A First Nation in northeastern British Columbia set up a blockade on a remote highway near the Alberta border Friday morning to draw attention to drilling exploration on the band's traditional territory.

The Kelly Lake Cree Nation, began stopping all oil and gas rigs from passing along Highway 52, a remote highway mainly used by crews travelling between Alberta and B.C.

Residents and other drivers are being allowed to pass through.

The roadblock is approximately 180 kilometres southeast of Chetwynd, west of Dawson Creek, B.C., and about 200 kilometres west of Grande Prairie, Alta.

It's the band's way of expressing concerns about the volume of exploration work in the area, Clayton Anderson, a consultant with the band, told CBC News on Thursday.

"We've talked about it to death and something's got to be done about it."

The band is also upset about the steady stream of oil and gas service trucks carrying big loads on the narrow, winding highway that runs by their reserve.

"They're going to either have to upgrade the road or they'll have to involve us in constructing an alternate road that'll bypass the community."

Anderson said the blockade would remain up all weekend, as a way of marking National Aboriginal Day, which is being recognized by aboriginal people across the country on Saturday.

The band notified oil and gas companies operating in the area of its intentions, and many of them have agreed to stay off the road until the blockade ends, Anderson said.

Police in the area are not expecting any major problems, said Dawson Creek RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve Grant.

"Any time you have a disruption that affects two people's different perspectives on how things should go, there could always be those kind of concerns, but we don't anticipate there's going to be much difficulties at all."

Grant said officers would be at the scene to make sure there were no problems.