The federal government has issued a national apology to a Saskatchewan First Nation community for a scheme that violated treaty and fiduciary agreements by creating an agricultural colony that took the nation’s land and contributed to the assimilation of Indigenous people.
Minister of the Crown and Indigenous Peoples Mark Miller is at the Peepeekisis Cree Nation on the reserve, northwest of Balcares, Sask., to make the apology on behalf of the federal government.
“On behalf of Canada, I apologize for these actions,” Miller said. “They have caused great harm to your community, your language and your culture, and we deeply regret it,”
Miller said not many Canadians know the history of the File Hills Colony scheme and “we have to acknowledge that.”
Peepeekisis boss Francis Dieter says he welcomes the government’s apology.
“Today is one of many steps toward reconciliation,” Dieter said.
Peepeekisis Cree Nation Chief Francis Dieter, right, says he welcomes the government’s apology. (Gary Solilak/CBC)
The Cree Nation previously agreed to a $150 million federal settlement in August 2021 that covered Canada’s breach of obligations, including the transfer and placement of residential school graduates on the nation’s territory in 1898, as well as sale of “prime Peepeekisis agricultural reserve lands,” according to the federal government release. Both were done without the consent of the Cree Nation.
The settlement allowed the nation, about 110 kilometers northeast of Regina, the opportunity to acquire almost 18,720 acres of land to add to its land reserve.
Dieter says he hopes the settlement funds will help address social issues and be used to purchase even more community land and development projects.
According to the nation’s website, the File Hills Colony aimed to create “a first agrarian nation and [assimilate] the aborigines in the colonial agricultural way of life.”
“The colony was intended to encourage students who had graduated from boarding school to abandon the traditional way of life and adopt a non-Aboriginal farmer’s lifestyle forever,” the website said.
“By issuing this formal apology on behalf of the Government of Canada, we acknowledge the wrongs of the past and take another step toward reconciliation and a renewed relationship between the nation,” Miller said.
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