Siksika Nation residents still waiting to go home
Siksika Nation housing rebuild continues after 2013 flooding
Before flood waters tore a devastating path through Siksika Nation communities in 2013, the home and ranch of Thomas Many Guns was a treasured destination for family members, complete with miniature ponies.
The entrepreneur kept horses and hosted rodeos and other events from his base in the community known as Little Chicago. After the June flood, his property in the low-lying area was coded black, meaning it couldn’t be salvaged.
When Many Guns died in November 2017 at the age of 60, he was one of many community members still in a temporary home. He had been living in a trailer at one of two sites that were established to provide interim accommodation while new houses were built, his daughter-in-law said.
“It’s extremely devastating because my children … can’t go to grandpa’s farm anymore, grandpa’s rodeo,” said Alayna Many Guns.
About 1,100 Siksika Nation members were affected by the flood and 138 homes needed to be replaced, the Siksika Nation said.
“Some of them lost everything,” said Hector Winnipeg, a band councillor and chair of the rebuild steering committee.
“You’re talking about family heirlooms, pictures of their parents, grandparents, you name it. People lost all those things. So it was quite traumatic. Even if you weren’t in the flood zone, it was still traumatic for the whole community. Our community has about 7,600 people, 7,700, and everybody felt it.”
Five years later, officials say emotions in the community are still high. Since the flood, eight evacuees have died before they had a chance to go home.
“There are some people that have been waiting for homes and unfortunately we have lost them, they passed on,” said Winnipeg. “Emotionally, it was really tough for all of us, including the staff.”
Recovering from the flood isn’t the only hardship community members have faced in the past five years.
In October, Alayna’s family was once again hit by disaster, this time in the form of a wildfire, which burned down their barn and ranch, and caused smoke damage to their home.
Amid the losses caused by flooding and fire, and throughout what Alayna calls a “long, complicated” rebuild process, Siksika community members have mourned loved ones.
“I think one of the main issues in our community is grief and loss,” she said. “We’ve experienced so much trauma in the past five years since the flood, and the illnesses and the deaths, it’s been really overwhelming.”
There have also been some moments of hope. Alayna said a friend recently moved into a new home after the challenging years following the flood. Having a place to call home has made her friend happy, and “in awe” at being grounded again.
But there are many others waiting for a similar chance, she added.
“It’s nice to see moments like that but, unfortunately, there are still many, many people who are waiting to get into their homes, who have been on standby for five years, who’ve had boxes and suitcases packed for five years and can’t settle down,” she said.
“Most of the people have been placed in these town sites, which are plagued with alcohol and drugs, and there’s nowhere to have a yard and to have flowers and to have a playground and stuff like that, so the community toll has been really hard.”
According to the Siksika rebuild team, about 15 people in the community have moved into new homes.
Winnipeg said 132 homes are under construction and range from 15 per cent to 90 per cent complete. Construction is expected to be finished by Sept. 30.
The band councillor said the nation has encountered a series of challenges during the rebuild process, including costs for infrastructure such as roads, sewer and water for new communities, and complications caused by a harsh winter. He noted staff had to complete planning for the new communities before construction could begin. Under the guidelines for provincial support, he added, the band had to fund construction, then submit invoices for reimbursement. “Five years is a long time,” Winnipeg said. “(The evacuees) want to start their lives all over again.”
That sentiment was long felt over in the Stoney Nakoda Nation, where 550 homes were flooded in 2013. That amounted to more than half of the houses on the reserve and left a couple thousand residents displaced, according to acting tribal administrator Ken Christensen.
“People were upset. You’re sort of knocked out of your home and some people were out of their homes for a substantial period of time,” Christensen said. “It was just frustration, but the Stoney people are pretty stalwart and they all got through it.”
Interim housing was set up by the province in the form of 40 trailers, where some families stayed for extended periods of time. Others took shelter in one of three elders lodges on the reserve.
For close to 100 homes, the damage was so significant repair wasn’t an option. Christensen said the nation’s administration purchased those 40 mobile homes from the province to turn them into permanent housing.
The actual repair of the homes didn’t get underway until a year and a half after the flood.
“Repair work took a long time getting going,” Christensen said. “The ones that got going, it moved along quite steadily and we wound up in partnership with the province and the feds with a successful flood repair program.”
A spokesperson for Alberta Indigenous Relations said more than 3,000 First Nation members were displaced by the 2013 floods and 677 houses were damaged. To date, 552 houses have been repaired or rebuilt between Stoney Nakoda and Siksika Nations, and 125 houses are at various stages of the rebuilding process, according to the province. A total of $345 million has been allocated in provincial funding for recovery efforts, including rebuilding or repairing houses and interim accommodations.
“Nations are required to submit invoices of the expenditures, which are reviewed by Government of Alberta officials to ensure eligibility and accuracy,” the ministry said in a prepared statement.
Siksika Nation officials say once their rebuild project is complete, there are another 370 families waiting for housing as part of the community’s housing wait list, which is unrelated to the flood.
“We do have a housing shortage on our nation, and we would like to build more homes,” said Winnipeg.
“Once we complete this project, that would be great to get these people moved in so we can concentrate on what we have to do in the future.”