The Office of the Treaty Commissioner is taking a look back at what was a busy 2022.
Treaty Commissioner Mary Culbertson said the construction of signs along Highway 11 marking Treaty Four and Treaty Six Territory was a big event for the office and also marked a first for the province.
“It’s probably the first government funded signs in Saskatchewan that have Indigenous languages on them and acknowledgement of Treaty land,” she said.
Getting the signs put up along Highway 11 was a process which took the Treaty Commissioner’s Office two years. Culbertson added the office is going to continue to work to get signage up on other major highways in Saskatchewan as well.
Culbertson explained some nations have themselves worked to put up signs to mark their territory.
“We have Treaty Five and Cumberland House, Red Earth, where they’ve put up their Treaty territorial signs,” she said.
2022 also saw the Treaty Commissioner’s Office grow its archives. Culbertson said the office has acquired records from the Saskatchewan Lung Association, which was previously the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League.
She said the anti tuberculosis league was responsible for running sanatoriums which many First Nations people attended.
“Sask. Lung Association has a plethora of tuberculosis records,” she said.
These records include a range of documents including photographs and documents. Culbertson said the organization got in contact with the Treaty Commissioner’s Office, and told the office about the documents.
“They had all of these materials and they didn’t know how to properly educate with them or what to do with them,” she said.
Along with adding more documentation, Culbertson said work is also being done to digitize the records, so they are more easily available in the future.
The appointment of a special interlocutor for unmarked graves was another important event for the office as well. The mass stabbing on James Smith Cree Nation was something which impacted the office and also showed the need to provide further supports for First Nations.
“We mourned with our James Smith community and the family of the man who was killed in Weldon,” said Culbertson.
Looking forward Culbertson said she sees some major issues on the horizon, one being the Saskatchewan First Act. Culbertson sees the legislation as being problematic as it speaks about the province being a nation.
“The provinces are created after the nations of these territories entered into treaty in the right of Canada at the time, so there is no such thing as the provinces being nations,” she said.
The Treaty Commissioner as well stressed there is still overall much work to be done in regards to dealing with the legacy of the residential school system. She added the coming to light of unmarked graves is further proof of how damaging the schools were to people and communities.
“We are still much affected in our communities by this legacy, a legacy we did not want to inherit and that all stems from the spirit first broken treaty promise of a treaty right to education,”
(Treaty Commissioner Mary Culbertson: Photo Courtesy of Twitter.)