Book explores a new age in Treaty relationships and First Nations land entitlement
- | March 23, 2015
The Office of the Treaty Commissioner is busy promoting a book about the largest negotiated land agreement in Saskatchewan history. The book is about the Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement (TLEFA) and righting historic wrongs resulting from dishonoring Treaties and land allocation.
“The Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement
became a watershed, a kind of living proof that the Treaties still meant
something, despite the attempts of church and state to erase that knowledge,”
writes Treaty Commissioner George L. Lafond in The Land is Everything: Treaty Land Entitlement.
Executive Director of the Office of the Treaty
Commissioner Harry Lafond acknowledges that the success of the Treaty Land
Entitlement story lies in the perseverance, leadership and vision of a diverse
group of people.
To succeed, Saskatchewan Chiefs, councilors, band
managers, consultants, historians and government officials came together “to ensure
the dreams of the Treaty signers would become a reality,” writes Lafond in the
book.
Just treatment for land became a reality with the 1992
signing of The Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement, under late Treaty
Commissioner Cliff Wright’s leadership and practical approach and the clear
vision of many Elders and politicians.
“It (TLEFA) is the trigger to a new age in the Treaty
relationship among the peoples of Saskatchewan. Today 1 million acres of land
has been purchased by First Nations under this agreement,” Lafond states.
Published by the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, The Land is Everything: Treaty Land
Entitlement provides a wide range of perspectives
on the complex history that led to the Treaty Land Entitlement Framework Agreement.
The TLEFA set out terms whereby 33 First Nations in Saskatchewan were able to
purchase land in fulfillment of a long-standing shortfall.
The book was
published by Tasha Hubbard and Marilyn Poitras. Hubbard is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of English at the University of Saskatchewan, and
is from the Peepeekisis First Nation. Poitras teaches at the College of Law at
the University of Saskatchewan, and is Michif from Southern Saskatchewan.