Red Earth Cree Nation

The RECN is situated east towards the Manitoba border, about 150 miles from the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It has a population of over 2,000 members. RECN are a sovereign Cree people.

RECN shares their ancestral lands with Shoal Lake Cree Nation, and traditional economy is still being practiced. The sustenance and subsistence of fishing, hunting, gathering, and trapping, are common and help maintain their harmonious relationship with the land and land resources throughout their ancestral and traditional territory.Footnote 5

Although colonialism has imposed itself upon RECN governance, the traditional mandate upon the chiefs and councils, past and present, has essentially remained unchanged. The goal of RECN’s people is forever the advancement of an autonomous First Nation government. As articulated by Ian McKay, RECN government is “a responsible government that serves the needs and aspirations of its people effectively and efficiently.”Footnote 6

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Calls to Action 50Footnote 7 bolsters RECN’s goals by compelling the funding of Indigenous law institutes “for the development, use, and understanding of Indigenous laws and access to justice in accordance with the unique cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.”

The Government of Canada has since committed to walking the shared path of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, focussing on renewed relationships. This commitment is reflected in the “10 Principles”Footnote 8 of Respecting the Government of Canada’s Relationship with Indigenous peoples’ policy and, most recently, the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ActFootnote 9 within our shared territories now known as Canada. Funding has also been committed for the purpose of revitalizing and acknowledging the inherent legal systems and traditions of Indigenous nations.Footnote 10 The people of RECN want to have better, do better for themselves, by themselves. What they do not want, or need are restrictions on their inherent rights. That is, anything restored on RECN territory for the land, for the people, must necessarily be developed by the First Nation; it cannot be developed for the First Nation. Because “for” indicates a removal of authority, a removal of necessary intricacies and inclusion.

Recognition of the inherent jurisdiction and legal orders of Indigenous nations is therefore the starting point of discussions aimed at interactions between federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous jurisdictions and laws.Footnote 11

To date, RECN has enacted several pieces of legislation. RECN legislation is developed at the grassroots level, in accordance with traditional law-making protocol. The Red Earth Cree Nation ConventionFootnote 12 speaks to the structure of the RECN government and how it is implemented. From that Convention, specific systems of government begin to emerge, such as the Red Earth Cree First Nation Election Act. This includes an organizational structure of RECN, which illustrates the RECN governance model and structure.

It speaks about how the political structure of the Red Earth Cree Nation government will begin to operate under systems, leadership selection systems, that will basically govern how the Red Earth people see themselves governing their lands; how the Red Earth people see governing themselves as a people; how they see themselves governing themselves and their programs and services; and how the people of Red Earth see those laws being enforced. Then we address the system based on First Nations law.Footnote 13

The Red Earth Cree Nation Convention begins with a declaration of their inherent authority, “Whereas God, our Creator put us here as first people.” That statement reflects the inherent right and treaty rights of the people of the RECN bestowed upon them by their own belief system. Importantly, an inherent right, when properly recognized and affirmed, cannot be granted, delegated, or bestowed by any other state or power but the RECN people themselves. RECN, as a people, confirm their inherent and treaty right to govern themselves under their own system of law.

(…) the undersigned Chiefs, on their own behalf and of those of their bands would maintain peace and good order between each other, and also between themselves and other Tribes of Indians, and between themselves and others of Her Majesty’s subjects, whether Indians or whites, now inhabiting or hereafter to inhabit any part of the said ceded tracts, and that they will not molest the person or property of any inhabitant of such ceded tracts, or the property of Her Majesty the Queen, or interfere or trouble any person passing or travelling through the said tracts, or any part thereof; and that they will aid and assist the officers of Her Majesty in bringing to justice and punishment any Indian offending against the stipulations of this treaty, or infringing the laws in force in the country so ceded.Footnote 14

Foremostly, the above clause of the Treaty can only have been made between nations. Had the RECN been subjects of the Queen there would have been no need to make treaty. Thus, the Treaty wholly represents that nations make treaty and treaties do not make nations. Further, the Treaty represents the recognized and acknowledged sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples and an exchange of goods and services, in this case primarily land, peaceful relations and co-existence in exchange for a fair share, honour between nations and confidence that the Queen will not allow her people to encroach on Indigenous territory. As is understood in the treaty non-molestation clause and through traditional law practices, RECN respects that their laws are designed for them and do not propose, intend, suggest, or impose any of their systems, their traditions, their systems of government on any other nation. Respect, therefore, is one of the foundational principles of all RECN laws.