- 3 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Coming into Treaty 4 territory, Erin and I really wanted to explore the topic of education.
00:17We see First Nations University of Canada, which is a beacon in Treaty 4 territory and beyond in Canada.
00:23It's a one-of-a-kind institution that is trying to figure out how do we heal, how do we learn,
00:29and ultimately how do we live in a good way through education systems.
00:35We are here with two hosts from an APTN show called Treaty Road. How's it going guys?
00:40It's going well.
00:41It's going so good.
00:42So can you guys tell me what the show is really about?
00:45I discovered a while ago that my ancestor, the Honorable James Mackay, who was a Métis man,
00:51was a translator and then eventually became the commissioner on the first six numbered treaties.
00:56So I wanted to explore what his role in the treaty signings was.
01:00And I also wanted to learn about the treaties because I really have essentially no background knowledge.
01:05It's really special because Saxon invited me along on this journey so that he could look back historically at his family.
01:12And I feel like I'm looking to the future. I'm about to give life. I'm pregnant.
01:16So it's really powerful to be here in my home territory, bring Saxon here and reach those who haven't been given the education around treaties yet they should have.
01:25Exploring the theme of education as it has to do with treaties is absolutely necessary in understanding the viewpoint of Indigenous people and their cultural ideals.
01:34And then also how education was manipulated and used by the crown as a tactic for genocide essentially.
01:43So that's a tie, it's really exciting for us to stay up and support.
01:44Yeah I've had to do with the past since I didn't get the idea of the passport.
01:45And I think that's what I'm interested in doing and breaking into his house.
01:46So sometimes when I'm getting married and I'm having them right now.
01:48I can't wait to get married, but I do not have to go through it and tell you about the passport and your life isn't going to be traveled.
01:50Well, you haven't been given to these people as well.
01:51I'll never give you a plan.
01:52I did it in a hugeé›· and a half and a half.
01:53I would never get to keep your attention to the relationship.
01:54And now it's not gonna take a break.
01:55It could be a good idea.
01:57But to try to keep your attention and a half way,
01:58Well, let's get my attention to be a little bit.
02:00I'm an alumni of the Indigenous Education Faculty here and it's really bridged together
02:26two worlds that I found myself being in.
02:28I've seen everything here from, you know, people, we had wakes and funerals to being married
02:33here even.
02:34That's how much this building really represents.
02:36And that's awesome that you were married here.
02:38I love the fact that you did that.
02:40In a university like this, Indigenous peoples do not have to expend energy on voice or trying
02:48to make space.
02:51Ceremony is the norm.
02:53Indigenous education is based on Indigenous philosophies.
02:58It's also about relationship and interconnectedness of all things, whether it's, you know, relationship
03:04with land.
03:06You realize your responsibility.
03:08You realize the real reciprocity, Nidinomaganuk, right?
03:13That's all my relations.
03:15You're coming to know all of your relations.
03:18One of the realizations that I'm making as we go along that this journey isn't just about
03:24treaty, but it's really more about, for me anyway, learning about First Nations people.
03:29Indigenous knowledge systems are really bent on having good relations with everything, which
03:34essentially boils down to living in harmony with one another.
03:37And that goes beyond just human to human interaction, but it actually goes onto our kinship systems.
03:43We think about the plants, the animals, the elements.
03:46We need to live in harmony with those things.
03:50Treaty is a relationship, and there's these foundational principles that we learn from treaties that
03:54are made in the natural environment around us.
03:58And those are renewal and reciprocity and respect for each other.
04:03And that's really the basis of treaty.
04:06Establishing positive relationships is one of our fundamental beliefs of our culture.
04:13As well as things like sharing and generosity, these are basically ways in which people lived
04:18together and survived back in those days.
04:20Obviously, the intent on the part of government and the colonial authorities was much different.
04:25They were not really interested in establishing a relationship because they saw indigenous people
04:31as being inferior.
04:32The interest of the government was clearly in terms of being able to obtain the title of
04:36the land so that they could have settlers move in and so that they could exploit the resources
04:40of the land.
04:41So two entirely different agendas.
04:45We're on a journey to learn more about treaties and Treaty 4 specifically.
04:51What was set up to happen in the education system in the late 1800s?
04:57The leaders during 1874, they were thinking about change and the new economy.
05:05Expansion was happening west.
05:07So there was this preparation to be engaged and to be a part of this new economy, this
05:13new reality, but never compromising indigenous identity or indigenous community.
05:20And on Treaty 4, it clearly states that there will be a school on every reserve.
05:26Five years after Treaty 1, there's this piece of legislation that becomes law in Canada,
05:32the Indian Act.
05:33The reality is, the Indian Act is meant to try and phase out indigenous people.
05:39Our inherent and treaty right to education has been impacted by either the broken promises
05:48of treaty or policies such as the Indian Act.
05:51Treaty 4 happened in 1874 and the Indian Act happened in 1876.
05:59The viewpoints within the documents are opposing, right?
06:03One is unilateral and the other is supposed to be nation to nation.
06:08The Indian Act, the approach was to control every aspect of an indigenous person's life,
06:16an Indian's life.
06:18There's so many examples of educational policy gone wrong.
06:24And the biggest one was Indian residential schooling.
06:28I actually had some apprehension discussing the topic of education because how can you
06:36discuss what education means to indigenous people without recognizing the history of what
06:41the government did through their schooling system?
06:46So Treaty 4 was made on September 15, 1874, at Fort Coppell in southern Saskatchewan.
06:55Now my understanding from government perspective is that they really didn't see a need to sign
07:02this treaty.
07:03They had already gained access to treaties 1, 2 and 3 territory and that from their perspective
07:11was enough to sort of start settlement, get in there.
07:14And they couldn't really see beyond that at this point.
07:16What was the thinking from the First Nations perspective?
07:20I think a really big part of the context of Treaty 4 is really thinking about how upset
07:25that indigenous nations were that Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's land for $1.5 million
07:33to Canada.
07:34They weren't consulted.
07:36And also it's a big question of, well, did the Hudson's Bay Company even own any
07:41title to the land itself?
07:43From a Canadian government perspective, the representatives, again, we see Alexander
07:49Morris as the commissioner.
07:51He took charge in three, obviously, and he's still taking charge in Treaty 4.
07:57So aside from Alexander Morris, we had David Laird, William Christie, and they had an escort
08:02of 105 militia to Fort Capel.
08:06Unfortunately, poor James Mackay isn't present at this treaty signing.
08:11He is an advisor still.
08:12I don't know what that entails.
08:14I know that in 1874, he started his role as the minister of agriculture for the government
08:21of Manitoba.
08:22It feels like he's maybe climbing a ladder.
08:24Do you get that sense?
08:25Yeah, I think politically, for sure.
08:27And making a name for himself, absolutely.
08:30You know, Morris, there's a really good quote from Morris, and I'm sure you've heard it before.
08:34It goes, the queen wishes her red children to learn the cunning of the white man.
08:39And when they are ready for it, she will send school masters on every reserve.
08:44I have heard that one.
08:45It's quite well known in Treaty 4 territory in our communities.
08:48In the negotiations, it was also about education from the time that you're a baby all the way
08:54until you're older.
08:55And yet we didn't see that happen.
08:56We actually saw the opposite happen.
08:58We have a number of residential schools who are some of the longest standing ones.
09:03I'm the first generation of my family to not have gone to residential school.
09:07It says a lot about what happened with the treaty.
09:11Indigenous people knew the importance of education because they knew the importance of education to culture.
09:17That Indigenous identity is what gives us our sovereignty.
09:20If you know who you are, if you have a connection to the land,
09:24then you're not going to sign your right-of-way to those things.
09:32I think the biggest thing that I want to learn about treaties is what was promised during the signing of the treaties.
09:38Whether that is something that was documented on paper or something that was orally promised.
09:44And then exploring those promises, finding out which promises were never upheld,
09:50and then which promises were completely destroyed by the Indian Act.
09:55Thank you Cheyenne for meeting with us.
09:57You're a great friend of mine and have been through my journey in university.
10:02Now we're really focusing on education while we're in Treaty 4.
10:06Education, obviously, you know, that was one of the major agreements, I think, in all of the treaties.
10:10But you start looking at the way education was implemented.
10:15You know, we start looking at, you know, the legacy of residential schools, industrial schools, day schools.
10:21While they were for education, they weren't actually for education, you know.
10:25The government purposely through their policies was targeting the breaking apart of families and culture.
10:31With residential schools, you had students who were forcibly removed from their homes.
10:36You know, you had parents who were threatened with jail time.
10:38So you had, like, babies basically being ripped from their families and being shipped off
10:43and parents not really knowing where they were going.
10:46There's some really good pictures of, you know, tipis being set up just outside residential school borders
10:50so that parents and families could at least be a little bit close to their children that are there.
10:55You know, we have instances where children have passed away and have died
10:59and family members have never, didn't know about that until the end of the school year
11:03when their babies didn't come home.
11:05Residential schools, they've been big in the media
11:08and that's because they've been finding children.
11:11They've been finding children who are in the earth.
11:15And we've all heard those stories growing up.
11:18Then you have industrial schools who basically,
11:21sometimes you lived there, sometimes you didn't,
11:23but it was about training you to, you know, work menial jobs.
11:26You also had day schools who, you know, it was essentially the same as residential school
11:31but you did go home at the end of the day.
11:33The intents, again, were not necessarily to educate but more to assimilate.
11:38The premise of the schools was that Indigenous youth were intellectually and morally defective.
11:47We needed not only education, you know, like the basic sort of reading and writing arithmetic
11:55but we also needed Christian religion, you know, in order to learn proper morals.
12:00And also we needed severe discipline,
12:03lessons of obedience and hard work and all these type of things
12:07which they were trying to inculcate into us.
12:09As we know, it's not ancient history.
12:11You know, we're talking about 30 years ago people were still in residential school.
12:15I think a lot of people, especially from a settler or colonial background,
12:21always think of residential school as being in the past.
12:24Pretty much almost every Indigenous person you meet is either one generation away
12:30or they have family members who have gone, they have friends.
12:35There's that connection that's still there and it's still, it's a living history.
12:39Yeah, it's always a surprise to me when people don't understand how immediate it is.
12:43Absolutely.
12:45It's obvious that the chiefs of the time would not have signed a treaty
12:49giving up all their educational rights
12:51and handing over their children to church and state.
12:54They just wouldn't have done that.
12:56We had entire accounts of oral history from the elders
12:59that talked about how they viewed the treaty.
13:01Their perspectives didn't start contrast to the written text of the treaties.
13:05When the treaty commissioners came, they talked about wanting to start farming.
13:11And so, you know, the elders said,
13:13well, yeah, you know, you can use the land to the depth of a plow.
13:17That's not the way the treaty is written.
13:18You know, the treaty is written in such a way that we, you know,
13:20virtually give up entire title and rights to the land
13:23and in return for small parcels.
13:26Saxon, I thought it would be great to see this document,
13:30which is an original document from Chief Pasqua himself
13:33that depicts parts of Treaty 4's negotiations.
13:37Chief Pasqua was one of the chiefs who attended the signing of the treaties
13:41and was a very prominent voice during the negotiations.
13:44Hi, good to see you.
13:46Same to you.
13:47Nice to see you.
13:48Todd, can you tell us about this piece?
13:52We call it the Treaty 4 Pictograph.
13:55It was developed and crafted by our chief, Chief Pasqua,
13:59and it was his drawing on his understanding
14:03of the dynamics of Treaty 4.
14:07Our chief at the time and our counsellor,
14:09they discovered that this piece was going up for auction in London
14:13and they managed to acquire it for on behalf of the First Nation
14:17and the Royal Sass Museum agreed to keep and protect it.
14:22I've read a little bit about this document
14:24and I know the fact that this was written
14:27eight years after the signing of Treaty 4
14:30and Chief Pasqua wasn't happy with the fact
14:33that the promises were being broken.
14:35He was really hoping to get it into the hands of Queen Victoria.
14:38Albert Pasqua, he was tasked with getting the interpretation of this
14:44and he began his journey in consulting with our First Nation elders
14:51but also attending numerous ceremonies.
14:54Our elders said, well, it's part of that spirituality that happened.
14:58If you look at, say, the government interpretation of the treaties
15:01versus the Indigenous interpretation of the treaties,
15:04there's a spiritual component within the Indigenous communities
15:07that's not present in the governmental interpretations
15:10and what is written down.
15:11You know, there's pipe ceremonies that were held,
15:13that agreement between Creator and the people
15:15but yet that's not really acknowledged
15:17when you start looking at the actual text
15:19and the histories and what's there.
15:21As Indigenous people, our wealth is not material
15:26and I always like to interpret it as that
15:28when the Europeans came over and they asked the Indigenous people,
15:31we want to buy your land.
15:34The Indigenous people, the First Nation people said,
15:37it's not our land.
15:38It's the Creator's land.
15:40We're only borrowing it from our children and our grandchildren.
15:43We'll share it with you.
15:45I've always really appreciated the legacy of Chief Pasqua.
15:49I know he advocated for the Dakota
15:51and also, you know, being Anishinaabe.
15:54That blood is within me as well.
15:56Chi-miiguch.
15:58At 1.30 in the morning, we got a text from Erin
16:08saying that her water broke
16:10and that she was going into labour.
16:12We're still waiting to find out, you know,
16:15what's happening and all the details.
16:19What we do know is that her little baby is going to be born
16:22in Treaty 4 territory, which is pretty amazing.
16:27We were in Treaty 4 territory filming
16:44and we came back to our hotels
16:47and I had just decided to go to bed.
16:50And it was quite late at night and I felt this pop in my lower area.
16:56My water had broken and my baby actually was coming early.
17:01I ended up having to have my baby in Treaty 4 territory,
17:06which wasn't the plan, but it's really powerful
17:09to be able to have my child in our homelands.
17:12Hello, who's this guy?
17:16This is Shungus.
17:17Shungus Gabriel.
17:18Hello, Shungus.
17:19Hello, it's Kondo.
17:21We'll just keep you snug.
17:23Oh, wow.
17:24Yeah.
17:25And obviously, we're here on your home territory.
17:29Yeah, this house right here is actually my Uncle Keith's.
17:32Yeah.
17:33So yeah, this is kind of where I grew up.
17:34It's amazing.
17:35How are you doing?
17:36Good.
17:37Yeah.
17:38Yeah, kind of a crazy detour of our journey.
17:40Okay.
17:41Well worth it, though.
17:43Yeah.
17:44Thinking about the challenge of going into different territories
17:48and having a baby along for that ride,
17:50it makes me a little anxious.
17:52But bringing a child really gives me perspective
17:54around the women and the families
17:56that had to be in those environments.
17:59I'm really excited to reflect on what it means
18:03to be a mother on this journey.
18:05I'm feeling really grateful to be here in my home,
18:14Standing Buffalo Tatankanaji,
18:16to hear some of our history as Dakota, Lakota, Nakota peoples,
18:20as it has to do with the treaties.
18:21What's absolutely amazing about coming here
18:24is that so many people from the community came out and met us.
18:28We walked into the community hall and there was,
18:30I think, about 30 people that were sort of sitting there
18:33waiting to talk with us, to see the baby,
18:36but also to hear about our journey and what we were doing.
18:39So I don't think I've ever had a reception like that anywhere.
18:42We're specifically looking at the numbered treaties,
18:45but we know that our Dakota, Lakota, Nakota people,
18:49they're sovereign nations.
18:51So I'm not sure who we should start with first,
18:52maybe sharing some of who we are as a people,
18:55as Dakota people here in this territory.
18:59Well, I was following the history of Standing Buffalo
19:02and going way back from Minnesota.
19:06When the war break out in 1862,
19:10Standing Buffalo didn't want any part of it.
19:13The perception, false perception of,
19:15well, we came over across into Canada after the war,
19:20were pursued by the American troops.
19:23That's true, but prior to that,
19:26our people were here following the buffalo
19:28north of that 49 parallel.
19:30Archaeological evidence proves that.
19:33So young Standing Buffalo negotiated a reserve.
19:38They chose this area because of the creek.
19:41It had fish in there.
19:43There was no more buffaloes.
19:45The agent said you can't hunt anymore.
19:48And the community pulled together here when they moved up,
19:52but they didn't get much machinery or anything.
19:56They sewed everything by hand.
19:59A big surprise for me was that the elders came
20:02because they felt it was so special to have our history
20:05spoken out loud on such a platform.
20:07Dakota people, the war of 1763,
20:11they were there fighting the French.
20:13They were there fighting the war of 1812
20:16against the Americans.
20:17They were recognized as allies.
20:19We never surrendered a title to the land.
20:22You know, I sort of had the assumption
20:24that everybody was included in the treaties,
20:27but there are individual nations,
20:30individual reserves that never signed.
20:32So that was a real eye-opener for me.
20:34My dad was raised by his grandmother and mother Martha.
20:39Grandma Martha, he said, had a place in the coulee there.
20:44There was a big tree and all the food offerings they made,
20:49all the cloth that they put, she'd put on this tree.
20:54And she said one day the Indian agent was watching her.
21:00She went there. He made her burn it all.
21:03The whole era evolved with loss of language, culture.
21:12In my lifetime, you know, I spent 30-some years going back,
21:20learning to pray, learning ceremony.
21:23It's powerful for me to be a Dakota woman
21:26and be in this territory and know that we have a specific right
21:30to be here. We never signed treaty.
21:32But also thinking about how we are treaty people
21:35in that we are related to and neighbours with other nations
21:39who did sign treaty.
21:46We're here in Treaty 4 territory,
21:49and we're not far from Regina,
21:52which was once known as Pile of Bones.
21:55That's right.
21:56There were so many bones, buffalo bones specifically,
21:59that were piled in that area.
22:01And so it really represents to me the death of the buffalo,
22:05the extinction or near extinction of them.
22:07These plains nations depend on buffalo
22:10and are now thinking of, okay,
22:12how can we preserve the life of our people?
22:15It's pretty interesting that a place that was known
22:17as Pile of Bones then became known as Regina,
22:20which means the Queen.
22:22The Prairie Province treaties are the ones that exist
22:25in a context of a little bit of desperation.
22:28There isn't that same kind of level of agency
22:31as you have in the Treaty 1, 2, and 3 negotiations.
22:34There is a lot of pressure that's taking place
22:37from the settler and Crown perspective
22:39to kind of force treaty to be made
22:43in less than ideal circumstances.
22:45Soto really were upset about the lack of fulfillment of promises
22:49in treaty number 1 and 2.
22:51And so they were very hesitant to enter negotiations.
22:54And on the other hand, the Cree were more open.
22:57Now it's really interesting.
22:59The Anishinaabe even were really upset.
23:01They wanted more time.
23:02And the commissioners were really pressuring them.
23:05And they pushed back and said no.
23:06And they even at one point cut down the tent pole
23:09of the Neheyoak people, the Cree people,
23:13because they didn't want them to sign the treaty.
23:16I believe there were 13 chiefs that were present.
23:18You know, when we have, of course,
23:2028 First Nations in treaty number 4.
23:22And it's kind of like Treaty 6
23:24where some of the key players were not even present.
23:27For example, Chief Pipot,
23:28who was one of the main leaders in treaty number 4,
23:31wasn't there.
23:32And when he came in 1875,
23:34he thought that the negotiations were still ongoing.
23:36So as far as the treaty promises go,
23:38I know one of the things was reserves one square mile
23:43for every five persons.
23:45There was annuities of $25 for a chief,
23:47plus a coat and a medal.
23:49And you can see in this one,
23:51this is from a later date,
23:52but you can see the coat.
23:53There was a $15 annuity per headman
23:56and a $5 annuity for each individual.
23:59So these treaty payments,
24:02they're still collected to this day.
24:05Obviously, inflation hasn't been incurred
24:10throughout the years,
24:12but it's still, that $5 is still being handed out.
24:16That concept of reciprocity
24:18as being inherent in the whole of the treaty negotiation
24:22is so incredibly important.
24:24That idea of coming back to the table every year,
24:27you know, that annual payment,
24:29that opportunity to dialogue about the circumstances.
24:32The expectation, I think, from the Anishinaabe
24:35and other Indigenous people that made treaties,
24:37that would be resolved
24:39if there was any changing circumstance.
24:41And probably with that,
24:43that payments would increase to reflect,
24:45you know, changing times.
24:48This treaty, Treaty 4,
24:50they negotiated for a special grounds
24:52where treaty business could be done.
24:54Things like ceremony.
24:55The Treaty 4 Governance Centre
24:57is located on those special treaty grounds
25:00and you don't see that in any other treaties.
25:08So we're heading to the Governance Centre
25:10to meet with Corey,
25:11who's actually an old friend of Aaron's.
25:13He's also going to give us a tour of the area
25:15and hopefully he's going to take us
25:16to the signing location.
25:17So good to see you. How's it going?
25:18Good to see you. How's it going?
25:19Yeah, so good.
25:20This is Saxon.
25:21Nice to see you too, Saxon.
25:22Yeah, yeah.
25:23The Treaty 4 Governance Centre is situated
25:25on the land where our people once stayed
25:30during the time of treaty negotiations.
25:32By accounts there was hundreds of teepees
25:34all over this whole area here.
25:36And ceremonies just out back were being conducted
25:39up the hill.
25:40This is before the time of the residential school systems,
25:44you know, and our people were very vibrant back then.
25:47Treaty number 4 is often referred to as the economic treaty.
25:50That's where you'll often get the cows and plows
25:54and different things like that.
25:56Our people sent people to the different areas
26:00where treaties were being negotiated at that time
26:02and bringing that information back to our people
26:05so that we know what to expect when it comes time
26:07to have these types of negotiations, right?
26:10It's such a mix of emotions being here.
26:13I was thinking about my reserve not being far from here.
26:15Treaty was signed in this territory.
26:17And then also things like my family going to
26:20the Libret Indian Residential School.
26:22We learned about, in our families,
26:27the atrocities that happened within the schooling systems.
26:31And while Saxon is here, I think it's really important
26:34that, you know, we go and we actually go to that site
26:37where these things happen to be witnesses to an experience
26:42that so deeply has impacted Indigenous people.
26:47I know Libret was torn down a long time ago.
26:50The Muskaugan Indian Residential School.
26:53I believe it's actually the last standing residential school.
26:59As far as, you know, visiting Muskaugan,
27:02is that something that we can or even should do?
27:05Just be warned, though, it's a solemn place.
27:08Children have died there.
27:10We've got to keep that in mind.
27:12Cory helped to facilitate a journey for us
27:27in taking us to the old residential school in Muskaugan.
27:31For some reason I didn't expect it to be right off the highway.
27:39I expected it to be somewhere more remote.
27:43Mm-hmm.
27:44I didn't know that it was a historic site,
27:46like a national historic site.
27:48Oh, is it really?
27:49Yeah.
27:50I'm curious to know about the choice to let it keep standing.
27:53Yeah.
27:54Oftentimes, communities want them torn down.
27:56Yeah.
27:57I mean, obviously.
27:58You pass through this corridor of trees,
28:09and there's hoar-frost on the trees, and it's cold,
28:12and then this building comes into view,
28:15and it's a pretty haunting experience to drive up there
28:19and to see that structure that still looms there
28:22and the history that's attached to it.
28:35So here we are, Muskaugan Residential School.
28:38You see the remnants of the school,
28:42this big, tall building.
28:44It's all boarded up, and you begin to think about the stories
28:48that you've heard from the community that have happened there.
28:51It was a strange feeling to sit with,
28:53to be there in person and to feel the beauty of the land,
28:56and yet the injustice that's happened here at this specific place.
29:00Hey, Vanessa, nice to meet you.
29:06Nice to meet you.
29:07So guys, this is Vanessa Wolf.
29:09She's a counsellor out here at Muskaugan First Nation.
29:12As a newly elected leader for the nation,
29:15this is my portfolio.
29:17So what I do is I engage the community.
29:20We're in the process of building a beautiful monument here
29:24in the front to commemorate all of the children
29:28that came through these doors, whether they made it home or not.
29:33We want to honour them and commemorate them.
29:36We want to have this as a museum in the future
29:40where anybody from anywhere in the world
29:43can come and learn about the history of Muskaugan
29:46and all of those that attended here.
29:49Did you attend the school?
29:51I did attend.
29:52I'm a fourth-generation former student.
29:55The experience that through the generations that my family has shared,
30:01it's very different.
30:03My greats, they never, ever talked about their experience.
30:08They were Christianized.
30:10They believed very much in the Word of God and Bible.
30:14My grandparents, they were both Christian and traditional,
30:19so they incorporated both.
30:22And then with my parents, they went back to the traditional.
30:25What I want to represent is the healing
30:29and embracing healing, not only for Indigenous, but all nations.
30:34What this place has instilled in our people is trauma.
30:45And it took 111 years for the mandate to kill the Indian in me.
30:53It's going to take much, much more to bring that all back.
31:02Everybody says our culture is lost.
31:06Our culture is not lost.
31:08Our language is not lost.
31:10It's all within us.
31:11It's up to us to connect with that part of us
31:14and to reclaim that and bring it back.
31:17The culture, the language, the connection to the land
31:21will always be there.
31:23It's us who are lost.
31:30That's the beauty of sharing a moment like that
31:32when you go in person is the three of us.
31:34It feels really spiritual.
31:35And you could feel that presence collectively as we were there.
31:38And I think it felt really necessary that we go and lay tobacco
31:42on behalf of what we were feeling
31:44and also as an honouring and remembrance
31:47to those children that never made it home.
31:50Just seeing Erin's reaction to visiting the school,
31:55for me, it's shocking and it's disturbing.
31:58But I have that sense of removal.
32:00I don't have relatives that ever attended here.
32:02It hasn't affected my life.
32:04But to see how much it affected her,
32:06it shows what an impact this has had.
32:21Sarah, I just want to say thank you for the work
32:23that you and others are doing
32:25with the RISE Commemorative Association.
32:27Could you tell us a little bit about that work?
32:29The Regina Indian Industrial School Commemorative Association
32:33is a group of concerned citizens
32:38who came together in 2008 to try to protect
32:42and to reignite the memory, the history of the Regina Indian Industrial School
32:47that was established on the outskirts of the city of Regina.
32:50The cemetery was kind of lost from people's mind
32:53and people's memory for a number of years.
32:56You go out there, there's a little headstone, there's one headstone,
32:58and it's just kind of under a cluster of trees.
33:01So if you don't even know it's there, you'd drive by it
33:04and not even know it existed.
33:06I know I personally, growing up partially in Regina,
33:10didn't realize that that was just at the edge of our city.
33:13Because it's in a municipal property line,
33:16there were some city hall folks that were looking at building
33:20and expanding the city limits.
33:22It was a farmer who actually said,
33:24I sincerely hope that they don't disrupt the grave that's out there.
33:27And that kind of sparked a lot of people like,
33:29what do you mean there's a grave out there, right?
33:31So a lot of work started to take place
33:34and people began to investigate what they were talking about
33:37a little bit more.
33:38They came across some archival information
33:41and the archival information spoke to a number of Indian children
33:45who were also buried alongside.
33:47The ground penetrating radar work was done
33:50and it found a number of potential burials.
33:55So now we're up to about 38,
33:57and I am really hesitant to say numbers
33:59just because we don't have the technology at this point in time
34:03to be able to actually fully detect what's underground.
34:06Now as a practice for myself,
34:08you know, I'll go there, lay some tobacco,
34:11or if we have visitors come,
34:12I'll take visitors as a way to educate ourselves,
34:16locate ourselves here in this territory within the story of Regina.
34:20One of our very significant young people
34:22that we have attached to the Regina Indian Industrial School
34:26is Thomas Morkisic.
34:28He's been used on book covers.
34:29His image has been used widely right across Canada,
34:32yet very few people know anything about this young fellow
34:35and where he came from.
34:37Thomas Morkisic was the youngest of three siblings
34:40to attend the Regina Indian Industrial School in the 1890s,
34:44and his image was used widely by Indian Affairs
34:47to promote residential schools.
34:49He died at the age of 12
34:51after contracting tuberculosis from the school.
34:54The industrial schools were supposed to focus more
34:56on some of the older kids,
34:57so some of the kids that were, you know, pre-teens, teenagers.
35:00But when you go back and you look at some of the documentation
35:02and you look at the registers,
35:04it shows that some of these kids were actually three years old
35:07and they were placed in the industrial school.
35:09So having your baby here just, like, really puts it in perspective.
35:12I have a three-year-old at home and he's an infant still.
35:17Like, he's, you know, he's, I can't even imagine.
35:20You think of the maternal bond, right?
35:22Like, right now, you know, the whole act of feeding that baby
35:27is that connection and that bond that's being built.
35:30And when that's taken away, you know,
35:32both mother and child are traumatized.
35:36You know, now my baby's here.
35:39It's given me a lens thinking about how, you know,
35:43leaders then who were negotiating the treaty
35:46were thinking about how the implications of treaty
35:50were going to impact my generation, myself.
35:53And now it's my job to think about how what we're doing today
35:58is going to impact my child.
36:10Corey's taking us to the signing location
36:12and he's arranged for us to go by Horse Drawn Slay.
36:16So apparently there is a monument there.
36:18I'm excited to see that monument.
36:20When Treaty 4 was being made, our people camped out here
36:23in this spot, right where we're at.
36:26In this trail here, our old people would venture up that trail
36:29and they'd have ceremony at the top of the hill
36:31and they'd come back down.
36:33Every single day that the Treaty Number 4
36:36was being negotiated with the British Crown,
36:38during the Treaty 4 gathering,
36:40there's thousands of kids will go up and down this hill.
36:45Are the treaties being honored?
36:47I think ceremonially, yeah, they're being honored every year.
36:52And on the day of Treaty 4, we have huge ceremonies.
36:55Lots of pipes come out for that.
36:57So where we're at now is we're at the Treaty 4 Pile Grounds.
37:01The modern way, I guess, that we celebrate Treaty 4
37:06is to have a pow-wow, we have a big gathering,
37:08then we have a big gigantic pow,
37:10and that's held right on the anniversary
37:12of the making of Treaty 4 here.
37:15Politically, I think the treaties were put away.
37:21The Indian Act replaced a lot of the treaty rights
37:24that we had for benefits,
37:26and look what it did to our people.
37:28It devastated our people.
37:30It devastated our nations.
37:32Today, what are we really protecting?
37:35Are we protecting Indian Act benefits?
37:37Are we protecting treaty rights?
37:38Because that's two different things.
37:40I grew up, you know, kind of in and around there,
37:45and I didn't pay too much attention to that monument.
37:48But being able to go there and see, you know,
37:50the magnificence of it, especially being in other territories
37:53where there isn't even any sort of commemoration
37:56of treaty at all, I felt really proud that there was something
38:00that was existing here that the people advocated for
38:02and said, hey, this needs to be commemorated.
38:05But I'll tell you something.
38:08We ain't the first Indians to do this.
38:20So welcome to the Treaty 4 monument.
38:23Wow.
38:24It's been really hard to track down any locations
38:26of the actual treaty signings,
38:28so this is amazing that this is here.
38:30You know, I hope it sets the stage for more opportunities
38:33for treaty to be something we're celebrating
38:36and something essentially that we all need to be defending
38:40and living in.
38:42Right in this very spot is where our people negotiated
38:45with the British Crown.
38:47And they say that this is where Alexander Morris's tent
38:51was actually set up at the time that they signed
38:53and why they put it in, wanted to keep it in this spot.
38:56Because the Hudson Bay Company is just right down the way.
39:00Yeah.
39:01Alexander Morris probably stayed in the Hudson Bay
39:03place while he was here.
39:05And on this monument, you know, that has all the treaty signatories
39:09to treaty number four at that time.
39:11So this here is Kaku Wistahau.
39:15We're part of the Wastakes clan from Kaku Wistahau.
39:19You know, that's my roots are directly here.
39:23I was a little disappointed because James Mackay isn't actually
39:26at this signing location.
39:28He's just an advisor and he's back in the Red River.
39:31So his name isn't actually on this monument.
39:33And, you know, that's a little disappointing,
39:35but it's pretty special to be at this location nonetheless.
39:39I mean, there is an Edward McKay and I saw a William McKay
39:42on the other side.
39:43So I know his brother was involved in the treaties a little bit,
39:46so that may be him.
39:47That's very interesting that your family, like multiple members
39:51of a family are involved in this.
39:53Yeah.
39:54Maybe that's what our fates were meant to bring us together,
39:57that our ancestors were involved in the making of these treaties.
40:01You know, and here we are, over 100 years later,
40:04in the spots where our ancestors probably stood.
40:07Totally.
40:08Yeah.
40:09And talked and, you know, come to this agreement
40:11that we're going to be treaty partners and share this land.
40:14Yeah, that's pretty significant.
40:16There's a question if the commissioners,
40:19specifically Alexander Morris and James McKay,
40:22if they knew what the outcome would eventually be,
40:25which was residential schools, day schools, industrial schools,
40:28when they were negotiating and then eventually signing treaties.
40:32My belief is that they did know.
40:35It takes a while.
40:36It's a process in government to be able to push policy through.
40:40So I think, you know, behind the scenes with government,
40:43that they are plotting, okay, this is the eventual goal.
40:46They have to know the goals.
40:47Otherwise, why are they being sent out?
40:49And why is all this money being sent out for them to be able to do it?
40:52This was the hardest treaty to explore.
40:56There's so much emotion around the education system.
41:00Finding graves has been a significant step for many people
41:05because they've known forever that these graves are here,
41:10but their voices were not being listened to.
41:13And so now there's actual physical proof.
41:16After sitting down with Sarah Longman,
41:19it's just so important to be able to go to the RISE site,
41:22the Regina Indian Industrial School Memorial site.
41:25There is a sense of isolation.
41:27Like, it really does have sort of this sense of loneliness.
41:30I've usually come here when it's warmer,
41:33and you can see on the bushes and on these little trees here
41:37that there are cloth pieces that people hang for prayer offerings.
41:41Little toys, children's shoes, teddy bears.
41:46It's just become this really powerful place
41:48where people can come and remember what happened.
41:51Being in Treaty 4 and exploring the theme of education
41:55really brought me home to myself
41:57and really understanding the importance of education
42:00to revitalizing culture.
42:02I think my sort of biggest takeaway from this journey
42:05is that it's not just a one-sided thing.
42:08There needs to be an education from the non-Indigenous population.
42:12How we view and also how we interact
42:17and move forward with the Indigenous population.
42:21We're not just filming something for the sake of a documentary.
42:25We're actually on a journey.
42:26We are going into community, we are learning,
42:28and it is going to matter in some way.
42:31Those morsels of knowledge that we take,
42:33they're going to go back to our families
42:35and we're going to have a responsibility
42:37to the things that we're learning together.
42:39As we leave Treaty 4,
42:41despite the fact that it's such a dark history
42:44that exists through the education system,
42:47there is a sense of hope.
42:49I look at the First Nations University
42:50and you see people learning their culture again
42:54and integrating the culture into their education.
42:58We're continuing our treaty journey
43:02and we're going to go to Treaty 5
43:04and understand how food impacts a people,
43:07how food systems, food sovereignty,
43:10matters to the treaties.
43:12I look Nomazana,
43:26I look at their own communities in particular.
43:31I look at the point of timeOkayva Haruptow,
43:33where they can't discuss their circumstances,
43:35nerede a people in their room,
43:37the grandparents at that time.
Comments