The area encompassing the Syncrude Aurora Mine Environmental Impact Assessment Local Study Area has been inhabited at least since the close of the last Ice Age and the people who lived in the area learned to use the natural resources in a manner that ensured sustainability both of their own lives and of the resources. The people who now inhabit the area belong to the Fort McKay First Nation or to the Métis Nation. This Boreal forest area sustains a balanced resource base that can and does support small groups of people who sustain themselves through traditional living practices. The people of the area recognize that exploitation of the bitumen deposits abundant in this area has the potential to provide immediate financial benefit to themselves and to their community. They also recognize, however, that the more traditional use of resources, which has been their practice for centuries, has a viable economic perspective. Furthermore, extensive and concentrated resource exploitation is seriously and negatively impacting the older and more traditional resource use. This study provides a documentary foundation describing the traditional use of lands and resources in the area. It is intended to encourage understanding of traditional resource use, and to provide a basis for further discussion and implementation of mutually acceptable resource planning, reclamation and management. The main objectives of this study are: to determine the extent of traditional renewable resource use activities within the area identified as the Syncrude Canada Ltd. Aurora Mine Environmental Impact Assessment Local Study Area; to determine the extent to which these activities are still carried out on the area; to identify the significance of such use to the members of the Fort McKay community; to initiate discussion regarding acceptable and mutually satisfactory resource use; and to make recommendations relative to traditional and non-traditional use of the water, land and resources.