Help Saddle Lake Cree Nation Defend Treaty Health Rights and Protect Gender-Affirming Care for all People

On September 9, 2026—150 years to the day after our ancestors entered into Treaty No. 6 at Fort Pitt—Saddle Lake Cree Nation is taking an historic step to assert our Treaty rights, inherent jurisdiction and responsibility to protect the health and well-being of our people.

We are asking Canadians, Treaty people, Indigenous Nations, health professionals, human-rights advocates, allies and people around the world to stand with us.

Saddle Lake Cree Nation is establishing a path toward making our reserve lands and territories a safe haven for gender-affirming health care, including for Two-Spirit, transgender and gender-diverse people affected by restrictive Alberta laws.

This is about more than one health service.

It is about Treaty.

It is about Indigenous sovereignty.

It is about our responsibility to care for one another.

And it is about ensuring that people can access health care with dignity, safety and respect.

Why Treaty No. 6 matters

When Treaty No. 6 was entered into in 1876, our ancestors negotiated commitments concerning health, including what became known as the Medicine Chest promise.

For First Nations, Treaty is not simply a historical document.

Treaty is a living relationship.

Our understanding of the Medicine Chest is similarly not frozen in 1876. The promise must be understood in the context of contemporary health needs and our inherent responsibilities as Nehiyawak to care for our people.

On September 9, 2026, at the place where our ancestors entered Treaty at Fort Pitt, Saddle Lake Cree Nation is asserting that responsibility.

Our Nation’s work is grounded not only in Treaty but in our own Cree laws, governance and understandings of health.

Protecting Tastawiyiniwak

Central to this work are tastawiyiniwak, a Nehiyaw term used for members of the LGBTQ2S+ community that roughly translates as “the in-between people.”

Gender-diverse people are not new to our Nations.

They have always been here.

They are our children, grandchildren, siblings, aunties, uncles, cousins, relatives and community members.

They belong.

Our laws and responsibilities require us to care for them.

Saddle Lake Cree Nation believes health systems should protect dignity, belonging and access to appropriate care—including for Two-Spirit, transgender and gender-diverse people. That is the positive Indigenous health framework at the heart of this initiative.

Why we are taking action now

Alberta has enacted laws restricting aspects of gender-affirming health care for young people, alongside measures concerning names and pronouns in schools and participation in sport.

Saddle Lake Cree Nation believes these measures raise profound questions about the relationship between provincial authority and the inherent, Treaty and constitutional rights of First Nations.

Rather than allowing governments outside our Nation to determine the future of our people and our health systems, we are taking steps to exercise our own jurisdiction.

Our goal is to establish a legally and culturally grounded framework through which gender-affirming health care can be provided safely on Saddle Lake Cree Nation lands while advancing and protecting the Nation’s Treaty and inherent jurisdiction over health.

That work will require significant legal resources.

What your donation will support

Funds raised through this campaign will be dedicated to the legal, governance and implementation work necessary to advance and defend Saddle Lake Cree Nation’s Treaty health jurisdiction.

Donations may support:

• Legal counsel and litigation costs required to defend or advance Saddle Lake Cree Nation’s Treaty and inherent jurisdiction;

• Development and implementation of Saddle Lake Cree Nation’s Health Law, grounded in Nehiyaw laws, Treaty No. 6 and the Medicine Chest promise;

•Treaty legal research, opinions and court filings;

• Responding to potential provincial or governmental legal challenges to the Nation’s exercise of jurisdiction;

• Health regulatory and professional legal advice necessary to protect health professionals practising within the Nation’s jurisdiction;

• Expert evidence, including medical, Treaty, historical, cultural and Indigenous-law evidence where required;

• Court applications, interventions and appeals, should they become necessary; and

• Other directly related legal and implementation expenses necessary to establish and defend this initiative.

Funds will not be used for the personal benefit of any individual. They will support the Nation’s legal and governance work associated with this initiative.

Litigation can involve extensive legal research, expert evidence, historical and Treaty evidence, court applications and potentially appeals. Our initial $500,000 goal will establish a legal defence fund to begin this work. If litigation expands or proceeds through appellate courts, the Nation will update the campaign and provide information about additional funding requirements.

Why this matters beyond Saddle Lake

What happens here could have implications far beyond one First Nation.

This initiative asks an important question:

Who has the authority to determine the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples on our own lands—the Nations themselves, exercising inherent and Treaty jurisdiction, or provincial governments?

For Saddle Lake Cree Nation, the answer begins with our ancestors.

Our people never surrendered our responsibility to care for one another.

We never surrendered our laws.

We never surrendered our Treaty rights.

And the creation of the Provinces did not erase Treaty No. Six and our jurisdiction over health.

The Medicine Chest promise must be capable of responding to the health realities facing our people today.

That includes protecting tastawiyiniwak and all Two-Spirit, transgender and gender-diverse relatives.

Stand With Us

On the 150th anniversary of Treaty No. 6 at Fort Pitt, we are asking people across Treaty 6 territory, Canada and beyond to stand with Saddle Lake Cree Nation.

Donate if you can.

Share this campaign if you cannot.

Share it with your family, your Nation, your organization, your health-care colleagues and your networks.

Every contribution helps us build the legal foundation necessary to defend our Treaty rights and protect access to health care.

This is Treaty in action.

This is First Nations jurisdiction in action.

This is our responsibility to the generations who came before us—and to the generations yet to come.

Ekosi.

Saddle Lake Cree Nation Leadership