New Sioux Valley chief, Brandon mayor want to work with campground owner on residential-school site access

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This article was published 31/10/2023 (728 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The new chief of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation wants to work with the City of Brandon and the owner of Turtle Crossing Campground to search for the remains of children on the grounds of the former Brandon Indian Residential School, located along the Assiniboine River on Grand Valley Road.

Vince Tacan, who ousted incumbent chief Jennifer Bone in an Oct. 19 election, served as chief of the community six times in the past. One of the priorities he wants to focus on is searching the land where the former Brandon Indian Residential School operated — now Turtle Crossing Campground — for unmarked children’s burial sites.

Tacan met with Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett last Thursday to discuss this and other points of interest for both the City of Brandon and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, located about 50 kilometres west of the city.

“We had a pretty good meeting, which was initiated by the mayor. We were happy to have him in our community and discuss projects,” Tacan said.

At the meeting between the two leaders, Fawcett told Tacan that he had been in touch with Mark Kovatch, the owner of Turtle Crossing Campground, Tacan told the Sun.

“They may have had some positive discussions, but nothing concrete, so that is something that [Fawcett] was hoping that I and my council would re-engage with in the next little while,” he said. “We will probably have more of an in-depth discussion on that issue.”

The City of Brandon will continue to support Sioux Valley in this endeavour, Fawcett told the Sun, and will continue to work with Kovatch as well. In September, fencing was established around the known burial site with the City of Brandon’s help, he said.

“That’s been something that we’ve kind of taken a little bit on for the city’s end as well … working with the property owner over there,” Fawcett said. “We’ve had good discussions on what’s going on … and we’ll all continue to work together to make sure everybody is satisfied, for all parties involved.”

Earlier this month, representatives of Manitoba Indigenous groups urged the federal government to expropriate the land at Turtle Crossing Campground believed to contain unmarked burial sites for children who attended the residential school.

The request for expropriation came during a meeting with the federal Crown-Indigenous relations minister in the second week of October. On Oct. 16, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) said on its Facebook page that Grand Chief Garrison Settee, Norway House Cree Nation Chief Larson Anderson and Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias had met with federal Minister Gary Anandasangaree the previous Friday to discuss the matter of protecting burial sites of MKO citizens in the areas of former residential schools such as the former Brandon Indian Residential School. The post said the leaders asked the federal government to communicate with Manitoba’s new NDP government that Ottawa would contribute to the costs of the lands being expropriated.

Former Sioux Valley chief Jennifer Bone on Aug. 1 issued a joint statement with MKO criticizing the provincial government for not granting the site of the former Brandon Indian Residential School protection under the Heritage Resources Act. In September 2022, Bone had led a protest march to the campground after alleging Kovatch had denied access to the site so that other unmarked burial sites could be located.

Since 2012, Sioux Valley has been “leading the investigation” into unmarked graves at the former Brandon Indian Residential School, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) spokesperson Randy Legault-Rankin told the Sun in an email earlier this month.

Legault-Rankin said that under the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund, CIRNAC has been providing funding to Sioux Valley, including close to $1.4 million from 2022-23, to lead investigations into missing children at the Brandon school. The fund has also approved a proposal from MKO for more than $4 million between 2023 and 2025 to assist in providing technical and capacity support to communities at a regional level.

“Suspected and confirmed burial sites associated to the former Brandon Residential School are located on different pieces of land, including on what is now a privately owned campground,” he wrote. “CIRNAC officials are discussing possible solutions with the community, the municipality of Brandon, First Nation leadership in Manitoba, as well as with the Province of Manitoba, which oversees the Manitoba Heritage Resources Act.”

The Sun contacted Kovatch but did not receive a reply by press time.

» mleybourne@brandonsun.com, with files from Colin Slark

» X: @miraleybourne