Roseau River First Nation opens Trust office.
Posted By Greg Vandermeulen
Updated 3 months ago
The building features a central meeting room with offices around the outside.
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Elders, employees and others celebrated a milestone as their brand new Trust office officially opened its doors on Roseau River First Nation, on Oct. 8.
Trust officer and lands manager Shane Robinson said the new octagonal shaped building is a big step up from the small space they occupied inside the police station until now.
“We shared office space with the Dakota Ojibway police, in the space that used to be the pharmacy,” he said. “We had maybe 450 square feet.”
Now the building is 2,500 square feet, and has offices and other rooms surrounding the central meeting room.
The trust office is the building the Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) funds are administered from. Initially a settlement of $12.5 million, the money has grown to $22 million.
Besides Robinson, executive secretary and finance clerk Amy Hayden is in the office.
Currently Raymond Alexander fills in the trainee position.
Five elected board members commit to four year terms as they oversee operations.
Although the building is distinctive, Robinson said there was no special reason for the style, other than they liked how it looked when they saw a similar building at Buffalo Point.
“It stands out,” he said.
The call for a building first went out in 2004. Five years later, they have that building, but Robinson is used to living for the future. Most of his work benefits future generations.
In the meantime he has overseen land purchases of close to 5,000 acres spread out in southern Manitoba, a good portion in the R.M. of Franklin between the Roseau River reserve and the Roseau Rapids reserve.
As Robinson addressed the people in attendance, he thanked a long list of people who made it happen. “This is a historic day for Roseau River,” he said.
Learning from our elders
Elder Charles Nelson said a prayer for the new facility, lighting a sweet grass smudge and making an offering of tobacco.
He also gave a collection of historical documents to Robinson for their library.
Nelson spoke of the ground that was broken by their ancestors, stressing it is important to learn from those who came before.
“I’m a student from my aunties and uncles,” he said. He also spoke of the importance of the facility. “We want to be able to exercise our treaty rights and that includes into America,” he said.
Nelson shares an important historical connection to the process. His father was one of the first residents to ask council to hire a lawyer to help them begin the Treaty Land Entitlement process.
