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Published October 16, 2000
Family stroll
Daniel Ross and Lenore Amiotte take baby Freedom (left)
and Royal Amiotte for a walk through downtown Saskatoon.
Photo Credit: Linda Ungar
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Photo Credit: Linda Ungar |
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Governance Centre now open
by Stephen LaRoseInquest ordered in Ironchild case
by Paul BarnsleyHail to the new police chief
by Stephen LaRoseHard work pays off for young artist
by Marie BurkeAboriginal youth-developing their full potential
by Trina GobértKeeping the tradition alive
by Denis Okanee Angus
Sage ColumnistHere is a full list of additional stories featured in the October, 2000 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Saskatchewan Sage, then you have missed all this information.
Governance
Centre now open
By Stephen LaRose
Sage Writer
FORT QU'APPELLE
One minute passed. Then two.
At the podium, the Grand Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations temporarily lost his composure. He was reading
the names of the 13 chiefs who originally signed Treaty 4, 126
years ago to the day when he suddenly put his hand over the microphone
and began sobbing.
The afternoon of Sept. 15 was a very emotional time for the crowd
of more than 300 attending the Treaty 4 Governance Centre's grand
opening. It marked the day that one of the original treaty promises
had been kept - that chiefs could gather on their own land to
discuss matters of common concern.
"Welcome to Treaty 4 sovereign territory," said master
of ceremonies Fred Starblanket in welcoming the crowd to the
new facility, the highlight of the week long Treaty 4 commemorations.
"The circle is complete," he added. "This new
facility reflects our treaty rights, our inherent rights as Indigenous
people, and our duties and responsibilities of self government."
The most prominent part of the new Governance Centre is what
engineer Gary Bosogoed calls the largest tipi in the world -
a conical chamber to be used by the 34 Treaty 4 chiefs as their
legislative assembly.
Chiefs met in the facility in their first legislative session
on sovereign First Nations land in almost 120 years.
After the signing of Treaty 4, chiefs who signed the document
met every September at the shores of Mission Lake until 1881,
when federal Indian agents banned the meetings. Around the same
time, the federal government seized about 1,800 acres of land
in the Fort Qu'Appelle area that had been originally promised
to bands under the terms of Treaty 4.
The First Nations were moved out of the area because Ottawa believed
the Fort Qu'Appelle area could become the new capital of the
Northwest Territories.
For almost a century, little was done by First Nations to promote
and advocate the honor and respect for Treaty 4. There was little
that could be done due to restrictions placed by the federal
government, through the Indian Act, on First Nations' economic,
political and social lives.
That attitude began to change in 1985, when workers excavating
an area near the Fort Qu'Appelle Provincial Court building discovered
the bodies of 27 First Nations people. It's believed these are
the corpses of people who died while attending camps and congresses
of First Nations people in the Fort Qu'Appelle area between 1874
and 1881.
A park and a plaque mark the burial spot today on a site where
a condominium project was to have been built.
"Our Elders spoke to us from the grave," said Ron Crowe.
"They speak to us still."
In 1987, the first plans of the Governance Centre were unveiled.
At the time, Bellegarde admitted, the response from both the
non-Native and the First Nations community was less than over-whelming.
"I remember people saying to us, 'ah, you're just playing
around with our money,'" he said.
But the new facility "is a continual message that our treaties
are alive and must live forever."
In their speeches, Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor Lynda Haverstock
and Post-Secondary Education Minister Glenn Hagel called the
Governance Centre a model of co-operation and mutual trust between
Saskatchewan's Native and non-Native communities.
"This is a most auspicious and deserving day," said
Haverstock. "This new facility represents hopes and dreams
turned into fruitful reality."
In addition to the legislative chambers, the $7 million building
will also house the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council administrative
offices, other First Nations agencies, and eventually a cultural
centre, a First Nations' archives and museum. The Governance
Centre will also be the new home for Parkland Regional College's
Fort Qu'Appelle campus. The Canada-Saskatchewan Career and Employment
Service office will also move into the facility, Hagel told the
crowd.
"We're hoping to develop a one-stop shopping service for
everyone's training and employment needs," he said.
Inquest ordered in Ironchild case
By Paul Barnsley
Sage Writer
SASKATOON
Chris Axworthy, Saskatchewan's justice minister has ordered
a public inquest into the events that led to the death of Darcy
Dean Ironchild earlier this year.
The decision was announced after the provincial public prosecutions
office decided there was no basis for the laying of criminal
charges in relation to the matter. Ironchild, 33, was found dead
of a drug overdose in his apartment Feb. 19, hours after being
released from police custody.
Ministry spokesperson Debi McEwen wouldn't comment when asked
specific questions about the investigation leading to the decision
not to lay charges. Asked if the decision means evidence had
been obtained that proved that Ironchild took the fatal overdoes
after he was released from police custody, McEwen said, "I
can't speak to that."
She did say that the province's chief coroner will soon announce
who will lead the inquest and what guidelines that person will
be required to follow.
Native lawyers who have experience with the politics of public
inquiries warn that when an inquiry is called it creates the
impression that the government is anxious to ensure the truth
will come out, an impression that is frequently false, they say.
A coroner's inquest, especially, has narrow guidelines and limited
powers and can, simply by being forced to stay within certain
limits, be steered away from potentially embarrassing political
issues.
Donald Worme, a Regina lawyer who has assisted the Ironchild
family, doesn't believe the decision to call the inquest is a
sign the government is anxious to take a close look at the social
issues that may have contributed to the death of a Native man
who had been in police custody so soon before his death.
"I think that it is an extremely sad situation," Worme
said of the decision to call an inquest. "I don't consider
this to be a viable option, whatsoever. I don't see it as being
able to get to the truth of the matter, the underlying issues.
Frankly, I don't think, at the end of the day, that it's going
to be helpful at all."
He pointed out that past inquiries have accomplished little,
if anything.
"I mean, we've had many, many deaths in custody. We've had
coroner's inquiries around that. If they were so good, why are
they still happening?" he said. "They simply do not
assist in being able to concentrate societal attention on what
the real problems are here."
Worme believes, as do most Native leaders in the province, that
anti-Native racism is so firmly established in Saskatchewan that
police officers felt safe in taking Native people outside the
city to remote areas and dropping them off in extremely cold
conditions. The RCMP is investigating the deaths of several Native
men whose bodies were found outside of Saskatoon. Two police
officers have been charged with forcible confinement and assault
after they admitted to dropping off Darrell Night on a night
when the temperature plunged to minus 26 degree Celsius. Night
survived and filed a complaint. The two police officers, Daniel
Hatchen and Kenneth Munson, are being tried separately. Munson
appeared in court in early September. A publication ban on the
details of that hearing was imposed by Judge Patrick Carey. Hatchen's
preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 2.
Worme is acting on behalf of Night and the others. He said neither
he nor the Ironchild family was told why the decision to not
lay charges was made.
"I have absolutely no idea," he said. "They released
no information. This decision was made completely internal. So
far as I understand there was no information shared with any
outside bodies, including the family of the deceased. That's
not unusual because decisions to lay charges are matters up to
the discretion of the director of public prosecutions. There's
nothing wrong with that but I would have thought, given the sensitivity
of this matter, that there might have been an attempt to get
a little broader, if not input, then certainly communication
in making this decision."
Lawrence Joseph, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations'
interim grand chief (with an election coming on Oct. 18, Grand
Chief Perry Bellegarde's term has ended although he is seeking
re-election) told Windspeaker that there was some informal contact
between the provincial Justice ministry and the FSIN.
He said his organization wants a much broader inquiry than the
one ordered by Axworthy.
"We want an inquiry into this whole bloody so-called justice
system," he said. "Until we get the questions answered
and the truth revealed in some of these atrocities, I think we're
going to be like this until hell freezes over. We have absolutely
no doubt in our minds that the province and, indeed, the federal
government cannot simply walk away from this with just an inquiry
here and a inquest there."
The FSIN wants to take a holistic approach to looking into all
social ills suffered by Native people, he said, adding that top
FSIN justice people met with their provincial counterparts and
there was talk of a partnership in dealing with the police issues.
"There was some goodwill there and that's a good start.
They have not really invited us in written form to actually take
part. If we do and when we do, it would be a very cautious partnership.
Based on our initial reaction to it, if it's significant and
there's to be a recognition of our agenda, then we will go at
it. But if it's going to be just another token Indian partnership,
there's no way."
Joseph agrees with Worme about the inquiry that has been called.
"It looks good but it's just another cover-up," he
said. "If it's going to appease the minds of the family
of Darcy Ironchild, certainly that's a start. But we're not going
to accept the piecemeal approach that Minister Axworthy has spelled
out. Although I think it's an honorable effort, I think it's
a veiled attempt to quiet the situation down. It's not going
to do it."
The FSIN has hired its own investigators to look into what have
become known as the "starlight cruises."
"They're building a case against society in general and
that includes the provincial and federal authorities, the municipal
authorities, the police authorities both federal and regional
and municipal. We are building a case nobody - no politician,
no human being - can say, 'Well, it's just another wolf cry from
First Nation people.' It's not a racial issue. It's a human rights
issue."
Hail to the new police chief
By Stephen LaRose
Sage Writer
PEEPEEKISIS
It was an unprecedented sight in Saskatchewan history.
Bruce Parker, following the lead of a Star Blanket First Nation
Elder, placed his left hand over his heart, raised his right
hand, and spoke the magic words that made him the first police
chief of a First Nations police service in the province.
For 82-year-old Charlie Bigknife, the ceremony Sept. 27 at the
Peepeekisis school gymnasium, was the fulfillment of a lifetime
dream.
He had just sworn in the first chief of police for the File Hills
Police Service, which will be fully operational in three years.
"It's a very proud moment," said Bigknife, a former
justice of the peace and a former member of an RCMP Aboriginal
policing advisory group.
About 100 people from the File Hills Agency First Nations, along
with RCMP, Saskatchewan Justice and Saskatchewan Police Commission
officials attended the event at the school gymnasium.
"Even three years ago this seemed like an impossible dream,"
said Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Interim Grand
Chief Lawrence Joseph in a speech to the crowd. He and other
First Nations leaders said the new police force marks a watershed
in the history of Aboriginal self-determination.
"It is great to see First Nations' leadership are stepping
forward to ensure safer communities," said File Hills Qu'Appelle
Tribal Council president Ron Crowe.
"There have been many recent criticisms of First Nations
endeavors, regarding their expense. If there is a cost factor,
if the money that is currently used to put our people in jails
and to keep people employed in such a system was instead re-invested
into our own services, we would reap the benefits for years to
come."
Parker is the first of what is expected to be a six-person police
force which, by 2003, will be providing law enforcement services
on the Star Blanket, Peepeekisis, Okanese, Little Black Bear
and Carry the Kettle First Nations.
Saskatchewan's 73 First Nations and nine tribal councils will
closely watch the new policing initiative, said Chief Joseph.
If the new police force is a success, then other tribal councils
could follow suit with their own police services, he added.
Police Chief Parker has seen first-hand the benefits of tribal
council policing on First Nations. After spending 27 years with
the Prince Albert city police, he became in December 1997 the
deputy police chief of the Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police, which enforced
the laws on 10 First Nations in south central and southwestern
British Columbia.
The government of Saskatchewan is also happy with the new policing
arrangement, Justice Minister Chris Axworthy told the audience.
"We are tremendously excited with the progress this agreement
represents," Axworthy said.
The new police force will have the full authority to investigate
and arrest, just like the RCMP and municipal police forces throughout
the province, he added. It will also be subject to the rules
and regulations of the Saskatchewan Police Commission and the
provincial Police Act.
The only major difference is that the File Hills Police Service
will report to a policing committee comprised of File Hills Agency
members.
The new police force members could play a role in the First Nations
community far larger than the roles of police officers in non-Aboriginal
communities, said one of the guest speakers.
The function of the new police force could be similar to the
"dog soldiers" as described by First Nations' Elders,
said Noel Starblanket.
"They were the ones who protected the community in the days
before contact with the white men," he said. "They
were the ones who were delegated by the chiefs and Elders to
protect the community and to keep order within the community.
They were ones with special powers to allow them to do that job.
"What we're seeing here is the beginning of the return to
that, to looking after, policing, and caring for our own people."
"I
really liked Don Burnstick," said Joshua Whitford, 12, from
Sweetgrass First Nation. "It made me feel positive about
my future."
"The
conference was great because the Elders were involved right from
the onset," said Sunchild. "They were involved with
the organization and planning and we used them for guidance for
the entire event, and in all facets of the conference."