Shoreline erosion in the Bras d'Or Lake is threatening an old Mi'kmaq cemetery in Cape Breton.

The cemetery at Malagawatch, in the southeast part of Inverness County, is estimated to be hundreds of years old.

"In 300 years, this slope has probably retreated a couple hundred feet [to] where it is today," said geologist Lynn Beckler.

"Imagine the land way out there. They wouldn't have built the cemetery right at the edge of a bank."

Malagawatch is a small island covered mostly in trees. Several old headstones are visible in a small clearing. The most recent grave marker is from the 1930s.

Beckler said rising water levels in the lake are to blame for washing away the shore.

By the 1970s, the shoreline was creeping up to the cemetery. Several bones that were exposed were re-interred, and large boulders were placed at what was then the bottom of the bank to soften the action of the waves.

Since then, the shoreline has receded another metre.

Beckler and other volunteers put up a giant tarp over the bank as a short-term solution, but the entire area is in danger of collapsing.

"Basically, this is all sand and silt and unconsolidated material that's very easily eroded. It's all undermined and all the sod has fallen in," she said.

Beckler is on a committee of experts put together by Eskasoni Chief Charlie Dennis to come up with a permanent solution. The group includes several Mi'kmaq elders.

Shelley Porter, with the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources, said Dennis wants the area designated a national heritage site in order to protect any historical or archaeological evidence.

"It's a very important site," said Porter. "The entire place has been a graveyard for who knows how long. Also, apparently it was the site of a French mission, and is like the very earliest example of two peoples here working together."

The hope is that with special status for the site, the federal government would pay for a wave barrier or other means to protect the cemetery from further erosion.