cordillera and Boreal.