Incarceration

Poundmaker served a year in prison at Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Manitoba. With poor health and broken spirit, he died shortly thereafter, on 4 July, 1886. It was because of this period of incarceration that Poundmaker's life ended so abruptly. 

While incarcerated, Mistahimaskwa converted to Catholicism. After two years in the Stony Mountain Penitentiary, Mistahimaskwa was released (February, 1887), already ill. On January 17, 1888, he died on the Poundmaker Reserve. Since Mistahimaskwa never had a Reserve, his band became diasporic, dividing into other communities but continuing to maintain kinship ties.

The freezing deaths of Indigenous men in Saskatoon exacerbated the already strained relationship between the Saskatoon Police Service and the Indigenous community. Many Indigenous people reported to the special investigator appointed by the FSIN that they were fearful of the police and did not feel comfortable reporting concerns out of fear that their claims would not be taken seriously. The inquiry revealed a distinct lack of trust in the police service, respondents fearing that more community members would one day too be victims of a Starlight Tour. Over-policing in city areas with a high representation of Indigenous residents contributes to this unequitable power imbalance, makes Indigenous residents feel like they are constantly under surveillance, and is a function of systemic racism that unjustly categorizes Indigenous people as 'trouble-makers.' Starlight Tours also reveal disturbing colonial ideology which places value on the lives of white settlers over the lives of Indigenous peoples, reflected by the failure to address the suspicious deaths and the initial explanation of accidental death by intoxication. Starlight Tours, and the dismissal of Naistus, Wegner, and Stonechild's deaths as a result of "intoxication" by public agencies demonstrates how systemic racism endangers the lives of Indigenous people. 

Current police-Indigenous relations are a product of the historical reality in which the NWMP and subsequent RCMP acted as an active arm of colonialism for the Canadian government. This historical context fuels a sense of mistrust, suspicion and resentment many Indigenous people feel towards law enforcement officers. In a 2017 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviews were conducted with Indigenous women in Saskatoon regarding their experiences with police officers. Women reported that they would not call the police to report a crime committed against them or crimes that they had witnessed involving an Indigenous woman out of fear that the police may harass them, engage in physical/sexual violence towards the suspect, or take them on a "starlight tour" (see database entry on Starlight Tours). HRW found evidence of a fractured relationship between police officers and Indigenous people in Saskatchewan. Human rights experts have also raised concerns over entrenched and institutionalized stereotyping of Indigenous women by police and RCMP officers. The HRW inquiry reports that: "The United Nations inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada reported that structural bias was reflected in the use of demeaning or derogatory language towards Aboriginal women and in stereotypical portrayals of Aboriginal women as prostitutes, transient or runaways and of having high-risk lifestyles". On a provincial scale, Indigenous people have reported being victims of racial profiling and targeting. Following the 1885 Resistance, the NWMP in conjunction with regular military forces, participated in quelling the resistance as well as apprehending and punishing the members of the Resistance (see database entry on the reign of terror). Other punitive measures carried out by the NWMP included withholding annuity payments, confiscation of horses and arms, and well as property destruction. As the impacts of the 1885 Resistance remain present to this day for many Métis and Indigenous people, so does the role played by the NWMP. The 1885 Resistance was accompanied by a shift in perception and attitude of colonial settlers towards Indigenous and Métis peoples. Although historians have uncovered several instances of NWMP officers acting with fairness and concern towards Indigenous and Métis people, however as Brown and Brown (1978) argue, that did not alter the nature of the force and its mandate. Owing to it's nature as a colonial police force, many Indigenous people never felt the force was there to protect them and their rights. In addition, Indigenous people recall instances of racial targeting and surveillance by police officers -  primary and secondary sources (listed below in "relevant resources") indicate that RCMP/municipal police discrimination and violence are re-occurring experiences of Indigenous people in Saskatchewan.  During the last decade, there have been several calls to action made by Indigenous organizations, governments, Nations, and communities, in response to the wide-spread mistreatment and neglect of Indigenous victims endemic within Canadian policing. The MMIWG Inquiry found that federal, provincial, and local police forces have far too often treated missing and murdered Indigenous victims with indifference and racial discrimination, thus impacting the investigations and outcomes of these cases. The issues within policing and correctional institutions cannot be explained as a "few bad apples" or agencies, these issues result from systemic racism, discrimination, and colonialism that plague the criminal justice system and have been built into its very framework. 

This provision encouraged the policing of Indigenous peoples by settlers, allowed for settlers to have extensive legal power over Indigenous peoples, and created a double standard whereby Indigenous peoples were penalized for the same activities that settlers participated. As such, Indigenous peoples self-determination and authority continued to be undermined by the state, a theme widely seen throughout paternalistic policies. The Canadian Government implemented policies that criminalized Indigenous peoples in nearly every aspect of their lives, from ceremonies and community gatherings, to the sale of goods, mobility and the pass system, seeking legal counsel, voting, and many other laws that penalized Indigenous peoples for merely existing in a settler colonial state.