Abolish the Indian Act

by Craig Blacksmith, Dakota Oyate Knowledge Keeper

In 1890, a group of 25 families saw what was happening around them with the land and recognized that in order for them to live with this new system that Canada had made, they would need their own land base.

These 25 families pooled their money together and bought the land they were living on. This was known as the Sioux Village. The cemetery is still located at that location south of the portage la prairie by-pass.

If we take the time to think about this, our Dakota people were the first to purchase their own property. We purchased while the Indians were being given land reserves as part of the terms of their surrender treaty. The real refugees, the Wasicu, were being given land for free.

Fast forward to March 20, 1911, the town of Portage la Prairie’s mayor and council pass a motion asking the federal government to relocate the “Indians” due to their drunkenness and immorality, and that the children have nothing to do after school.

This motion is a lie. We have the Indian agent annual reports of the conduct of our Dakota people during that time and that type of behaviour was against our way of life.

There were “Indians” who may have been drunk and immoral, but they were not from our “Sioux village.”

Today, in 2025, the federal government, the provincial government, and the Wasicu in general want “Indians” to take care of themselves.

Our Dakota people were Independent. We have the government’s own Indian agent letters to prove this.

If we are to conduct business in Canada or the province of Manitoba, then we need to do it as “people” and not as “Indians”.

How do we do this? We register a business entity, a corporation.

This corporation is authorized to conduct business on behalf of our Dakota people regardless of residence on or off reserve, in province or out of province, in Canada or out of Canada.

Now the question is, how do we get authorization from the Oyate to do this?

The Indian Act governs the Indian reserves regardless of who lives on them. This is where “Chief and Council” comes from, and as we can see, it does not work.

The Premier of Manitoba was willing to license a casino for our Dakota people but the “Chief and Councils” just cannot work together.

We still have that opportunity but in order to work together, we have to conduct ourselves as people and not this ridiculous “Indian”.

Let’s imagine a foreign government or a wealthy donor willing to assist us and wanted to donate money to our cause. Who or what would they write the cheque to? We need a Dakota business entity to register a bank account and hire an independent accounting firm.

So who is “we”?

“We” are the Dakota Oyate who believe we are Dakota.

There is an opportunity for us to have a casino and other businesses, but we have to do what our Dakota people did in 1890, and that is to work together.

We are Dakota Oyate.

It’s time to show the world who we are and what we are capable of.

If anyone wants to see the history, maybe we can have a start up meeting to show our research.

And…if we were to register a business corporation, what would be name it?

We can do this. We did it before.

If Canada is sincere with its apology, then it is up to us to follow through.