Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Jennifer Bone said in a statement Tuesday that the First Nation has identified 104 potential graves in three cemeteries, but only 78 are accountable through historical records.
In collaboration with Sioux Valley Dakota Nation (SVDN), researchers from Simon Fraser University, Brandon University and the University of Windsor are.
Brandon Sun By: Michele LeTourneau, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Posted:
A petition calling for amendments to the Sioux Valley Dakota Oyate constitution is currently in circulation.
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The petition calls for the elected chief to have fewer powers.
The petition that is being circulated calling for fewer powers for the elected chief. (Submitted) We will not give the chief of the community sole authority and vetoing power over operational decisions made by elected council members, the petition states. The current climate has raised an awareness of how the constitution was originally passed and we need legal interpretation on how valid the constitution was, when band members were paid $20 to vote and there are no voting records on file.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation borders the heavily travelled Trans-Canada Highway in western Manitoba, yet the community held back waves of COVID-19 cases that swept the area last year.
In the opposite corner of the province, Shamattawa First Nation, a remote fly-in community in northeastern Manitoba, had an outbreak so severe that the Canadian military was flown in to help after one-third of the 1,500 residents were infected.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
COVID-19 checkstops on the roads into Peguis FN only allowing residents and essential workers in.
How the two communities, situated 900 kilometres apart, have been impacted by the pandemic speaks to the complexity of COVID-19, and the dramatic variabilities among the 63 reserves in Manitoba.