Youth drive self-government home in Manitoba

Two agreements negotiated over a 20-year period have moved the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation into a position of self-governance. The First Nation is the first on the prairies to achieve this status.

“To me, it’s obviously about getting out from the Indian Act. It allows us now… to focus on the priorities set by the community,” said Chief Vincent Tacan.

Other First Nations have opted out of portions of the Indian Act, but into other federal legislation. These agreements allow Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, a non-treaty First Nation, to establish its own laws.

“What’s significant about the agreement is it’s the first self-government agreement of a single First Nation … with a bipartite agreement with Canada and a tripartite agreement with a province,” said negotiator Bruce Slusar. “And this agreement is not associated with a land claim.”

Slasur also points out that the agreement is not like a modern-day treaty, which requires the First Nation to cede its Aboriginal title and rights before negotiations can proceed.

“The Aboriginal rights for Sioux Valley Dakota Nation people are completely intact and there is absolutely nothing in these governance agreements that relate to rights. In fact, there is an extensive disclaimer clause to the effect that these agreements are not treaties nor do they impact the treaty and/or Aboriginal rights of the citizenship of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation,” he said.
The bipartite agreement releases the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation from over 50 provisions of the Indian Act. However, the Indian Act will be retained in areas that provide advantages to the First Nation, said Slasur, such as tax-exemption for citizens working and residing on the reserve and registered Indian status.

The tripartite agreement will allow more flexibility in areas that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

Tacan said the community has established five areas of jurisdiction on which to focus and write its own laws:  health, children and family services, education, economic development, and lands.

If there is a conflict between Sioux Valley Dakota Nation law and either federal or provincial laws, the First Nation’s law would be implemented.

“Only in a small number of cases, in areas in a sense of national concern, would, in the case of an inconsistency…, a federal or provincial law prevail,” said Slusar.

The agreements include a mechanism for dispute resolution.
There is a separate financial arrangements agreement, which includes additional dollars to help the First Nation establish the necessary structures for self-governance. This agreement does not limit the First Nation from seeking other funding as well.
“The funding agreement has built-in escalators for different things,” said Tacan.

It has been a long process of negotiating, which has seen a change in personnel involved on all sides of the table.

“The hardest part was keeping the community engaged and keeping them at a place where they had an open mind to this,” said Tacan. He credits the First Nations youth for keeping the negotiations moving forward.

“The thing that really drove the process was the younger people. They had an open mind, they wanted to see some change in the community, they understood … what the Indian Act was and why we wanted to move away from that.”

Not only will Sioux Valley Dakota Nation be able to direct its future, but it will not have to wait for ministerial approval, which has proven to be a lengthy process in what Tacan refers to as a “restrictive system” that keeps changing.

Tacan said Sioux Valley Dakota Nation will look to Westbank First Nation in British Columbia, which also has a self-governing agreement, although only with the federal government, for direction and input.

Presently, draft legislation is being reviewed to be presented to Parliament and the Manitoba Legislature. Slusar expects the agreements to be in place in early 2014.

Slusar points out that the self-governing agreements do not preclude Sioux Valley Dakota Nation from continuing action it began in 2007 against the federal government in relation to a land claim.