Tuesday, September 30, 2025

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It’s National Truth and Reconciliation Day, also known as Orange Shirt Day.

The annual event is dedicated to honoring the survivors and children lost in Canada’s residential school system, and to recognize the abuses and effects of that system.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, on the eve of Orange Shirt Day, a multi-million-dollar settlement and an apology were announced for survivors at one northern school.

The agreement in principle is aimed at compensating the former students of the Île-à-la-Crosse Boarding School, just under 300 miles north of Saskatoon.

“Simply put these schools were a mistake and they shouldn’t have existed.”

The premier of Saskatchewan Moe Scott went to the community on Monday.

“Today, we acknowledge the role of the province of Saskatchewan and previous Saskatchewan governments in the operation of the Île-à-la-Crosse school until 1970. And today on behalf of the province of Saskatchewan, I apologize to you. And as part of this agreement the province as agreed to pay $40.2 million to address the four major pillars of compensation under the class action that was filed.”

The compensation, Moe says, is an effort to promote reconciliation, healing, wellness, education, language, culture, and commemoration in the community of Île-à-la-Crosse.

The school was established by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a congregation of the Roman Catholic Church.

The residential schools operated across most of Canada from the mid-1800’s to the late 1900’s in an attempt to assimilate First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children into white society.

It’s believed about 150,000 children were forced to attend the schools.

Thousands were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. Many died.

The Saskatchewan government expects the proposed settlement will be approved by the courts by early next year.

Eklutna Casino security guard.

The U.S. Interior Department has reversed a Biden administration decision to give Alaska tribes legal jurisdiction over Native allotments.

As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride tells us, the order could return millions of acres of land to state control and shut down the Eklutna Tribe’s new casino near Anchorage.

This latest federal opinion attempts to restore a 1993 Interior Solicitor’s opinion issued during President George W. Bush’s administration.

It gave the state jurisdiction over Alaska Native allotments.

Last year, the Interior Solicitor in the Biden administration, Bob Anderson, issued a new interpretation of that decision.

It gave jurisdiction over Native allotments to the tribes, which cleared the way for the Eklutna Tribe to operate a small casino on a Native allotment.

Last week, the Trump administration’s Deputy Secretary of the Interior overrode Anderson’s opinion and instructed all department bureaus, including the National Indian Gaming Commission, to follow the 1993 opinion.

Anderson now lives in Anchorage and is a visiting professor at Harvard. He says reversal of his decision is wrong – that Native allotments in Alaska should be regulated by the tribe, just as they are in the Lower 48.

“It’s been the law in the Lower 48 forever, and Alaska is part of the United States, and the same federal laws apply here, as they do everywhere else. So, I’m fairly confident that we’ll continue to prevail on these questions.”

Anderson says the National Indian Gaming Commission would have to reverse his opinion.

He says that, although the commission operates under the Interior Department, it’s an Independent regulatory agency and the Interior Secretary doesn’t have the power to make it revoke its approval of the Eklutna Tribe’s gaming hall.

In April, the State of Alaska sought an injunction from a federal court in Washington D.C. to shut it down.

So what happens now that the Interior Department has revoked tribal jurisdiction over Native allotments in Alaska?

The state has not said what it’s next step will be.

Patty Sullivan, communications director for the State Department of Law, said the new opinion calls for the Interior Department to reevaluate actions taken by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Alaska attorney general Stephen Cox applauded the decision and said it restores jurisdictional balance that Congress intended.

Despite last week’s opinion, the Native Village of Eklutna said the Chin’an Gaming Hall remains open.

The tribe’s president, Aaron Leggett, said it will also review the opinion to clarify questions of legal jurisdiction.

Watch the latest episode from our Native Justice Series