Sagkeeng First Nation

The Sagkeeng First Nation is an Anishinaabe First Nation which holds territory east of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada 145 kilometers north of Winnipeg coordinates: 50°36′32″N 96°17′44″W. The Sagkeeng people are direct descendants of the Anishinabe tribes that migrated from the Ontario Sault Ste. Marie area during the 1700's. Sagkeeng, which was once called Fort Alexander, has a total population of approximately 7,600 registered band members with more than 1/2 of members living off reserve. The name "Sagkeeng" is derived from the Ojibwe word zaagiing meaning "at the outlet". The Reserve is located on both North and South shores "at the outlet" of the Winnipeg River and lies adjacent to the northern border of the Rural Municipality of Alexander, which also borders the Town of Powerview-Pine Falls. The territory of Sagkeeng/Fort Alexander Reserve #3 originally, was to have commenced one mile upstream from the Fort Alexander trading post occupied by the Hudson’s Bay Company. INAC files indicate the Chief and Council requested it be moved to its present location. Had the boundaries not been moved the eastern boundary would have taken in all of Powerview and St. George. The Manitoba Hydro Generating Station would also have been within this boundary.

There is a long history of the Anishinaabe people and white explorers/traders in the area. In 1732 during the fur trading era La Vérendrye's built a trading post on the north side of the river, calling it Fort Maurepas north of Selkirk, Manitoba Later, in 1792 the North West Company built a post on the south side of the River near Lake Winnipeg sometimes called Fort Bas de la Rivière. In 1807, the Hudson Bay Company built Fort Alexander to facilitate trade with the natives in the area. The Fort was named after Alexander Mackay a Northwest Company partner. This then became the site of Fort Alexander when the North West Company and the Hudson Bay Company merged

Recently of note is dance group Sagkeeng's Finest, winners of the first season of Canada's Got Talent.[1][2][3]

Treaty

Kakakepenaise (Gekeki-binesi, "Hawk-bird", a.k.a. William Mann I) signed Treaty 1 on behalf of the Sagkeeng people in 1871.[4] Although Sagkeeng is a Treaty 1 nation, it is a member of the Grand Council of Treaty 3 which means it belongs to 3 treaty territories.

Community Elders speak about "five original families" at the signing of the treaty. Other families were mixed-blood Metis (French and Anishinaabe) who became part of the Treaty three years after the original signing. For several decades, the competing Catholic and Anglican churches caused division between the mixed families (Catholic) and the original Treaty families (Anglican). The residential school system left a lasting (to this day) legacy of pain and suffering among the Anishinaabe people. Today the churches have less influence in the community, the former rivalries between the full-blooded and mixed-blooded families have mostly been forgotten, and the community has embraced their Anishinaabe heritage and are continuing to heal from the legacy of the residential school system. The Canadian Government owned up to the wrong doings of the residential schools systems and paid monies to the Anishinaabe peoples who were forced to attend these schools.


Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation Scandal

On October 18, 2000, Canadian Press organization reported that the Director of the Foundation, Perry Fontaine and 74 other persons attended a cruise to the Caribbean that was termed a "Staff Retreat". The cost of this trip was reported later to be over 135,000 dollars. Health Canada eventually investigated the financial books of the Center and found massive fraud and kickback schemes.

Sagkeeng First Nation now hosts a family treatment centre, the Sagkeeng Mino Pimatiziwin Family Treatment Centre. The program has been successfully running for a few years.

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Coordinates: 50°36′23″N 96°17′38″W / 50.60639°N 96.29389°W / 50.60639; -96.29389

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