Peepeekisis Cree Nation to vote on $150M federal settlement agreement

After 35 years of legal battles over a failed social experiment, Peepeekisis Cree Nation members will vote Friday on whether to ratify a settlement agreement with the federal government. 

The $150 million agreement, reached with the government of Canada last month, stems from a loss of land in the early 1900s.

Peepeekisis Cree Nation Chief Frank Dieter said the polling station in the community opens at 9 a.m. CST and closes at 8:30 p.m. CST. Frank said the community needs 580 or more votes in favour to ratify the agreement.

He said if band members outright vote against the agreement the band won't be able to renegotiate with Canada.

"A no is a no," Frank said, adding he felt the vote wouldn't go that way.

If there aren't enough votes to reach the threshold, Frank said there would be successive votes until the threshold was met.

The settlement offer includes the creation of a community trust for the management of the settlement funds. It also allows the Peepeekisis Cree Nation to obtain additional land.

Transparency, voting safety concerns

Members of Peepeekisis Cree Nation who spoke with CBC agreed the settlement was needed and said they were happy it was reached.

But they also expressed concerns about what was going to happen with the money once the band obtained it and how COVID-19 could impact the voting process. 

Anthony Dieter, who is related to the band's chief, said off-reserve band members felt they weren't included in the discussion process. 

Anthony said, from his perspective as an off-reserve band member, not being included in consultations is a regular occurrence. 

He said the band doesn't have an urban councillor or a position on council to represent urban band membership, which the federal government's website said accounts for 2,336 of the band's 3,057 registered members.

Anthony, who teaches in Kentucky, said he maintained a residence in Saskatchewan and learned about the agreement through the ties he maintains. 

Chief Frank said he was as open as he could be with band members through the claim negotiation process and noted community engagement sessions were held with band members on- and off-reserve. 

"It's kind of not council's fault that not everybody can attend," Frank said. 

"Because we were under a strict confidential agreement between ourselves and Canada, we could not disclose anything, too much. These were high-level talks."

He said the community intends to distribute a portion of the claim money among band members and use money set aside in a community trust for community-based projects or improvements. 

Those are decisions band members can and will be able to provide input on in the future, he said. 

As for any concerns related to COVID-19, Frank said the voting station at the Peepeekisis School will adhere to federal and provincial guidelines around the virus. Masks are required and those casting votes will be asked to sanitize their hands upon entering and exiting the building. 

He said people won't be allowed to gather inside the station to vote and disposable pens will be used.

Frank said he himself tested positive for COVID-19 last week — after spending two weeks in isolation from another exposure — and was currently working with the person overseeing Friday's vote to see if he could cast his ballot on the settlement. 

He said he is the sixth case of COVID-19 on Peepeekisis, which was also reporting three recoveries. 

The File Hills Colony experiment

The settlement agreement stems from what was essentially a failed government experiment.

In 1896 Peepeeksis was chosen as the location of what would be called the File Hills Colony, the brainchild of then-Indian Agent William Morris Graham.

Graham feared Indigenous people were returning to their reserves and reintegrating with their original cultures after attending residential schools.

The Cree Nation's website described the File Hills Colony as a "colonial showpiece."

"Tours for royalty and U.S. Government officials were given to display Canada's 'successful' management of Aboriginal peoples," the website said.

People who graduated from the nearby industrial school were encouraged to permanently adopt a homesteading lifestyle in the File Hills Colony.

The program took 12 square miles (3107.99 hectares) of Peepeekisis' land and gave it to residential school graduates selected by Graham and school leaders in 1902. In 1906, 210 more acres were given to graduates. 

The land taken for the colony left Peepeekisis less than 8,000 acres for the original band members, who were outnumbered by the graduates in the colony and deprived access to the area.

The Cree Nation's website said that by 1915, about 30 families inhabited and farmed the land and it appeared to prosper, at least outwardly. 

"However, the reality was much darker. Rumours of abuse of power, excessive micromanagement, Graham's total authority and suspicious gains in his personal wealth were rife," the website said.

Peepeekisis band members weren't the only inhabitants of the colony. Members from other bands were also placed there and in some cases, were arranged to marry. 

The marriages came with strict rules around social interactions and led to people losing their band memberships on their home reserves. This in turn created a social divide and a sense of identity loss that the website said persists to this day. 

The matter appeared in court a few times before last month's claim agreement was announced.

In 1955, original band members took legal action and a judge ruled more recent members of the colony could maintain their full band membership.

In 1986 the band submitted a specific claim to the then-Department of Indian Affairs. The Indian Claims Commission found Canada breached its lawful obligations to the band. It was recommended then the claim be entered for negotiation under Canada's Specific Claims Policy.

In 2014, the band revisited the matter with new legal guidance and reframed its original argument, an update published to the website in February of 2019 said. 

At that time Frank had asked band members to provide input on how the band spends any settlement monies.