Papaschase


The Papaschase are a group of Cree people descended from Chief Papaschase's Band of the 19th century, who were a party to Treaty 6 with Canada. A modern-day group of people claims to be the rightful heirs of this historical band, but have not been recognized as such by the Canadian government.

Historical Papaschase

The Papaschase signed Treaty 6 on August 21, 1877, and were given a reserve within much of what later became southeast Edmonton, Alberta including all of Mill Woods. The boundaries of the in modern terms would be by 51 Avenue on the north, 119 Street on the west, 30 Avenue SW on the south, and by 17 Street NW on the east. The reserve was however taken away from the band, with Chief Papaschase himself evicted from the reserve in 1886. The reserve land was partly used for the Canadian Pacific Railway's Calgary and Edmonton Railway, which arrived in 1891 and caused the birth of a southside hamlet that later became Strathcona. The former reserve was incrementally absorbed in its entirety by the City of Edmonton over a series of seven annexations between December 30, 1959 and January 1, 1982.

Modern Papaschase

around 1,000 people claim to be descendants of the historical band, who they argue were illegally evicted from their reserve to give the railway access to their land. Their lawsuit against the Canadian government to recover their lands was thrown out in 2008 on the grounds that the Papaschase were not a recognized band and therefore could not make a claim against the government, and that too much time had passed. Since that time, the group has instead focused its efforts on becoming a recognized band through the federal claims commission, and via political pressure.
A group representing the Papaschase held a partial blockade and information picket on the Queen Elizabeth II portion of Alberta Highway 2 - Alberta's busiest highway - on January 16, 2013, as part of the wider Idle No More movement.