Seniors, youth to benefit from land settlement

ARTHUR WHITE-CRUMMEY

REGINA Pasqua First Nation plans to use a recently awarded $145-million land settlement to care for its elders and nurture its youth.

That’s according to Chief Matthew Todd Peigan, who said the battle to get justice for an illegal land surrender was a long time coming.

He said the band, located near Fort Qu’appelle, had tried two times previously to get suitable compensation from Ottawa for a claim dating back to 1906. “It was a long process,” Peigan said. “I guess the third time’s the charm.”

Band members voted to ratify the settlement on Monday, with 97 per cent support. Peigan said he felt relieved and grateful to past leaders who began the journey.

The payment compensates the band for 16,077 acres of prime agricultural land the First Nation lost 112 years ago. The band held that its surrender was “unlawful,” and collected affidavits from elders to back up its case.

“They were told by their parents or grandparents that the Indian agent was threatening people, placing people in jail that wouldn’t agree. So ultimately they were forced to sign,” said Peigan. “A lot of wrongdoings were done.”

He said the band also found reports suggesting that band members were farming on the land before it was taken from them.

The band held a celebration on Tuesday to mark the occasion. Peigan said it was well attended. It honoured past chiefs Lindsay Cyr and Elaine Chicoose for their efforts, as well as the elders who were no longer alive to see what their testimony had won for the band.

“What they did in the ’80s helped us today,” Peigan said.

But Pasqua First Nation is also looking to the future. Peigan said the interest from the settlement will fund an elders’ facility, a youth shelter and a new high school. He said the band has been making do with a “makeshift” building to host 58 enrolled high-school-age students. Peigan hopes the youth shelter will allow the band to bring home children taken into care by social services.

The First Nation submitted its first specific claim over the surrender in 1987, according to a press release from the band. Canada rejected that claim, the release stated, as well as a second one in 1995.

The band tried again in 2013 with an updated legal argument, following a court ruling Peigan said established a precedent. Canada accepted the claim in 2016, leading to negotiations. An offer was made in June of this year.