Cities starting to realize results of true reconciliation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2024 (513 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Portage la Prairie city council recently apologized to Dakota Plains First Nation for their government’s role in the removal of community members from land they purchased during the early 19th century.

“It is a chapter that has left a lasting impact on the Dakota people and their ancestral lands,” Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox said on June 26, “one that demands our recognition, reflection and sincere apology.”

The people of Dakota Plains were moved multiple times before being relocated to their current home, two dozen kilometres away from the original purchase.

Forcible relocation is the experience of virtually every First Nation and Métis community in Manitoba — and it is consistently due to urbanization.

In many cases, Indigenous communities were forcibly removed out of cities due to urban growth and increasing settler demands for land.

This is the story of my community, Peguis First Nation near Selkirk (moved north to the Interlake in 1907), or the Métis community of Rooster Town, whose Winnipeg homes were destroyed by city officials in 1959 to make way for the Grant Park mall.

In other cases, Indigenous communities have been forcibly removed due to industrialization, land and resource projects such as hydroelectric dams and mines, and the destruction of hunting and fishing territories — efforts primarily intended to support jobs, incomes and needs of urban communities.

It’s the same story with Sayisi Dene, forcibly removed to Churchill in 1956 due to the loss of their livelihood after the arrival of rail lines or the 1962 removal of the Chemawawin Cree Nation to Easterville for the building of the Grand Rapids hydro dam.

This is not to mention the numerous First Nations who are today removed due to climate change and pollution — created primarily by urban development — and therefore disproportionately impacting communities with devastating forest fires or flooding.

Cities owe Indigenous communities far more than apologies, but it’s a start.

There’s been some remarkable steps by civic governments in Manitoba over the past few weeks.

Brandon announced this week a partnership with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to facilitate a range of services to “address the specific needs of urban First Nations individuals and families.”

The collaboration seeks to ensure that in areas of health, identity cards, housing, employment and economic development, Indigenous citizens will be considered and serviced with a culturally competent and consistent lens.

Portage La Prairie has been making more than apologies, too. Last March, city officials announced a partnership to share jurisdiction with the Portage Friendship Centre over a ceremonial space on Island Park.

The city now insures the area and supports those doing ceremonies in the area to do their work locally, instead of travelling for hours to go elsewhere.

My hometown (now city) of Selkirk is even in on the action, as council joined with the Manitoba Métis Federation and the municipality of St. Andrews in May to sign a memorandum of understanding to extend water and wastewater services in Selkirk to federation- owned land north of the city. The agreement is evidence that recognizing Indigenous nationhood, sovereignty and rights isn’t just jobs for the feds and provinces, but for municipal governments, too.

I’ve written several times about how much cities in Manitoba — and particularly the city of Winnipeg — have raised Indigenous flags, renamed city streets and parks for Indigenous names and leaders, and committed to accords that encourage private and public bodies to commit to reconciliation. All are small steps towards that goal.

Only in recent months, though, have these minor commitments started to come with real life and potentially long-lasting budgetary change.

In other words, actual reconciliation.

I’ve stated before that for decades cities were places that compromised and traumatized, indeed, ended, Indigenous lives.

In many ways, especially considering the problems embedded in civic services like policing, housing and the leaking of urban sewage into river systems that end up in Indigenous northern shorelines, this is still the case.

Flags, names and documents do little to change the lives of everyday people. Delivering essential and culturally appropriate services, sharing land and jurisdiction, and affirming nationhood and sovereignty does.

Municipal politicians are waking up to the fact that Indigenous success in cities is crucial to the success of all citizens.

Cities, in their rush to build corporate and capitalistic empires have ignored or, worse, contributed to the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. This has hampered city budgets, limited services and stilted civic growth in a multitude of ways.

With increasing amounts of Indigenous citizens arriving in or dependent on cities (1.09 million live in cities, a 11.5 per cent increase since 2016, Statistics Canada numbers show), Canadian civic politicians should realize what their Manitoba counterparts do: true, tangible reconciliation is the path of the future for urban spaces in Canada.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca