74 First Nations. Treaty 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10. The largest proportion of Indigenous people of any province after Manitoba (~17%). Starlight tours. The Gerald Stanley acquittal. The lowest reconciliation score in Canada.
Starlight tours: Saskatoon police officers drove Indigenous men to the outskirts of the city in freezing winter temperatures and abandoned them. Neil Stonechild (17) froze to death in 1990 after being last seen in police custody. Darrell Night survived a starlight tour in 2000. An inquiry found "inadequate and unprofessional" police investigation. Two officers were convicted of unlawful confinement — for abandoning a human being in -20°C. They received 8 months.
Gerald Stanley (2018): A white farmer was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man, on Stanley's rural property. The all-white jury (Indigenous prospective jurors were peremptorily challenged) acquitted Stanley. The verdict sent a clear message about whose life is valued in Saskatchewan's justice system. Indigenous people represent ~17% of the population but over 80% of admissions to provincial correctional facilities.
Treaty 4 (1874) covers much of southern Saskatchewan — the agricultural heartland. The treaties promised reserve lands, agricultural assistance, schools, and medical care in exchange for sharing the land. The agricultural assistance was minimal and designed to fail. The schools became residential schools. The medical care was underfunded. The reserve lands were reduced through illegal surrenders. Saskatchewan's agricultural wealth — billions in canola, wheat, and potash — is generated almost entirely on treaty land, with virtually no revenue sharing with treaty partners.
The Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) process — through which First Nations receive land owed under original treaties — has been active since 1992 but moves at glacial pace. Potash and uranium mining proceeds on treaty territory with consultation that is frequently inadequate. The Moe government has shown no interest in advancing land claims or expanding Indigenous land bases. Resource extraction revenue from treaty land flows to the province and to corporations — not to the treaty nations who never surrendered subsurface rights.
Northern Saskatchewan First Nations communities face some of the worst living conditions in the country. Housing is overcrowded and deteriorating. Healthcare access requires lengthy travel. Education outcomes on reserves are far below provincial averages. Suicide rates among Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan are among the highest in Canada. The provincial government's investment in Indigenous-specific services is minimal, hiding behind the jurisdictional argument that reserves are a federal responsibility.
Saskatchewan scores 22.5 — an F, the lowest reconciliation score of any province or territory. The justice system score (18) is the lowest single dimension score in the entire audit. Starlight tours. Colten Boushie. An 80% Indigenous incarceration rate. Treaty land generating billions in agricultural and mineral wealth with near-zero revenue sharing. A government that treats reconciliation as a federal nuisance while profiting from the violation of every promise the Crown made. Saskatchewan is not failing at reconciliation. Saskatchewan is actively hostile to it.
"They grow wheat on our treaty land. They mine potash under our treaty land. They put our children in their jails. And they tell us reconciliation is Ottawa's problem."