When our ancestors signed treaty, they never signed away our language, religion, culture and right of self government.
The Dakota were a part of the Plains culture and shared the hunting territory on both sides of the border. The medicine line is less than 150 years old, so it’s only recent in our long history that it has been used to divide our people.
The loyalty of the Dakota goes back over 200 years. In the War of 1812, they fought on behalf of the British and in 1885 when Chief Whitecap’s loyalty was suspect and he was charged with treason. His friend Gerald Willoughby from Saskatoon testified on Whitecap’s loyalty to the Crown and he was found innocent.
The international boundary is an artificial construct, and many First Nations are dissected by it. The Blackfoot nation, for example, is in both Montana and Alberta. Historically, our people travelled freely across the nonexistent border.
We are members of Chief Little Pine Cree Nation, and my father told me stories of our people living and hunting in the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana. Following the events of 1885, many of our people fled to the United States, fearing reprisals from the Canadian government.
There was a large camp of Cree refugees located on the edge of the city of Great Falls. By the turn of the century, most had been escorted across the border back to Canada. Today, the remainder live on the Rocky Boy reservation in Montana.
It would be ironic if it weren’t for the racism that kept a people who occupied the Plains for centuries, to suggest that they lacked legitimacy as citizens. We have experienced wave after wave of foreign immigration, but somehow the Dakota didn’t belong as Canadians.
Granting citizenship to the First Nations should be a slam dunk. In fact, it should be the other way around; we should be granting citizenship to the newcomers.
First Nations citizenship in the land of our ancestors has long been contentious. The revisions to the Indian Act in 1951 “granted” citizenship to our people. At that time, the Indian Affairs branch was placed under the ministry of citizenship and immigration.
It was a one-sided recognition with the federal government including us, but refusing to accept our status as self-governing nations with Indigenous rights that were never extinguished by the treaties. The fact that we have Indigenous rights separate from the treaties is either ignored or little known.
When our ancestors signed a treaty, they never signed away our language, religion, culture and right of self government. These rights were simply assumed by the government and the churches.
For Chief Bear and the other chiefs, the work now gets underway. The fact that the federal government admits that a wrong has been committed means steps must be taken to rectify it.
One area that must be negotiated is a proper land base. When the original Dakota reserves were surveyed there was no land formula. They simply took what little marginal land the government could scrape together. Under the treaties, the land allotment was 640 acres for a family of five. This should be the starting point.
The Dakota have a chance to create a modern-day relationship with Canada and the Crown. It’s an exciting prospect and I look forward to the outcome.
Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.
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