COTE FIRST NATION — “Being on Treaty 4 land, we love this land. We honour this land. It’s given us a lot,” said Cote First Nation Councillor Lambert ‘Frenchie’ Cote. “The land is pure”.
Cote First Nation held an event honouring Treaty Day at the Chief Gabriel Cote Education Complex on May 28. It was Chief Gabriel Cote who signed Treaty 4 on behalf of the First Nation in 1874 at Fort Qu’Appelle.
“He was our spokesman, Frenchie said, “but he balked at the signing. ‘No good’, he said, ‘I’m not signing’. So they [the Crown] waited for him to come, finally he came to sign it. He was the last one.”
The terms of Treaty 4 included a provision giving each First Nations individual $5 annually, said Frenchie, “every year we put this on for our people [in remembrance of the signing].”
Treaty 4 territory spans the area around Swan River in Manitoba, most of southern Saskatchewan, and part of southeastern Alberta. The Crown promised that the terms of Treaty 4 would hold “as long as the sun shines and water flows.” It remains the territory of the Cree and Saulteaux people, and the ancestral home of the Metis.
“We gave up all of our land”, said Frenchie, “for farmers, I guess you could say the white man”.
All the agriculture, industry and commerce on Treaty 4 land, Frenchie said, are dependent on the terms of the Treaty for the “big bucks” that they make.
The site of the current Cote First Nation reservation was chosen by Chief Gabriel Cote in 1877.
Saulteaux Elder George ‘Moose’ Keewatin, recalled the honouring Treaty 4 at Cote First Nation.
“Treaty Day used to be quite a thing. That was a special day of the year, Treaty Day. Everybody came here, they played cards, had games, everything. Kept everybody busy”
Keewatin got his nickname from his grandfather, on account of being tall and lanky. His older brother was nicknamed “Trout”.
“I grew up in Cote, born in Cote out in the bush”, said Keewatin. Keewatin explained that he “lived by the bush and still lives by the bush… when we lived in the bush, there was nothing to do, just live, hunt, set snares” to catch rabbits. Back when he was younger, “deer were hard to come by. If you killed a deer that was a big kill. Now, people shoot deer like rabbits, they’re so plentiful.”
“We’re still here, as Cote First Nation,” Frenchie said. “We’re going to continue to thrive.”
