Treaties and health care go hand-in-hand

SERPENT RIVER FN (May 17, 2013) – For many years, the treaty annuity payment and the Serpent River First Nation Annual Health Fair have been held on the same day.

“Having the two events combined serves as a reminder that the Crown has a legal responsibility for healthcare for our Citizens and that we as First Nation government also have responsibilities,” says Chief Day of Serpent River First Nation.

Combining the two activities gives citizens the opportunity to receive health information and their annual $4 payment, being a beneficiary of the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850.

“We are reminded that it is the Crown’s obligation to ensure we have ample resources to have a health care system — it is ours to ensure that we provide for our people the adequate community programs and services to achieve ‘Quality of Life’. This relationship should be a true a reflection of a government-to-government partnership and one that acknowledges the treaty relationship,” says Chief Day.

Serpent River First Nation has spent the last three decades working towards the goal of greater service to their citizens in the area of health programs through their Community Health Access Centre. The leadership of Serpent River First Nation believe that as time goes on, there is a greater need to have the First Nation and Crown sit together to discuss the treaty obligations of the Crown and the health of the people.

“In other treaty regions in this country, the ‘Medicine Chest’ is a prevalent part of the negotiated treaty,” says Day.  “This important element of the treaty is the very reason for First Nation and government joint Health Care centres and hospitals having combined budgets and programs. We must seek to achieve these types of outcomes in First Nation treaties right across this country. All First Nations have the right to ensure a Medicine Chest has the resources needed to ensure the human right to health for its people.”

The Chief says that the reason that First Nation citizens go forward to collect the treaty payment of $4 isn’t so much about the value of the payment, rather that the principle of the treaty relationship must remain intact. The annuity serves as a reminder that the Crown has an evergreen obligation that will always be in place as long as Canadians co-occupy this land now called Canada, where First Nations agreed to share land with “settler-governments” through the treaty-making process.