Sioux Valley to spend $2M on portable classrooms
The move was prompted by serious concerns about the safety and suitability of the building, Sioux Valley Chief Vincent Tacan told the Brandon Sun.
Tacan said council made the decision due to the building's aging infrastructure, potential asbestos contamination and an outdated boiler-based heating system in the basement.
'Would you put your child in a school that has asbestos?' he asked. 'We won't gamble with the health of our students or staff anymore. That building was supposed to be temporary, now we're nearly 10 years in.'
Originally built in 1914, the former Fleming school was purchased by the community in partnership with the Brandon School Division as an interim measure while awaiting a new facility, Tacan said.
'It was originally designed for younger students, not high schoolers, and has fallen into further disrepair over the years.'
Sioux Valley had hoped to be on track for a new, permanent school, but a recent letter from Indigenous Services Canada dashed those expectations.
In the letter addressed to chief and council and shared with the Sun, Kandice Léonard, ISC's regional director general for Manitoba, stated: 'Indigenous Services Canada has not committed funding for the design and construction of a new school … Sioux Valley Dakota Nation remains included in the department's prioritization process for future investment consideration.'
The news left the community disheartened.
'There was a perception in the community that a new school was coming. That was not true,' Tacan said.
With no confirmed government funding, Sioux Valley is moving ahead with its own funds to secure the portable classrooms.
'We're funding this ourselves because we have to,' Tacan said. 'It's what our children deserve.'
The new portable setup will return about 90 students to their home community, sparing them from about three-hour-long daily commutes to Brandon-area schools such as Crocus Plains, Vincent Massey and Neelin High.
Weekday Mornings
A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.
The portable classrooms will be delivered and installed ahead of the 2025–26 academic year, Tacan said.
The community is also seeking support from other organizations and is open to partnerships to expand or enhance the temporary facilities, particularly to secure a gymnasium, he added.
Tacan said Sioux Valley's struggle is not unique.
'There are 63 First Nations in Manitoba, and many of their schools are in rough shape,' he said. 'Now we have wildfires in the north, and the resources are being stretched even thinner.'
— Brandon Sun
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
27 minutes ago
- CBC
Williams Lake First Nation searching for owner of jingle dress found in abandoned storage locker
Social Sharing The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) is trying to reunite a jingle dress with its owner, after it turned up in a local thrift store. Brandon Hoffman, the manager of marketing and communications with WLFN, said the dress, along with a blanket, were turned in to WLFN Kukwpi7 (Chief) Willie Sellars by the thrift store owner earlier this year. The shopkeeper had come into possession of the items after he purchased an abandoned storage locker, where he discovered the items in a suitcase. Sellars said the shop owner gifted the items to him, in hopes they could find the rightful owner. "He found the regalia and knew it was something that has a story, now we're a part of the story," Sellars said. Fortunately, the hand-off happened before the thrift shop burned down in March. "It was a pretty great shop. I'm a bit of a thrift store hound myself, so I was there all the time," Hoffman told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce. Sellars brought the items to WLFN councillor Dancing Water Sandy, who makes regalia, Hoffman said. "She cleaned them all up as best as she could and gave them a smudging and a blessing to hope that they go off into the world and find their rightful owners." The jingle dress is a dark green colour with silver, white and yellow accents, a white fringe and, of course, bells attached, most of which are on the skirt. A large raven adorns the blanket, in black and white, with mother of pearl buttons sewn all around it. Following the smudging, Hoffman's team took photos of the dress, blanket and suitcase and posted them to social media. Soon after, they located the owner of the blanket: Nadine Brown of Bella Bella. "The blanket was gifted to me about 15 years ago," she said. "The design on the blanket was made specifically for me. It's a one-of-a-kind blanket." Brown lost the blanket about seven years ago when she loaned it to a friend who was going to make another one. When they lost contact, she thought her blanket was gone forever. But the owner of the dress remains a mystery, as Hoffman and the nation continue their search. "We've got some potential leads, but no solid hits yet," Hoffman said.
Winnipeg Free Press
13 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Great relief' as 4,000 Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point evacuees head home
Reduced wildfire risk across Manitoba has helped pave the way for thousands of evacuees to return to their home communities after months in hotels and evacuation centres. About 4,000 evacuees from Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point First Nations began returning home this week after being forced from their communities for the second time in July. Alex McDougall, interim grand chief of Anisininew Okimawin, which represents four Island Lake First Nations, confirmed residents from the communities began flying home Tuesday. More flights are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. '(It is) with great relief and anticipation,' McDougall said in a message to the Free Press. SUPPLIED PHOTO Residents of Garden Hill First Nation are evacuated to Winnipeg in July by members of the RCAF. About 4,000 evacuees from Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point First Nations began returning home this week after being forced from their communities due to wildfires. SUPPLIED PHOTO Residents of Garden Hill First Nation are evacuated to Winnipeg in July by members of the RCAF. About 4,000 evacuees from Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point First Nations began returning home this week after being forced from their communities due to wildfires. Dialysis patents, including those from the still-evacuated neighbouring community of Wasagamack, will be the last to go home. Inspectors and technicians will visit the two communities to ensure water, sewer and hydro infrastructure are all in working order before patients are flown home. The communities, located about about 600 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, were ordered out on July 11 due to an out-of-control wildfire. As of Wednesday afternoon, the nearby fire had burned more than 37,000 hectares and was still considered out of control. It was detected on July 6 but hasn't grown in size since July 22, the province's fire data shows. The Manitoba Wildfire Service said Wednesday fire danger is low in the majority of the province. Pockets of moderate fire danger remain in the southern and central areas of the province, and there is a mix of moderate and high fire danger in the northwest. Wednesdays Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. The province reported 161 active wildfires and a total of 413 to date. More than 1.75 million hectares of land has burned, making the 2025 wildfire season the worst on record in Manitoba in 3o years. Evacuation orders for Stevenson Island and Little Grand Rapids were lifted Wednesday and evacuees have started to return home, the province said. About 14,000 Manitobans were still displaced as of last week. In Pimicikamak Cree Nation, the community's 600 residents got word Wednesday morning they will begin to return home this week. Alex McDougall Photo Heavy smoke is seen in Garden Hill First Nation on July 13. Alex McDougall Photo Heavy smoke is seen in Garden Hill First Nation on July 13. In a post to social media, Chief David Monias said flights to the community, located about 520 kilometres north of Winnipeg, were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Community members were evacuated from Pimicikamak in early July for the second time, owing to a wildfire raging near Cross Lake. They were ordered out three weeks after returning from an initial evacuation in mid-June. Emergency accommodations and meals for evacuees would end after Wednesday, Monias said. Pimicikamak resident Russ Garrioch was evacuated to Winnipeg in late July and has been staying at a Canad Inns hotel in Windsor Park since. 'It's been a rough ride out here, I miss the people back home and looking forward to go for outings and just being around family,' Garrioch said. Garrioch hopes the thousands of other displaced people get good news soon, too. 'I know some had tough time out here trying to adapt to the city life. It's a jungle out here if you don't know your way around or know anyone,' he said. Six communities, including Snow Lake, Lynn Lake, Marcel Colomb First Nation, Leaf Rapids, Mathias Colomb (Pukatawagan) Cree Nation and Nisichawayasihk (Nelson House) Cree Nation remain in effect. Nicole BuffieMultimedia producer Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College's Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole. Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
Search for B.C.'s Best Symbol: Championship final — Totem Poles vs. Orcas
Social Sharing Symbols don't change all that much — but our connection to them does. One hundred years ago, British Columbia was a land of mountains and trees, salmon and bears, Ogopogos and Okanagan fruit, an Indigenous past with a diverse array of First Nations histories, and a settler present spurred by the gold rush and railways. Then, the orca was seen by many as a criminal of the waters that competed with fishermen for valuable resources. Totem poles were famous pieces of art, but often taken from First Nations whose lands were dispossessed, put in far-off museums or tourist attractions as "ethnographic curios," as one Musqueam art curator put it. A century later, orcas and totem poles are the two finalists in the Search For B.C.'s Best Symbol, our fun summer competition to unofficially find out what best represents this province. It's reflective of more than 400,000 votes that have eliminated 62 of the 64 original entries in our competition. It's also reflective of how British Columbia has changed. "Totems symbolize, I think, what's the best and the worst of British Columbia history sort of all wrapped in that one symbol," said John Lutz, a University of Victoria historian who wrote the chapter on totem poles in the book Symbols of Canada. Why totem poles are such iconic B.C. symbols 14 days ago "Our relationship to iconic species like orcas is really not extraction. It's about approaching and experiencing nature in a very different way," said Jason Colby, a UVic historian who wrote Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator. Two iconic symbols of this province — which one will British Columbians vote as the best? Symbols of the past, stories of the future Talk to people who directly engage with totem poles or orcas on a regular basis, and you'll get all sorts of answers why they make for an interesting symbol. On Saturna Island, dozens of volunteers are involved with the Southern Gulf Islands Whale Sighting Network, an organization that monitors and provides data to the federal government about the movements of orcas, in hopes of better preserving their habitat. WATCH | What orcas mean to B.C.: How orcas became such a big symbol of British Columbia 16 days ago "If we can learn to save the orcas, if we can learn to understand the orcas, we can learn to understand many other things in this province," said Richard Blagborne, a volunteer who helped organize a symposium last decade on Moby Doll — an orca captured off the Saturna coast in 1964 whose plight helped changed the perception of the cetacean. "The more we learned, the more we started to love them. And I think that's a positive indication about British Columbians." 'Namgis and Squamish master carver Xwalacktun, who has created more than 30 totem poles in his career, is more circumspect when asked if the totem should be B.C.'s best symbol. "If we were to use totem poles, the reason is to represent a story, and that story is the new beginning of where we want to go with this symbol of British Columbia," he said. "You always can't forget what's happened in the past. So we remember what happened in the past, but we continue on moving forward." The past and present both inform what symbols matter most to British Columbians. But the one known in the future as the province's best — at least, according to a highly scientific series of online votes — is now up to you. Voting closes at 10 p.m. PT Wednesday, and we'll reveal the winner Friday morning on The Early Edition. Until then, may the best symbol win.
