An area First Nation has launched an appeal against a Federal Court ruling it hopes will eventually lead to the righting of a wrong it maintains was perpetrated upon it a century ago.
The appeal by Peepeekisis First Nation asks the July 2012 decision brought down by Justice James Russell in which he ruled a compensation claim by the band was ineligible because of a statute of limitations be set aside.
Enoch Poitras, a Peepeekisis headman, says the band is seeking unspecified compensation of both land for which he says the band was shortchanged as well as monetary compensation for "genocide" which saw its language and customs damaged and destroyed by way of the federal government policy of assimilation.
What has complicated an already complicated situation, Poitras says, is the uniqueness of Peepeekisis' case, unique to the extent the federal government doesn't have a framework or process to deal with it.
"Peepeekisis is very unique. It's the (most unique) of claims anywhere - there's not another like it. (The government) doesn't have a process for it. I think that's why they're delaying it, they don't have a process for it."
The federal government maintains Peepeekisis' case was dealt with in 1956, Poitras says, but Justice Russell's decision puts that in doubt.
"In this ruling we got, even though we got beat on the statute of limitations, Judge Russell said (the opinion from the federal government that the issue had been dealt with) didn't apply to the Peepeekisis case and the case should be heard in the courts.
"That was his decision but because of the statute of limitations," Peepeekisis' case was dismissed, Poitras says.
The case, according to Peepeekisis, centres on the establishment by the government in the 1890s-early 1900s of what was known as the File Hills Farm Colony on reserve land.
The Farm Colony was the brainchild of an Indian agent named William Graham in which he brought out native graduates from industrial schools to farm plots on Peepeekisis land, according to Poitras. Those graduates weren't Peepeekisis band members and the federal government allotted land to them and moved original band members from lands they occupied, Poitras explains.
Poitras says the government of the day should have provided the graduates sent to Peepeekisis with Crown land. Under treaty the government designated a reserve about 40 square miles in size. A family of five was given one section - one square mile - as per treaty guidelines.
Peepeekisis has a population of about 2,500 so the federal government should provide land to reflect that number, Poitras says.
According to Peepeekisis, the Indian Specific Claims Commission has reviewed historical events and recommended Canada negotiate a settlement of the claim. The Commission's report states "the decision by the Crown to start a farming colony on the Peepeekisis reserve, followed by the placement on the reserve of graduates who were non-band members, the subdivision of reserve land for the colony, the allocation of subdivided lots to the graduates, the provision of special assistance to the graduates, and the procurement of membership in the Peepeekisis band for the graduates. It was, by all accounts, a unique experiment in Canadian history."
Peepeekisis maintains the Crown "could have avoided a serious breach of its lawful obligations by developing the farming colony on Crown land outside a reserve...
Instead it decided to save its resources by using the reserve of an unsuspecting band that was without leadership during the whole period... the Crown embarked on a series of illegal practices which has seriously infringed on the Peepeekisis Band's legal interest in its reserve and forever changed its identity as a band."
Poitras says the band attempted in 1956 to have the issue of band membership, land allotment and so on arising from the Farm Colony dealt with to its satisfaction, and the federal government felt the matter was adequately addressed. The statute of limitations, Poitras says, gave the band 10 years - until 1966 - to revisit the issue if it was unhappy with the 1956 arrangements.
The problems sparked by the Farm Colony continue today, Peepeekisis charges, and manifest themselves in overcrowding, lack of opportunities for members and ongoing distrust between members.
