The Bearspaw First Nation (Îyârhe Nakoda) says it’s time for the federal government to pay what’s fair.
In 1877, the Canadian government signed Treaty 7 with five First Nations in southwestern Alberta – the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Tsuut’ina and Stoney-Nakoda.
The Bearspaw are a Nakoda people whose territory lies in the foothills between Calgary and Canmore. By the terms of the 1877 treaty, each member of the five First Nations received an annual payment of $5.
That amount hasn’t changed in the 150 years since the ink dried on the treaty. But inflation sure has. Something that cost $5 in 1877 costs around $150 today.
Bad Faith
On Nov. 25, the Bearspaw First Nation filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government seeking more than $1 billion in damages for failing to adjust these payments “on an ongoing basis.”
“Generations of First Nations citizens within Treaty No. 7 have waited far too long for the Crown, as our Treaty partner, to properly honour its promises and commitments,” said Bearspaw First Nation Chief Darcy Dixon in a media statement. “Our living Treaty is an agreement between First Nations and the Crown that is intended to create harmonious relations and mutual benefit. Canada has forgotten and ignored its obligations.”
Shawn Scarcello is a lawyer with the Winnipeg-based law firm Cochrane Sinclair LLP, which represents the Bearspaw First Nation. In an interview with the Calgary Herald, he asked, “What would you negotiate today?”
“Knowing how rich Canada is, one of the richest countries in the world, (and) how poor so many First Nations are,” Scarcello said. “The concept of a modern treaty . . . $5,000 to $7,000 a year, per person.”
Terms of Treaty 7
When Treaty 7 was signed in 1877, the participating First Nations agreed to hand over 130,000 square kilometres of territory to the federal government. The land stretched from the Rocky Mountains in the west to Cypress Hills in the east, the Red Deer River in the north, and the U.S. border in the south.
In exchange, each of the five Nations received 2.59 square kilometres of reserve land per family of five.
Every man, woman, and child received a one-time payment of $12. Chiefs received annual payments of $25, minor chiefs and councillors received $15, and everyone else received $5. All chiefs received a Winchester rifle, while head chiefs and Stoney chiefs received a medal and flag to commemorate the treaty.
In addition, the government paid the salaries of on-reserve teachers and distributed $2,000 worth of ammunition every year. Finally, Treaty 7 families were given cows and tools depending on their size.
Raw Deal
It wasn’t long before hard reality set in and it became clear that the federal government had negotiated in bad faith.
First Nations did not realize they were surrendering their land and way of life.
For the most part the treaty left them impoverished and struggling to adapt to a farming lifestyle on Indian reservation lands. Just two years after the treaty was signed, a local Catholic priest described a grim situation in a letter to David Laird, one of the government’s treaty commissioners.
“I have never seen them so depressed as they are now; I have never seen them before in want of food… They have suffered fearfully from hunger,” he wrote
A Strong Case
Lawyer Shawn Scarcello believes the Treaty 7 nations have a slam-dunk case.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada and Ontario had breached their treaty obligations to First Nations under the 1850 Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior Treaties. The decision will cost the feds and Ontario a combined $10 billion in damages, which will be awarded to the impacted First Nations.
“(It) doesn’t take someone to do a lot of research into whether or not getting $5 a year is a fair deal,” Scarcello said.
