A Calgary lawyer says the government of Sir John A. MacDonald withheld treaty payments to Saskatchewan First Nations in the late 19th century as part of a strategy to subjugate them.
Ron Maurice represents the Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation in a statement of claim which accuses the federal government of unfairly withholding treaty annuities from 14 First Nations between 1885 and 1889.
The MacDonald government claimed at the time the treaty annuities were suspended to all members of each of the bands for alleged participation in the Riel rebellion.
However Maurice says First Nations people played almost no role in the Métis rebellion.
“Most of the historians and scholars who have reviewed that particular period of history are all of the same view that it was really Riel’s rebellion, that any involvement of the Indians was sporadic at best and fairly isolated to a couple of events,” he says.
He also says the federal government’s real motive behind the annuity suspensions was an attempt to further dominate the bands.
“This relates to the unilateral decision by the Crown to declare these bands to be disloyal so that they could usher in a whole bunch of different policies and measures that were really designed to, what one author called it, to subjugate the Plains Cree people, to make them an administered people.”
In denying Beardy’s statement of claim, the federal government says any losses as a result of the suspension of treaty annuities would be owed to First Nations individuals who have long since passed.
However, Maurice says the affected First Nations suffered for many years collectively as a result of the MacDonald government’s decision.
The statement of claim was initially filed in 2001.
The affected First Nations are part of the Treaty 6 territory.
A specific claims tribunal hearing on the issue is taking place in Saskatoon this week.
