An announcement was made Monday about a historic framework agreement for a Whitecap Dakota First Nation treaty with the nation of Canada. Whitecap is located just south of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Dakota Tipi First Nation Chief Keith Pashe says what Whitecap's doing lacks cooperation with all Dakota peoples, leaving his community out in the cold. Pashe says Whitecap should be working together with all Dakota reserves.

"If we don't work together and stick together, then they're just going to nit-pick us," explains Pashe. "Get your acts together, Carolyn Bennett and Darcy Bear (chief of Whitecap Dakota Tipi First Nation), and whoever else cuts a deal with Canada -- get your acts together. Right along the line, they owe us all. We should move together as a team and not single-handedly."

He notes if the country's meeting with them, then it has to meet with Dakota Tipi as well. He explains he's meeting with Canadian representatives Tuesday and is raising this issue, adding he wants his community onboard.

The Dakotas have been meeting with Canadian officials for many years since the other First Nations signed treaties with our country. Pashe says lack of a treaty with his people left the government out of many dealings with the Dakotas that other First Nations have been enjoying for years. He notes treaty land entitlement and several forms of funding are only offered to those first nations who signed a treaty, such as the Ojibway and Cree. Pashe says all these first nations experienced the same ill treatment as the Dakotas when colonization first began. He explains their children need to move into mainstream society by way of education, and it's been extremely difficult with the disparity between cultures. And with lack of a treaty, and inability to receive the same benefits treaty first nations have enjoyed makes it that much more difficult for the Dakotas.

Pashe says Canada stated its not obligated to work with the Dakotas due to this lack of treaty. Proposals offered by the First Nation were rejected for the same reason. Pashe notes the government informed them they want to help them economically, indicating at least something. But he says when he looks at Whitecap Dakota First Nation, a wealthy community with a large casino, along with a great situation off the highway near Saskatoon, knowing they met with Canada and formulated their own deal toward a treaty, it frustrates him to see lack of cooperation with his community and other Dakota communities.

He promises to make an agreement happen with the country if something can be initiated with his community. Pashe says Whitecap isn't the only Dakota community in Canada. He says Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were Lakota chiefs, related to the Dakotas, and Seven campfires of the Sioux nation, who fought for their people as a whole, and urges Bear to remember them. Pashe adds all of them were colonized like the other First Nations.

Pashe says the meeting today with chiefs in Winnipeg Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. and then with the Canadian representatives at 1:30 p.m.