The water was fast, relentless.
In just a few days, the Peguis First Nation flood, believed to be the worst the Interlake community in Manitoba has ever seen, displaced approximately 1,600 people and devastated hundreds of homes. Peguis has 3,521 members who normally live in reserve and 6,504 members outside the reserve.
The largest community of the first nation in Manitoba is no stranger to floods – in the last few decades, residents have been driven from their homes several times by rising waters – but this has not always been the case.
A few generations ago, the community lived on first-class farmland, just north of Winnipeg, away from the flood-prone Fisher River delta, about 100 miles north of the capital today.
And in a way, the story of how they were pushed so far north in Manitoba’s Interlake area – a move motivated by racism and sparked by a dubious vote – is the story of Manitoba, said Niigaan Sinclair, a professor of indigenous research at the university. from Manitoba.
“You can map Manitoba to eliminate indigenous peoples. So the history of Peguis is unfortunately not abnormal, “said Sinclair, who is also a member of the First Nation.
“But it’s especially awful for me to see my relatives every year [a] a huge amount of property damage, their livelihood is constantly under duress and the fact that it is simply impossible to lead a life … in this territory where we have been forced to live. “
Damien Byrd of Black River First Nation and Emma Byrd of Peguis First Nation were working to fill a Peguis sand home on Friday after the Fisher River overflowed its banks, flooding much of Manitoba’s low-lying northern region of Interlake. (Jason Empson / CBC)
Ejected
In the early 20th century, the land northeast of Winnipeg was known as St. Peter’s Reserve, the forerunner of today’s first Peggy nation. Today the area is home to the city of Selkirk.
The people of St. Peter’s were successful farmers, said Karen Fromman, an assistant professor at the University of Winnipeg who teaches indigenous history.
But among the settlers there is still the idea that the first nations were not able to use the land properly.
“There was pressure and resentment from the settler population to remove the indigenous population from productive, valuable land,” said Froman, a Mohawk of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
“It’s racism, pure and simple.”
The people are depicted in the former St. Peter’s Reserve around 1880 in this archival photograph. The people of St. Peter’s were forced to move to the current location of the Peguis First Nation after handing over the land in 1907, which was later considered illegal. (Robert Bell Foundation / Library and Archives, Canada)
As Selkirk’s growing close community experienced an economic boom, government officials began condemning the reserve as “draining the area’s prosperity,” she said.
So in 1907, they devised a scheme to hand over the reserve land – although the people of St. Peter’s “strongly opposed it,” Froman said.
“Actual” voting
By all accounts, the vote on whether the First Nation would hand over its land to the government “was pretty bleak,” she said.
The vote took place in September, when many members were hunting, fishing and trapping, and was scheduled for a short time, Froman said. Many residents of St. Peter’s could not fit in the small school building where the vote took place.
The vote itself was also confusing, with an official at one point telling voters to choose a country based on who wants $ 90 – not who wants to hand over their land – although it was not clear which line people should take, she said. .
However, Froman said, the result is close: 107 for, 98 against. This was not a majority of the 233 eligible voters. However, the government decided it won the majority of votes, although no record was kept of who voted, Sinclair said.
Niigaan Sinclair is Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba and a member of Peguis First Nation. (CBC)
“You can’t call this vote. It was fake,” he said. “The land was stolen, period.”
The St. Peter’s Reserve was disbanded and its people were forced from where they had been for generations, a new one elected by the government, Froman said.
New home – for some
What did the newly created first Peguis nation expect – a name after Chief Pegiswho had led a group of Solto people to set up a settlement in Netley Creek and later in St. Peter’s was far from the thriving community they once knew, Froman said.
There were no houses, no schools, no churches, not even roads.
“They took a hell of a step back when they moved,” said Bill Shed, whose great-grandfather, William Asham, was a former St. Peter’s chief who attended the vote.
It was “the bush, the poor land – something like a swamp and no really big trees.”
But others refused to leave, Froman said.
Some of the first nations that remained took action give the right to votement (the process of renouncing the status of the first nation under the Indian Act), while some people from the mestizos apply for a script in an attempt to retain their land. But many eventually lost it anyway, she said.
A map shows the St. Peter’s Reserve in its original location, which the city of Selkirk calls home today. (Department of Indian and Northern Development Funds / Library and Archives of Canada)
Others refused to leave outright, instead facing legal consequences.
Trevor Grays said it happened to his family, who are from the nearby former Netley Creek First Nation, which the government is combining with St. Peter’s Reserve to save money after the signing of Treaty 1.
This decision meant that their lands were involved in the illegal transfer, even though they occupied the swamps until they were arrested for a crime in 1931. At a trial the following year, they had two choices: to move to the new location of Peguis First Nation or go to jail.
“As you can imagine, there were a lot of people who said, ‘Well, I’m moving,'” Graces said.
“There were a lot of them who refused. So these men were in jail.”
The photo shows a court document that reads “His Majesty the King against the Indians invading the old reserve of St. Peter, Manitoba. (Submitted by Trevor Greyeyes)
Although the transfer of the land was declared invalid in 1911, this decision was ignored by government officials who demanded that the First Nation be relocated, Froman said.
“The justification and explanation provided by officials, and this is actually perceived as part of the settlers’ mentality, was the lie, the fabrication, that the people of St. Peter voluntarily sold and abandoned their land,” she said.
“People did not go voluntarily, despite the historical story … that people just bowed their heads in obedience and quietly retreated to the bushes.
I’m moving forward
But despite everything that happened, the people of St. Peter’s – now Pegis – were not angry, Shed said.
“They continued their lives and rebuilt a community, under very difficult circumstances, that prospered,” he said, recalling his own grandparents’ house, built with logs from the forest in the new reserve.
After being forced to leave their original land, the people of today’s Peguis First Nation built a new community for themselves. The opening in 1960 of a model home of the First Nation, built entirely by teenagers as a school project, is pictured in the nearby Hodgson community. (Department of Indian and Northern Development Funds / Library and Archives of Canada)
And they didn’t stop there. In 2009, they voted to accept a settlement of $ 126 million in land claims to compensate for land stolen more than a century earlier.
“They won – I see it anyway,” Shed said.
“[They used] their ability and mind to educate themselves and seek redress for past mistakes using our system, education and the rule of law. “
But today, the community is still dealing with the consequences of moving it to such a flood-prone area, Chief Glenn Hudson said, reiterating his call for long-term flood mitigation measures in the area.
“We deserve better, especially when our land was taken away illegally,” Hudson said.
“People need to understand and know the history of how our lands have been deceived by us.
Peguis leader Glenn Hudson says his community needs constant flood protection. (Jason Empson / CBC)
This is an opinion shared by senior Peguis First Nation member Ruth Christie – not only to make people understand the history of her community today, but also to make sure that her stories will be preserved for tomorrow.
“The elders who knew these stories are leaving,” Christy said.
“If young people are not interested in the history of their people … that history will be lost.”
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