“An apology rings hollow if there are no substantive actions to go with words.”
~Grand Chief Jerry Daniels
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 16, 2026
ANISHINAABE AND DAKOTA TERRITORY, MB — The Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) is standing alongside our Dakota leaders and their Nations, in recognition of the two-year anniversary of an official apology by the federal government.
On July 15, 2024, at a special ceremony in the Whitecap Dakota Nation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government apologized for a policy that directly impacted the Dakota and Lakota First Nations located in Canada. Since that announcement, and with Mark Carney now serving as Prime Minister, SCO is dismayed to learn there has been little follow-up to that apology.
“All levels of government need to know and fully understand, that First Nations are tired and fed up with words,” stated SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels. “They cannot continue to try and pacify us with intent and then not back it up with meaningful Nation to Nation collaboration.”
A long-standing policy designated Dakota and Lakota people as “refugees” by the federal government, because many had migrated from the United States to escape oppression. Canada denied them many historic Treaty benefits and left them out of major economic agreements, including the multi-million- dollar Treaty Land Entitlement.
In the 1870s and then in 2007, Ottawa went so far as to reject the claim of the Dakota and Lakota Nations that they should be included in the Treaties that most prairie First Nations already belong to, including the rights to land. It was a policy steeped in cruelty and racism.
“Our Dakota relatives were denied a seat at the table for so long, and the 2024 apology was meant to right that injustice,” added Grand Chief Daniels. “I call on Prime Minister Carney and his Minister of Indigenous Services to immediately start meaningful dialogue with our Dakota leadership so that their Nations can finally start sharing in Canada’s economic prosperity.”
“The apology is now proving to be more hurtful than healing,” added Chief Tréchelle Bunn of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation. “For the past two years, there has been NO tangible progress towards the commitments that were made to us. Without action, this apology amounts to no more than hollow words and we will NOT stand for it any longer.”
SCO demands the federal government live up to the obligations that were promised two years ago, and to immediately start the Nation-to-Nation discussions that will lead to the recognition and implementation of Dakota and Lakota Section 35 rights.
“Our Dakota Nations have waited long enough when it comes to addressing the denial of their rights, jurisdiction, and Nationhood,” concluded Grand Chief Daniels. “By not engaging with them, the federal government only continues to exacerbate the sense of betrayal this apology was meant to address.”
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The Southern Chiefs’ Organization represents 33 First Nations and more than 92,000 citizens in what is now called southern Manitoba. SCO is an independent political organization that protects, preserves, promotes, and enhances First Nations peoples’ inherent rights, languages, customs, and traditions through the application and implementation of the spirit and intent of the Treaty-making process.
For media inquiries:
Email: Media@scoinc.mb.ca