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| Mennonite, Lutheran and Young Chippewayan leaders sign a Memo of Understanding on Stoney Knoll |
It seems that the newscasts I watch,
listen to and check out on line are more than necessarily focused on
politics and government. That's why it was refreshing to hear this
morning that we don't always have to depend on and wait for
government to fix what's broken, to prevent what's bad and encourage
what's good.
MC Sask, MCC and Rosthern Junior College were cooperating
on a day of student education regarding aboriginal/settler relations,
Treaty 6 and specifically on an area of farm land that is occupied by
descendants of Mennonite and Lutheran settlers but was in the late
1800s an Indian Reserve which the federal government confiscated for
settlement. The Young Chippewayan that were granted this land in a
treaty signing in 1876 were apparently desperate for food and had
left the reserve temporarily to hunt in the Cypress Hills area; when
they came back, their reserve had been obliterated and they were forced to scatter to other reserves as squatters.
Only much later did their descendants
begin to agitate for recompense for the injustice done to them; so
far, the federal government has done nothing to right this wrong and
it's only through dialogue among Young Chippewayans, the settlers of
the area, MCC and Lutheran leadership as well as a handful of
individuals passionate about justice for landless aboriginal
neighbours that an understanding about the need
for a just and honourable settlement is being pursued.
About 40 RJC
students in attendance heard Chief George Kingfisher speak about the
issue from the perspective of one who lived it. A residential school
survivor, Kingfisher recalled how his father had said to him, “Don't
bother the people living on that land; it's their home now.” Ray
Funk, Leonard Doell and Lutheran pastor, Jason Johnson, filled in the
historical details of the Stoney Knoll story.
Presenters
seemed to indicate that if a just reclamation/reconciliation solution were
ever to be reached, it would not come from government initiatives but
from the people involved. If the finding of compensatory land for the
Young Chippewayan happens, it will likely be as a result of the
actions of local citizens motivated by good will and a desire for
justice.
Our current
government hasn't taken up the challenges of treaty justice. The
budget, I'm told, is literally silent on the most pressing issues
facing aboriginal Canadians. On the Stoney Knoll matter, the attitude
of the government seems to have been, “Don't do anything unless you're forced to.” They've come up with excuses, a major one being,
“If we gave land as compensation, to whom would we give it?” The
response locally has been to take on a genealogical project to answer
this excuse, by finding and documenting the descendants of the Young
Chippewayan scattered across the province.
In a way, this news
is also about government, but only in a way. The real news is about
people of good will doing what needs to be done. The governments, in
this case, must surely be dismissed with a dishonourable discharge, unless both their attitudes and their actions change.
After a meal of
bannock, bison burgers, three sisters soup and ice cream with
Saskatoon Berry sauce, the students were taken out to Stoney Knoll to
“walk on sacred ground,” and to sign their names to a letter—if
they wished—to the council of the Laird Municipality petitioning
that all signs pointing to Stoney Knoll be altered to include the
Cree name for this historic site.
A small start
toward a better future
(For more
information on the Stoney Knoll story, click here.)
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