In this article I refer to Native Americans as Indians, as was the custom of the time. A fuller version is available here with links.In response to the federal government’s ongoing apologies for things our ancestors never did or did in accordance with the context of the times, a new non-indigenous movement has sprung up called “Sorry No More.” It is loosely modeled on the indigenous “Idle No More” movement of a few years ago.The trigger for the new movement was the recent “We are sorry” statement from Crown-Indigenous relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, regarding Canada’s historic reception of 9 American indigenous bands, providing them refuge and asylum as they ran from massacres they committed in the United States, to the safety of Canada.Historical documents like the official history of the North West Mounted Police make it clear that the Dakota and Lakota First Nations who Anandasangaree recognized today as “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada” were then recognized by both the American government and US Cavalry, and the Canadian government and the Mounted Police as American Indians and refugees.Three little words. “We are sorry.” What can it hurt?First of all, it is not true. The facts are documented at the time by the North West Mounted Police (JP Turner Vol I & II), the US government and the US Cavalry.Secondly, this will cost Canadians billions of dollars. Remember this government, in ten years, has tripled the annual Indian affairs budget from about $10 billion to about $30 billion, and has run up close to $80 billion in contingent liabilities, mostly through not seriously contesting class actions and specific claims. For context, our Department of National Defence budget in 2023-24 was $26.5 billion.Crown-Indigenous Relations has rewritten the official history of the North West Mounted Police (Turner, The NWMP 1950) and that of Canada. In the process, the minister has likely put Canadian taxpayers on the hook for additional billions of dollars in compensation, equivalent to what Status Indians of the Numbered Treaties have received over the past 150 years! With interest.This means whereas the refugee class of American Indians historically received a land grant of 16 acres per person, the Status Indians of Canada, signatories to the Numbered Treaties had received 128 acres per person. The newly-anointed Canadian-former-refugee-American-Indians told the Minister that they want not only an apology, but action. They want compensation. With interest. One speaker claimed they want an apology for the 1862 hanging of 38 Dakota, which occurred in the USA under American law. Another speaker stated, “As of this day, no more reservations; reservations are only in Africa for animals.”The government appears to have granted these refugee-American-Indians full rights under Section 35, meaning that multi-billion-dollar land claims and reparation demands are imminent.And this is why the “Sorry No More” movement has sprung from my keyboard. Canadians are tired of being sorry for things they never did. The wallet is now empty; the cupboard is bare.Due to unfair dealings by the US government and swindling by nefarious traders, on August 18, 1862, a brutal massacre by the Minnesota Dakota Indians was launched against innocent white pioneers, which ultimately spread across Minnesota. There was little defence available for the whites as many men had been seconded to the Civil War.“Throughout the countryside barbarous torture and fiendish death were inflicted upon men, women and helpless children (by the Indians) — of a nature too horrible for a printed page…” (pg. 23, The NWMP, Vol. I)The uprising was finally subdued in late October of 1862.Many of the Dakota Sioux fled to Canada. The North West Mounted Police official history by J.P. Turner states “Being alien Indians, the Sioux status on British soil was uncertain, but eventually two reserves were assigned to them …the refugees, numbering altogether about 2,000, indicated they fully realized their position as exiles and intimated that having no territorial rights in the country they felt they had been treated kindly.” (pg. 26)The 1901 census refers to them as the “refugee Sioux.” On page 103 of Claire Thomson’s thesis (a member of the band), she writes:Before 1910, Lakota people at Wood Mountain and Moose Jaw resisted efforts to move them to reserves or reservations and they opposed being given assistance, which they saw as the government’s attempt to make them dependent. . . .The claimants and Anandasangaree and his bureaucrats say these people had been allies of the British Crown in the War of 1812. Historical evidence states otherwise. Aaron Woodward writes: “the British defeat in the lake region was due to the defection of the Sioux … due in large measure to the loyalty of the Sioux of the Missouri, in South Dakota, to the American cause…”So, Anandasangaree has apologized for something that never happened related to the War of 1812 and seems blind to the massacre of 1862 committed by these refugees. All of this predates the Confederation of Canada of 1867!Similarly for the Lakota Sioux fleeing their massacre of Lt. Col. Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass in 1876. The NWMP official history explains that once Sitting Bull and his people crossed into Canada, Inspector Walsh explained Canadian law to the migrant Indians — from page 302 “They were told they would have to be as law-abiding as were the Sisseton and other alien Indians in the Great Mother’s land. …Walsh promised to convey their wishes to the Queen’s great chief (Commissioner Macleod). He was emphatic in telling them that they would not be allowed to go from Canada to make war on the Americans and return to Canada for protection. If they had any such intentions, they had better go back to their own country at once and remain there.”Why should Canadian taxpayers be on the hook for billions of dollars and land claims due to a rewriting of history? As a nation going forward, we must be “Sorry No More.”
In this article I refer to Native Americans as Indians, as was the custom of the time. A fuller version is available here with links.In response to the federal government’s ongoing apologies for things our ancestors never did or did in accordance with the context of the times, a new non-indigenous movement has sprung up called “Sorry No More.” It is loosely modeled on the indigenous “Idle No More” movement of a few years ago.The trigger for the new movement was the recent “We are sorry” statement from Crown-Indigenous relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, regarding Canada’s historic reception of 9 American indigenous bands, providing them refuge and asylum as they ran from massacres they committed in the United States, to the safety of Canada.Historical documents like the official history of the North West Mounted Police make it clear that the Dakota and Lakota First Nations who Anandasangaree recognized today as “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada” were then recognized by both the American government and US Cavalry, and the Canadian government and the Mounted Police as American Indians and refugees.Three little words. “We are sorry.” What can it hurt?First of all, it is not true. The facts are documented at the time by the North West Mounted Police (JP Turner Vol I & II), the US government and the US Cavalry.Secondly, this will cost Canadians billions of dollars. Remember this government, in ten years, has tripled the annual Indian affairs budget from about $10 billion to about $30 billion, and has run up close to $80 billion in contingent liabilities, mostly through not seriously contesting class actions and specific claims. For context, our Department of National Defence budget in 2023-24 was $26.5 billion.Crown-Indigenous Relations has rewritten the official history of the North West Mounted Police (Turner, The NWMP 1950) and that of Canada. In the process, the minister has likely put Canadian taxpayers on the hook for additional billions of dollars in compensation, equivalent to what Status Indians of the Numbered Treaties have received over the past 150 years! With interest.This means whereas the refugee class of American Indians historically received a land grant of 16 acres per person, the Status Indians of Canada, signatories to the Numbered Treaties had received 128 acres per person. The newly-anointed Canadian-former-refugee-American-Indians told the Minister that they want not only an apology, but action. They want compensation. With interest. One speaker claimed they want an apology for the 1862 hanging of 38 Dakota, which occurred in the USA under American law. Another speaker stated, “As of this day, no more reservations; reservations are only in Africa for animals.”The government appears to have granted these refugee-American-Indians full rights under Section 35, meaning that multi-billion-dollar land claims and reparation demands are imminent.And this is why the “Sorry No More” movement has sprung from my keyboard. Canadians are tired of being sorry for things they never did. The wallet is now empty; the cupboard is bare.Due to unfair dealings by the US government and swindling by nefarious traders, on August 18, 1862, a brutal massacre by the Minnesota Dakota Indians was launched against innocent white pioneers, which ultimately spread across Minnesota. There was little defence available for the whites as many men had been seconded to the Civil War.“Throughout the countryside barbarous torture and fiendish death were inflicted upon men, women and helpless children (by the Indians) — of a nature too horrible for a printed page…” (pg. 23, The NWMP, Vol. I)The uprising was finally subdued in late October of 1862.Many of the Dakota Sioux fled to Canada. The North West Mounted Police official history by J.P. Turner states “Being alien Indians, the Sioux status on British soil was uncertain, but eventually two reserves were assigned to them …the refugees, numbering altogether about 2,000, indicated they fully realized their position as exiles and intimated that having no territorial rights in the country they felt they had been treated kindly.” (pg. 26)The 1901 census refers to them as the “refugee Sioux.” On page 103 of Claire Thomson’s thesis (a member of the band), she writes:Before 1910, Lakota people at Wood Mountain and Moose Jaw resisted efforts to move them to reserves or reservations and they opposed being given assistance, which they saw as the government’s attempt to make them dependent. . . .The claimants and Anandasangaree and his bureaucrats say these people had been allies of the British Crown in the War of 1812. Historical evidence states otherwise. Aaron Woodward writes: “the British defeat in the lake region was due to the defection of the Sioux … due in large measure to the loyalty of the Sioux of the Missouri, in South Dakota, to the American cause…”So, Anandasangaree has apologized for something that never happened related to the War of 1812 and seems blind to the massacre of 1862 committed by these refugees. All of this predates the Confederation of Canada of 1867!Similarly for the Lakota Sioux fleeing their massacre of Lt. Col. Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass in 1876. The NWMP official history explains that once Sitting Bull and his people crossed into Canada, Inspector Walsh explained Canadian law to the migrant Indians — from page 302 “They were told they would have to be as law-abiding as were the Sisseton and other alien Indians in the Great Mother’s land. …Walsh promised to convey their wishes to the Queen’s great chief (Commissioner Macleod). He was emphatic in telling them that they would not be allowed to go from Canada to make war on the Americans and return to Canada for protection. If they had any such intentions, they had better go back to their own country at once and remain there.”Why should Canadian taxpayers be on the hook for billions of dollars and land claims due to a rewriting of history? As a nation going forward, we must be “Sorry No More.”
