Question Period Note: Responding to Dakota Tipi First Nation and Canupawakpa Nation’s Ligation

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About

Reference number:
CIR-2025-QP-2904
Date received:
Oct 31, 2025
Organization:
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
Name of Minister:
Alty, Rebecca (Hon.)
Title of Minister:
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations

Issue/Question:

N.A.

Suggested Response:

• We are aware of the lawsuit filed on October 21, 2025 by the Dakota Tipi First Nation and Canupawakpa Dakota Nation in the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba.
• A copy of the statement of claim has been shared with the Government of Canada.
• The claim is at a very preliminary stage and is currently under review.

Background:

The Dakota Tipi First Nation and Canupawakpa Dakota Nation filed a litigation claim on October 21, 2025 against Manitoba, Manitoba Hydro and the federal government over alleged breaches of their constitutional, fiduciary and other duties owed to the First Nations.
The claim is in a very preliminary stage and has not yet been served on the defendants.
Canupawakpa Dakota Nation and Dakota Tipi First Nation said they are direct descendants of the Oceti S'Akowin Nation, sometimes referred to as the Sioux — the original inhabitants of large swaths of land across southern Manitoba, reaching into parts of Saskatchewan and Ontario.
The Dakota nations claim they hold rights and title to those lands as per Section 35 of the Constitution.
The First Nations say portions of those lands were never ceded. They allege Manitoba Hydro, the province and the federal government breached constitutional, fiduciary and other duties owed to the First Nations, and have been "unjustly enriched at the expense of the Dakota Nations."

Additional Information:

If pressed on concerns of private landholders
• In all Aboriginal title litigation, the Government of Canada is committed to maintaining legal clarity and stability in land ownership while respecting Aboriginal rights and title, and the Court process.
• As this claim is at a very preliminary stage it is not apparent that private landholder interests are engaged. If pressed on Dakota-Lakota Apology and Reconciliation
• On July 15, 2024, The Government of Canada formally apologized to the nine Dakota and Lakota First Nations in Canada for past harms and formally affirmed their status as “Aboriginal peoples of Canada”.