Sioux Valley candidates share concerns

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This article was published 12/10/2023 (750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Housing in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation has reached a crisis situation, Vince Tacan — who previously served as chief of the community and is running for the position again — said during Wednesday night’s candidates forum.

“We have a lot of young people that are feeling disenfranchised from the community. They don’t know if they belong. They don’t know if they’re ever going to get a house,” Tacan said at the forum held in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, located 50 kilometres northwest of Brandon.

Many houses on the First Nation need to be renovated due to poor and/or unsafe living conditions, Tacan said.

“There’s kids living in mouldy houses, with asthma. There’s overcrowding.”

Tacan says drugs have also become a big problem in Sioux Valley, with meth mixed with heroin entering the community. It’s one of many issues facing young people on the reserve, he said, along with violence.

“We need more input from [the youth]. We need to have them involved, we need to put a committee of youth together and get their thoughts, their ideas,” he said.

Important positions in the community are being filled by people who are not band members, Tacan said, which goes against the principles of self-governance.

“Self-government was to educate ourselves, educate our people, educate our young kids, so they could take over those roles, not sit in the back,” he said.

A lack of treatment services for young people who are becoming parents is also affecting the community negatively, Tacan said. He believes that Indigenous people aren’t a priority when seeking treatment outside of their home communities, making it even more important to bring treatment facilities home.

“We need to build our own treatment facilities. We need jobs. We need houses. We need a fair allocation of those things to our people, and we need to find a way to get our people working,” he said.

Current Sioux Valley Chief Jennifer Bone said her government has worked toward establishing its governance structure, creating new departments to ensure the best services are provided to the community.

“We have a team that works for the best interest of our community, and yes, we have a mixture of community members and non-members. It’s been a challenge to fill some positions in different areas, which is why we have committed to training our own people and working to develop a long-term plan to address the training and employment needs here in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.”

An agreement has been negotiated with Assiniboine Community College to bring an accredited training centre to the community, Bone announced.

Bone said she is proud of the work she and her council members have done on Bill C-92, an amendment to Sioux Valley’s self-governance agreement that will allow council to provide a full scope of services to its members under Child and Family Services (CFS).

Bill C-92: An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, which came into effect in 2020. The legislation was co-developed with Indigenous, provincial and territorial partners with the goal of keeping Indigenous children and youth connected to their families, communities and culture. Under the bill, Indigenous communities and groups can develop policies and laws based on their particular histories, cultures and circumstances to implement and enforce unique policies.

“As most of you are aware, we were able to receive our own interprovincial mandate last July of 2022,” Bone said. Since then, Dakota Tiwahe Services has provided CFS to Sioux Valley members and Dakota families both on- and off-reserve across Manitoba.

A day treatment healing program established last year will also be expanded if Bone is re-elected as chief, she said.

“We have plans to expand on that to ensure that there is wraparound service for our most vulnerable people here in the community.”

Intergenerational healing is crucial for building stronger connections between generations, Bone said.

“By acknowledging the past, fostering understanding and having empathy, we can heal our community and bridge the divide,” she said. “We want to create a future where love, respect and healing are passed down through generations.”

Former chief Katherine Whitecloud, who is also running in this election, is concerned that 20 of the articles in Sioux Valley’s governance agreement have not been implemented.

“A lot of that has to do with the fact that we ourselves can’t agree on … who is going to provide guidance to elected council, who is going to provide direction and oversight,” she said.

Whitecloud agreed that young people need more of a say in what goes on in the Sioux Valley community, and that she will provide them with those opportunities.

“The most important resource that we have as people … is human resources,” she said. “And that’s our young people.”

Retaining young people from the community to get into post-secondary education and careers, and to come back to the community, should be top priority for chief and council, Whitecloud said.

“It’s not difficult, but there isn’t a plan there that identifies how we can put that plan together so we can help our own young people,” she said. “That’s all we want to do.”

Other things the First Nation needs is a strategic plan focusing on economic development, collaboration with other communities, Whitecloud said. Chief and council should also operate under a more heightened sense of transparency and accountability.

The election in Sioux Valley will be held on Oct. 19.

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