Elder requests apology after conservation officer raid on home

Doug Morningchild says he and his wife were at home together on October 7, 2021 when conservation officers surrounded and raided their home.

According to Morningchild, multiple vehicles with officers from the Ministry of Environment drove up to the couple’s home and searched it, along with Morningchild’s truck, without providing a copy of a search warrant when requested.

Morningchild, a 70-year-old Cree Elder living on Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation near Loon Lake, recalled the raid looking like a major criminal event because of the number of officers and vehicles participating in the search.

He estimated about 20 officers surrounded their home and at first he thought it was part of some official exercise.

Eventually, Morningchild said the officers broke the lock on a large freezer which contained moose meat that was saved – largely for ceremonial purposes – in the coming spring. It was not meat that Morningchild himself had hunted.

“How can I kill three moose?” Morningchild asked. “I didn’t even have any firearms inside the house.”

He said the conservation officers confiscated the freezer’s contents along with wild meat kept in three smaller freezers.

“They just took away everything,” Morningchild said.

Morningchild has spent most of his life living on the reserve, where he and his wife of 35 years try to live off the land. While he doesn’t own guns or hunt himself anymore, Morningchild said he still sets snares to capture rabbits.

“We are traditional people,” Morningchild explained.

He said the moose meat he owned was provided to him by other community members with the intent for it to be used in ceremonies and help feed Morningchild’s family, as well as for him to give to others in his capacity as an Elder. Morningchild said he and his wife are both lodge holders, and his wife is also a well-known medicine woman, so ceremonies are a significant part of their duties.

Morningchild said it is typical to share meat in their community.

“Now I can guarantee you, if you were to go to every house around my place, you would have wild meat — wild moose meat — in their house,” Morningchild said.

Morningchild said he received a court summons and was charged with various offences and hit with a $2,800 fine as a result of the raid. The main charge, Morningchild said, was for having wild moose meat inside his home.

He attended court to deal with the matter in January. At that time, he said a judge dismissed the charges.

“We’re criminals in our own country for doing little things,” Morningchild said during a news conference held at the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) in Saskatoon.

The Elder said the meat that was confiscated was not returned to him. He wants to see the officers with the Ministry of Environment held accountable for the trauma he said they caused to his family.

FSIN fourth vice chief Heather Bear, speaks to media in Saskatoon on March 24, 2023. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

“The transgressions that were done here, it’s despicable,” said fourth vice chief Heather Bear with the FSIN, calling it “painful” to hear what was done to the Morningchilds.

She said moose meat is considered medicine in Indigenous culture, and expressed frustration with provincial trespassing laws which she said interfere with inherent treaty rights over hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering and land access enjoyed by First Nations people.

In spite of the charges being dismissed, Bear said she wants to see an inquiry performed to investigate systemic racism in the Ministry of Environment. She also asked other Indigenous people who might have had experiences similar to the Morningchild’s to come forward.

Ariane Whiting, a senior media relations consultant with the Government of Saskatchewan, confirmed in an email that the Conservation Officer Service received a complaint in October of 2021.

The complaint was that recent, unlawful hunting activity had occurred on private land by individuals who had not been given permission to be there, resulting in the harvesting of two moose.

Evidence gathered at the scene and from the complainant led officers to “a residence on the Sahgaiehcan First Nation, which was later searched under judicial authorization,” Whiting said.

Evidence seized from the search was later confirmed to be related to the unlawful hunting, the statement said. This led to a charge of one count of unlawful possession of wildlife under The Saskatchewan Wildlife Act, which was ultimately dismissed.

Bear claimed FSIN has documented several complaints made by First Nations people that show mistreatment by Saskatchewan Environment and Conservation Officers. She said a formal letter was sent by FSIN to the Ministry of Environment on June 23, 2020 urging such an inquiry, which did not occur.

Morningchild said he is exploring legal action for punitive damages over the incident. He said he would also like to receive an apology from the Ministry of Environment.