Mistassini Cree camp leader Alfie Matoush allowed ethnographer Edwards Rogers and his wife to join Matoush's 13-member hunting group in 1953-4 in their traditional hunting territory in the eastern Subarctic. Rogers observed the variety of game and resources that the Matoush group exploited and noted that they were able to derive a high percentage of the goods necessary for their existence, which included an impressive variety of game and resources, sufficient to keep their health at a better level than other, more sedentary First Nation people who lived in hamlets. Their traditional hunting grounds, an area northeast of Lake Mistassini, were near the headwaters of the Eastmain River, and just south of Noakokan. Lake Indicator is near their southern boundary. Rogers observed that Lake Indicator was used as an early winter base for hunting and trapping, and noted the remains of an earth-covered conical lodge, four house pits, and a log cabin. Rogers noted that the Mistassini First Nations left their summer encampments in late August or early September at the lower end of Lake Mistassini and moved to their hunting grounds where the men built a fall camp. From October through December they lived in early winter camps which were more substantial. This was where they cached their canoes. During the hardest part of the winter they moved to different hunting camps. In April, they moved back to the early winter camp, and by the end of May they were at their summer camp at the south end of Lake Mistassini.