SADDLE LAKE – “We need to come together as a collective group of people,” said Dale Steinhauer, Saddle Lake’s newly elected chief, speaking of her vision for the Saddle Lake Cree Nation.
Unity has always been a vision among Saddle Lake’s leaders, because it is unity that will allow the Nation to face the challenges now and into the future, she told Lakeland This Week.
Those challenges include understanding treaty rights; underfunding; intergenerational trauma; and education reform.
International treaty
Understanding treaty rights is particularly crucial. “That’s our biggest challenge. People don't know who we are,” she said. “We fall under the international treaty,” she added, referring to early agreements between European powers and Indigenous nations.
For example, she said the Royal Proclamation of 1763, issued by King George III, was intended to respect First Nation lands, but also to halt the widespread killing of Indigenous people.
The Proclamation recognized Indigenous peoples as sovereign nations and their rights to their lands, she explained.
But later on, the Crown negotiate numbered treaties with Indigenous nations across what is now Canada. Treaty 1 was signed in 1871, followed by others, including Treaty 6 in 1876, which now covers much of present-day Alberta.
She argued these numbered treaties were designed to replace or erase the power of the earlier international treaty, and believes the treaties were written to imply land was ceded or surrendered, which she strongly disputes.
“At no time was this land surrendered . . . [or] ceded,” she said. “We are the rightful owners of this land.”
Steinhauer also criticized how treaty obligations, especially in health and education, are now being downloaded from the federal government to the provinces, leading to greater provincial interference and underfunding.
Bill 54
She also expressed concerns about Bill 5 in Ontario and Bill 54 in Alberta. Both, she said, target the rights and jurisdictions of Indigenous communities.
Bill 54 makes it easier for the public to start a referendum on any major political issues, such as health and education, and possibly voting to separate from Canada.
Non-Indigenous voters could influence decisions on these core areas like health, education, or childcare, which are protected by Treaty rights.
First Nations did not sign Treaties with Alberta, and Bill 54 will undermine the legal relationship First Nations actually have, which is a direct agreement with the Crown, said Steinhauer.
“As Indigenous people of these lands, we cannot allow those bills to be passed,” she said.
Reclaiming culture, language, and pride
Steinhauer also plans to improve the Indigenous education system, which integrates land-based learning and Alberta’s curriculum to better reconnect youth with their culture.
Children, who are very susceptible to their environment, come to believe what they are taught. And when residential schools were still active, Steinhauer said children were taught to be ashamed of their language and who they were.
“They came out feeling very shamed,” she said. “They were ashamed of their parents... their language... their identity – because that was taught to them every day.”
“It was drilled in them every day and when you tell a child this, especially a three- or four-year-old... they come to believe that,” and that is when the disconnection from culture begins, said Steinhauer.
“We need to interrupt that colonial footprint,” she said, because through colonization, "that idea of someone else is better than us” also began. “There was a mentality back then that the only good Indian is a dead Indian [and] kill the Indian in the child.”
There is also that lack of historical references recognizing how First Nations people in the past helped settlers, missionaries, and explorers.
“Our people didn't get acknowledged in the history books for saving their lives, for helping them learn how to trap, for providing them furs, and for helping them find food. Our people never got that recognition in the Canadian narrative. Never,” she said.
“It was all about the savage who lived here,” she said.
So, as leaders of Saddle Lake, “That’s what we’re doing here,” she added, explaining leadership must bring hope to the people, help people understand their history, and help understand why First Nations people are living in “oppressive situations.”
Third world conditions
“Why are we living in third world conditions when we're the owners of this land?” questioned Steinhauer, like sub-standard housing or unpaved roads.
She acknowledged things are improving, and she is confident conditions will only continue to get better, but more work needs to be done.
"People believe that taxpayers fund us. They don’t,” she said. First Nations are not living off handouts, she explained. Much of the money meant for them comes from Indian trust moneys, funded through resources acquired from First Nations territory and not Canadian taxpayers.
But those funds are still controlled by Ottawa, not by the Nations they belong to.
Money that trickles down are also often mismanaged and filtered through layers of bureaucracy, as funding is passed through intermediaries, and not directly to First Nations, she said.
She also pointed to the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Agreement, where the federal government handed control of land and resources, like forests, minerals, water, and oil, to Alberta without consulting First Nations.
“It eliminated us from the formula,” she said. “We are the original people of the land, but now the feds and the province claim the forestry, the waters, and the mountains.”
Steinhauer explained that under Treaty 6, the understanding was that Indigenous nations would share the land only “to the depth of the plow”, just enough to farm, but not acquire the rich resources below the ground. “Anything under the ground, like the diamonds and the oil and the minerals – that was never part of the agreement,” she said.
With Alberta now controlling those resources and keeping the profits, Steinhauer said the province has grown rich while many First Nations still live in poor conditions. “This province is so rich with natural resources,” she said, “and we’re still underfunded.”
Why not become a municipality?
She said there is also an idea floating around that Saddle Lake should become a municipality, which she strongly opposes.
In a municipality, the people do not own their lands. “You’d be on your own if you took a loan out on your house, and if you couldn’t pay, the bank could take it,” she said.
She warned that if Saddle Lake becomes a municipality, it will be categorized as a “checkerboard reserve”, which is a term used, particularly in the United States, to describe reserves where large portions of land have been sold off or claimed by non-Indigenous interests due to mortgage defaults or unclear title.
Growth
Instead, Steinhauer believes in leveraging Saddle Lake’s land for its own growth.
For example, she said the Nation owns land south of St. Bride’s and sees potential for major development.
“There’s nothing stopping us from having a Walmart. Nothing stopping us from having a Tony Roma’s,” she said. “We could put a casino there [or] we could put a resort there.”
The idea is that Saddle Lake has great potential for growth, and Steinhauer believes it is only a matter of reclaiming what was always theirs, not just land, but agency, because everything the Nation needs to thrive is already here.
“Our power of language, our connection to the land, our ceremonies, [and] our families need to be strong,” she said. “It's time to decolonize and it's time to take our power back.”
