Dakota Tipi First Nation's youth programs are growing in the community. Wesley Lake is the new land-based coordinator whose department focuses on the youth. 

"The youth are the ones that make the decisions around here," explains Lake. "We're just along for the help with whatever they need. They want to go canoeing, so we got them canoes and a trailer. They want to go hunting, so we put them through a PAL (Possessions Acquisitions License) course. Each and every harvester that we have here is certified and good to go into the fields. "

He notes it's obtaining their tickets to go out in the field actually using a firearm.

"They're very excited about that," continues Lake. "Every year is getting bigger and bigger. It's whatever they want, and we just focus on that."

Raidyn Prince is involved with the Youth Council and enjoys the programs offered to them. 

"We just get together and we talk about whatever's on the mind of the youth out there, get their voices heard, and make sure whatever they want to say gets spoken. At Youth Council, we plan stuff to do with the youth and get them out. We get them knowledge of our teachings. We take them and make sure they learn. We've been doing stuff for quite a few years with trips. We started meeting weekly and we're doing it more consistently. There are the hunting trips and then canoeing trips; those are one of my favourites. We get a real good knowledge of how things are done and what to do and whatnot." 

Raidyn PrinceRaidyn Prince

He says he's always wanted to be involved and is now at the Centre as a helping hand. 

"We get to see a lot of people having fun and it's good to see that a lot of people my age are actually doing stuff and getting out of the house."