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Top News - August - 2004
Published August 22, 2004
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STC casino gets green light from province
Gathering helps students move beyond
Community rallies to try to find TamraThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the August 2004 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sage, then you have missed out on a lot.
STC casino gets green light from province
Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Whitecap Dakota First Nation
It's taken three years and a change of venue, but the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) can finally go ahead with its plans to build a casino.
Whitecap Dakota First Nation, located 25 kilometeres south of Saskatoon, will be home to the new casino, which received approval from the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority on Aug. 6. Once completed, it will be the fifth casino in the province operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA). The casino will be built by the STC on land leased from Whitecap, and SIGA will in turn rent the casino space from the STC.
The tribal council had originally hoped to establish a casino in downtown Saskatoon, a plan that had already been approved by Saskatoon city council and that had the support of much of the city's business community. But those plans were quashed through the efforts of the anti-gambling lobby, which collected signatures on a petition and successfully fought to have the decision as to whether a new casino should be built in the city decided by the people. A question about the casino was included on the ballot during the municipal election held last fall, and the casino proposal was defeated by a narrow margin.
Even before the question was put to a vote, however, the tribal council had revised its plans, deciding in July 2003 to instead apply for approval for a casino on Whitecap. Despite that decision, the casino question remained on the ballot, and Saskatoon voters had their say.
"Because the plebiscite, they had the right number of signatures for it, the city council would not remove it from the ballot," said STC Tribal Chief Glenn Johnstone in explaining why the Saskatoon proposal was voted on when the decision to move the casino had already been made.
"And that posed a very interesting predicament for us."
By that time, city council had also approved the Whitecap proposal, Johnstone said. "So now we were sitting there with two sites approved by city council, and one possibly would be passed by the referendum. It really put us in an interesting position."
Johnstone believes that, had the tribal council not changed its plans, the vote would have swung in favour of a Saskatoon casino. The vote was quite close, despite the fact that the STC stopped its information campaign when it picked its new site in July.
"I really believed that it was picking up steam, and I told the chiefs that. I said, 'I really believe we can win, but I'm not prepared to take that risk,'" Johnstone said. Time was of the essence for the STC-after receiving approval from the city, the tribal council only had three years in which to make its casino plans a reality. After that, the right to build a casino in the Saskatoon area would be offered up to other interested parties.
The soon-to-be built casino, which should be up and running within two years, is the second phase of a resort being planned for Whitecap. The first phase of the development is the Dakota Dunes Golf and Country Club, developed by Whitecap Dakota First Nation in partnership with Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Lac La Ronge Indian band, which opened for business in the spring. The third phase of the development will be a hotel and convention centre.
While some people believe locating casinos on reserves can lead to social problems, Johnstone doesn't believe that's the case.
"I think the whole idea ... is overblown, because everything is there already. So having another casino does not mean that suddenly people are going to be flooding out there. They're already gambling, the ones that want to gamble are already gambling. So that argument doesn't really sit well with me," he said.
Tom Semaganis, director of public relations for SIGA, doesn't see any disadvantages to locating the casino on Whitecap rather than in Saskatoon, but he does see a number of advantages to the move, not the least of which is having the casino as part of the larger resort development.
"So it's part of a package, a whole complete package there. The casino just builds on that," he said.
A number of jobs will be created during the construction phase, and once the casino is up and running, up to 550 full-time and part-time jobs will be created, Semaganis said.
"That's not including all the people that will be employed in the rest of the resort facility. In the golf course-there's already quite a few people working there. The hotel side, there will be quite a few people employed. So the whole resort area itself will employ in the hundreds and hundreds of people."
Very few people on Whitecap are unemployed, so it will be the surrounding communities that benefit the most from the new employment opportunities, Semaganis said. "They will also benefit from an anticipated increase in tourism in the area.
"That's what the main goal is, it's going to be a huge tourism attraction. It'll draw probably more tourists than anything else in the province of Saskatchewan," Tom Semaganis said.
Another advantage of the new casino location, Glenn Johnstone said, is that the economic spin-offs from the development, which would have been enjoyed by downtown businesses if the Saskatoon proposal had gone ahead, will now be reaped by Whitecap and the STC. Local communities will also benefit by planned improvements to area highways, and improved transportation systems between Saskatoon and Whitecap.
The benefits of the new casino will expand even further, Semaganis said, with the province, the First Nations and the local community development corporation (CDC) each getting a share of the casino's profits.
"The profits are split-37.5 per cent goes to the province, 37.5 per cent goes to the First Nations and 25 per cent goes to the local community development corporation," Semaganis said.
"The other benefit, of course, is pride in themselves as a people for having accomplished this and being able to have a revenue generator which is going to stimulate their economy," Johnstone said.
Whitecap is one of the seven members of the STC. Other member First Nations include the Kinistin Saulteaux Nation, Mistawasis First Nation, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Muskoday First Nation, One Arrow First Nation, and Yellow Quill First Nation.
Gathering helps students move beyond
Carl Carter, Sage Writer, Gordon First Nation
More than 500 people took part in a national residential school gathering held Aug. 3 to 5 on the Gordon First Nation, hoping to find help and support in dealing with the trauma they may have suffered as a result of the residential school experience and to learn more about the options available to them in the courts.
The "Moving Beyond" gathering was hosted by the First Nation and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. The Gordon school was one of the last residential schools running in the country when it was shut down in 1996. In the 1970s and 80s, it was where William Starr, one of the worst pedophiles in Canadian history, was employed.
"As a First Nation this school was in our community and it devastated our culture and our traditions because it was so close to home. We are now learning our traditions and I believe that our language was really devastated," said Eddie Bitternose, a councillor with the Gordon First Nation band who helped to organize the event and is himself a residential school survivor.
Topics covered during the gathering included dealing with the effect of the residential schools on youth, living in both a Western and Native world, and legal tips and support for people who are seeking compensation.
Bitternose said that two of the most important things people can do when they are going to court are to find support from friends or family and be to prepared mentally to revisit that pain. Bitternose hasn't gone to court because he feels "in a sense, sometimes it's very scary.
"It's reliving all that pain you've had. Survivors, no matter how well, or what road of wellness you're on, you have to go through that pain you felt as either a sexual abuse victim or a victim of confinement. That feeling of loneliness from being taken away from your family," said Bitternose.
"They must prepare themselves. Not only in the sense of preparing themselves in terms of the litigation way, with all the questions the lawyers are going to ask them, but prepare themselves in our way. Maybe go to a First Nation pipe keeper, find a support person."
The gathering also helped people to learn more about what happens after the legal process. Compensation may seem "like a gravy train at the end of the rainbow, but in some of our cases here within Gordon First Nation it created more hardships." Bitternose said.
"In terms of total dollars in Gordon, the government says they've settled in terms of $26.8 million, just to Gordon First Nation members. That works out to $92,000 per individual. However, a lot of people didn't spend their money in the right way. With some of our people, they got their money but they couldn't get rid of it quick enough," Eddie Bitternose said.
Rev. Dale Gillman is an Anglican priest who hopes the gathering also helped people to understand the position of the Anglican church, which ran the residential school in its earlier years. Gillman said that they also wanted to honour the survivors of the residential school.
"We did an honour ceremony for all the survivors of residential school. welcoming the survivors back to the community. And that was a first for Gordon First Nation and many who attended residential school," said Gillman.
"The reason we did that was because many of these children went back to communities after being separated for years and nobody ever said 'Oh, it's good to have you back.' So there was a lot of healing. A lot of people went away feeling informed and knowing more about the residential school impact," she said.
"In our community, even though we were severely impacted, a lot of people, any age from young to old, don't fully understand how residential schools impacted us in a negative or a positive way," said Gillman. "They don't realize that a lot of the issues we're dealing with in First Nations communities, one of the causes was residential schools. It's not the only cause, but because it took away so much from the communities and it forever changed an entire people group across Canada we'll never know what we could have been like."
Community rallies to try to find Tamra
Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Regina
It's every parent's worst nightmare-a missing child.
It's been over a month-and-a-half since five-year-old Tamra Keepness went missing from her Regina home and the search for her continues. From the beginning those search efforts have been aided by people from across the province, each wanting to do their part in efforts to bring little Tamra home.
Tamra went missing sometime between 11 p.m. on July 5, when her mother sent her off to bed, and noon the next day, when she was discovered missing.
The first week of the search was headed up by Regina Police Service and was aided by Search and Rescue Regina and volunteers from the community. When the police-directed search ended on July 13, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) stepped in to continue looking for Tamra. The police continued to help the FSIN co-ordinate the search efforts and keep lines of communication open between the police service and the FSIN, but the majority of the searchers at that point were Aboriginal volunteers. Among those taking part in the search were experienced trackers from some of Saskatchewan's northern communities-Montreal Lake, Hall Lake and La Loche among them.
Elizabeth Popowich, public information officer with the Regina Police Service, couldn't comment when asked if this type of outpouring of help and support is usual in cases like this. She said she has nothing to compare it to.
"I think that we could probably all say that we've never had a case like this. We've never had a child missing for so long," she said.
"But at the same time, the outpouring of concern and the offers to help have been tremendous, both from the non-Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal communities."
At the beginning of August the police, acting on new information, led a search on Pasqua First Nation northeast of Regina.
"And again the Montreal Lake searchers were invaluable in covering that area, because it's pretty rugged country, lots of ravines and bush and so on. And then of course the Pasqua First Nation was very generous, not only in cooperation, but, I mean, they had a group of people who were at the band hall and cooking and looking after the searchers. And so again it was another example of just tremendous support,." Popowich said.
Some of the tips that police have received have come from Elders who have had visions or dreams about Tamra, and the information has been welcomed by investigators, Popowich explained.
"Right from the start, when we initially put out our news release requesting any information that could help lead us to discover where Tamra Keepness is, I think that we tried really hard to make it clear that we were going to accept information in whatever form and whatever way people wanted to contact us," she said.
"When we had our search teams out initially, of course, they really focused on the neighbourhood around the Keepness home, because that certainly would be the most probable place of finding a child who'd wandered. But then there were some searches that occurred on 13th Avenue West and in the southeast part of the city that were directed more by those visions or dreams. And then there have been other areas searched based on the same sort of information."
The information coming from these Elders' visions is being given such weight for a number of reasons, Popowich said. Not only does the police service want to send a message to the Keepness family and other First Nations people that they are respectful of First Nation culture, but some of these visions might be a way for some people to share information they have about the case.
"We don't have any way of knowing when we get information what the source of it is. And in some cases it may be that someone is trying to find a way to disclose something. And so it may be conveyed to us in that way," she said.
"And then the other thing too, is that, I think that for us as a police service, or for our investigators, to make up their minds that there was only one way to solve this case and that we were the keepers of the one way would be wrong. There are many things in the world that we don't necessarily have to understand. And so I've had investigators say to me, 'If it helps us to find her, I'm not going to question where it comes from.' And so I think that, with everyone focused on the same goal, it wasn't a difficult step to take, to consider dreams or visions of First Nations people."
"I can say that the Regina city police were very gracious and respectful of our ways," FSIN Vice-chief Guy Lonechild said of the way the police responded to the visions of the Elders. "And that, I think, impressed First Nations leadership and added to the morale of family members and people who were involved with the search and rescue effort. We had, I think, a real coming together, that we are all one community. That this little girl, regardless of racial background, is a little girl that everybody feels is one of their own."
Lonechild said he was impressed with the response from First Nationscommunities who have rallied to help with search efforts. He also praised the commitment of Chief of police Cal Johnston and the other members of the Regina Police Service, many of whom have been working night and day and giving up their vacation time to work on the case, and commended the work of the FSIN staff, who have made the continued search efforts possible.
When she was interviewed on Aug. 11, Popowich said there were no new developments in the case that could be reported on publicly.
"But we can say that it's still very much an intensive investigation. We've got seven of our most experienced investigators assigned to it full-time."
Those investigators have been authorized to use whatever resources they need for their investigation. They can assign tasks to other people within the department, and can also draw resources from other police agencies, including the RCMP and other municipal police forces.
That extra manpower comes in handy in following up on all the leads that have come in regarding Tamra's disappearance. Popowich estimates about 1,000 tips have come in so far. She encourages anyone with any information they think might be linked to Tamra's disappearance to provide that information to the police.
"We would like any and all information that people might feel is pertinent."
"We feel that we're making progress," Popowich said. "I think our chief had at one point mentioned that every bit of information that's come our way has been hard won. It's been a difficult investigation. I think every day that goes by that we don't find her is hard on people. But we're going to keep looking until we find Tamra."
Tamra Keepness is 3'5" tall and weighs 40 lb. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with any information about Tamra's whereabouts is asked to contact the Regina Police Service at 306-777-6364 or 1-866-80-TAMRA (1-866-808-2672) or e-mail the information to tips@police.regina.sk.ca. Information can also me called in to Crime Stoppers at 306-545-8477 or 1-800-222-8477.