Pegui's First Nation
The Peguis First Nation is with 10,260 approved members ( Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development , September 2018), the largest of the First Nations in the Canadian province of Manitoba . Their reserve is located about 190 km north of the provincial capital of Winnipeg and her are both Anishinabe and Cree .
history
Ethnogenesis
After British and French rifles came into the hands of the later Peguis in the 18th century, which were generally referred to as Chippewa (not to be confused with the Chipewyan who lived further north ), they moved westward from Lake Huron and forcibly displaced the Cheyenne and Hidatsa in Minnesota and North Dakota . The tribe settled in the Red River valley in the Parish of St. Peters north of today's city of Selkirk at the end of the 18th century. Saulteaux and Cree lived there, as did Métis and Weisse. When the latter first came to the area in 1812, the Peguis provided them with food. In 1817 Chief Peguis († 1864), who gave the tribe or First Nation its name, signed a contract with the settlers coming from Europe. He's with Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) born.
The parishes were created around 1870 . Peguis had the right to give land at the time Canada came into being. These land grants were recognized and Peguis' son and successor Mis koo kinew (Henry Prince), who succeeded his father in 1870 when Manitoba joined the Confederation, was entitled to do so.
Treaties with Canada
On August 3, 1871, Mis-Koo-Kinew signed the first of the Numbered Treaties Canada made with numerous tribes between 1871 and 1921. Mis-Koo-Kinew signed for the so-called “St. Peter's Band ”, as today's Peguis were called. Like all the undersigning nations, each Pequis family should be given an area of 160 acres . In addition, there was the land that had been given by the two chiefs, and which was considered private property under British-Canadian law. This was due to the text of the treaty, which stipulated that in the event that there were already settlers on the reserve land intended for the tribe, this should be left to them and other, equally large areas could be chosen in which the reservation law should apply.
Thus, in 1873, the St. Peter's Indian Reserve was created , although the conflicts over private and reserve land allocated by chiefs had not been resolved on the basis of the first of the numbered contracts . In 1885 and 1896 the Canadian government tried in vain to solve the problem through formal interviews. In 1906 a Royal Commission was set up, under the direction of the Chief Justice of the Manitoba Court of Appeal, to tackle the problem by trying to initiate the dissolution of the reservation. In a first vote, of which only a few knew, the representatives of the government could not prevail, but in a second many alleged Peguis appeared and the result, the cession of the territories, was recognized. The Peguis men present resisted in 1907 - but the tribe only had 75,000 acres of land left.
Land rights and compensations
In 1981 Louis J. Stevenson was elected chief. In 1987 he invited the South African Foreign Minister Glen Babb to visit. Interim he took over the post of Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (1987-1989). In 1998 Canada recognized the 1907 contract and cession of the reserve were null and void. In 2000, negotiations over land claims with Ottawa began again. In 2001, around 4,000 of the 7,124 Peguis lived outside the reserve.
On May 5, 2008, the leaders of the Peguis First Nation signed a treaty with the Canadian government covering land the tribe owned at Selkirk until 1907 . The tribe received $ 126,108,803 in compensation, a sum to be used for the community. The basis was the calculation of the value of the lost area and the reserve, plus the lost profits from the extraction of raw materials and from agriculture, as well as industrial use. The difference between the two income statements corresponded to the sum of the compensation to be paid. A trust, the Peguis Trust, was set up, the administration of which was to be independent from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development .
In 2008, Chief Glen Hudson, who has been in office since 2007, hit the headlines when the Taxpayers Union made public that he received an annual salary of more than $ 200,000 including travel expenses, with compensation from four of his advisors being even higher.
On June 12 and 13, 2009, 46% of those eligible to vote among the Peguis voted on the acceptance of the compensation agreement, which was thereby accepted. Each adult would receive $ 1,000, and the remaining $ 118 million would go to a trust. In 2011 the tribe had around 7,200 (own information) or in August 2011 exactly 8,955 members recognized by the state.
Reservations
The Peguis First Nation now has nine reserves: Peguis 1B to Peguis 1I and St. Peters Fishing Station 1A . The total area of the reserves is 30,655.7 ha or 306,557 km².
Floods from 2009 to 2011
Between 2009 and 2011, Peguis was hit by five floods. In 2011 the Fisher River overflowed its banks again, flooding significant parts of the reserve. Around 642 people had to leave their homes, 509 of them were living in hotels in Winnipeg in mid-April, 133 were taken in by relatives and friends in Peguis. The Manitoba government pledged pumps and other equipment and $ 1.5 million in funding. The Peguis and the Ebb and Flow First Nation sued Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government in May because of the diversions of the water masses that they believe had taken place at their expense, or the damage caused by them.
Peguis Publishers is a publishing company based in Winnipeg.
literature
- Yale Deron Belanger: Saulteaux land use within the Interlake Region of Manitoba, 1842-1871 , PhD, University of Manitoba 2000.
- Albert Edward Thompson: Chief Peguis and his descendants , Winnipeg 1973.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ Peguis , Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development
- ^ Thomas Flanagan: First Nations? Second Thoughts , McGill-Queen's University Press 2000, p. 18.
- ^ David Bell: Sharing our Success. Ten Case Studies in Aboriginal Schooling , 2004, p. 201.
- ↑ Manitoba native band finalizing largest-ever single compensation claim , CBC , May 23, 2008, archive.org, September 4, 2009.
- ↑ Peguis chief defends high salary , Taxpayers.com.
- ↑ Manitoba pledges aid for Peguis First Nation , CBC News, April 15, 2011.
- ^ First Nations suing Ottawa, Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro over spring flooding , in: Canadian Press, September 21, 2011.