Health care is a right that has been steadily eroded and integrated into the mainstream health system. 

Saskatoon StarPhoenix: Our relationship with the federal and provincial governments is under threat even though our treaty rights are recognized in the Canadian constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that has been recognized by Parliament.

There is a long history of governments failing to recognize our rights or outright attempts to erase them. The 1969 white paper on Indian policy, the detribalization policy and subsequent government policies are all attempts to get rid of our special status within Canada.

Health care is a right that has been steadily eroded and integrated into the mainstream health system. At one time there were two Indian hospitals in Saskatchewan, one in North Battleford and the other in Fort Qu’Appelle.

The larger Charles Camsell hospital in Edmonton served Indigenous people from Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. The only remaining hospital today is the Fort Qu’Appelle hospital, and it only exists because the southern chiefs fought for a new one when the former hospital was closed.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations has requested that the First Nations be included in the health-care transfer funding talks planned for later this month. The reason is clear: we have a treaty right to health and we need to have it implemented in our favour.

When the treaties were signed, the chiefs were very concerned about the health of their people. The plagues and loss of the buffalo food source had a devastating effect on our people. It was largely because our people were suffering that the chiefs agreed to meet with government officials and discuss a treaty. The chiefs negotiated a clause called the medicine chest clause and it was inserted into the treaty. This clause stated that a chest of medicines would be kept at the Indian agent’s house for the use and benefit of Indians.

Keep in mind two important points: first, the technology of the day; second, the treaties are regarded as living documents. The spirit and intent of the treaties is that as long as the newcomers used the land, we would be compensated with various rights outlined in the treaties.

Over time, the universal social programs have reflected many of the treaty rights. All Canadians have free access to education, health, income support and other social programs that were negotiated by our leaders more than a century and a half ago.

Public health in the 1870s was primitive, but in the following years hospitals would be built and conditions would improve greatly. Many diseases that meant certain death a century ago have routine treatment procedures today. I recall as a boy on the reserve when the nurse on staff with Indian Affairs made routine visits to our school and we received all our regular shots.

The result was a drop in tuberculosis and other diseases; smallpox disappeared altogether. The pathologies that persisted were gastrointestinal diseases and respiratory infections, which were a product of poor water, poor housing, and continuing poverty.

Today our population in Saskatchewan is more than 170,000, which is exceeded only by the cities of Saskatoon and Regina. We constitute a group that has the potential to develop our own health-care system.

We need another hospital that covers the north and central parts of the province. We need to develop our own herbal and spiritual approach to healing and we need culturally appropriate palliative care that allows our people to begin their journey to the spirit world in dignity.

We need to combine traditional healing with modern medicine.

Back in the 1970s, with the movement for Indian control of Indian education, our people realized that we couldn’t wait for government to do the right thing. We got rid of the boarding schools, developed on-reserve schools, and laid the foundation for the First Nations University of Canada and the Saskatchewan Indigenous Institute of Technologies.

Now we need to take control of our health care. We need a health-care system that takes our culture and traditions into consideration. We need to develop our health professionals and the infrastructure to assist our people in the best way possible.

This is why it’s so important that our people have input into the future of health care, and the provincial government just doesn’t get it.

Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.