Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation says Bell’s AI data centre south of Regina is being built on unceded traditional Dakota territory, and the First Nation is waiting on a response from the company before deciding whether to go to court.
That’s according to CBC News, which reported that Standing Buffalo sent Bell a letter dated October 2 raising concerns about consultation and demanding answers to a formal request for information within 10 business days.
Chief Rodger Redman has previously said the First Nation is prepared to pursue litigation if Bell does not reply in that window. Solomon Cyr, a business development consultant and negotiation liaison for Standing Buffalo, told CBC News midweek that the nation expected a response before the October 19 deadline.
The site at the centre of the dispute is Bell’s Saskatchewan AI data centre campus in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, part of the carrier’s broader AI Fabric buildout in the province. Construction was still underway in early October, and the first data hall is still expected to come online in the first half of 2027.
Elder and knowledge keeper Wayne Goodwill told CBC News that Dakota peoples lived on the land long before the treaties and that First Nations should be consulted when that land is changed. “We live off the land and when we pray, we say Mitakuye Owas’iŋ,” he said, a Dakota phrase meaning “all our relations.” Hunting and gathering are getting harder every year, he added, as development and access to traditional grounds shrink.
Standing Buffalo is not a signatory to Treaty 4, a point University of Saskatchewan Aboriginal law professor Benjamin Ralston said matters for any title claim. He told CBC News the nation would need evidence of historic use and occupation if the matter went to court, but that the Crown’s duty to consult can arise even before Aboriginal rights or title are proven. The province has already partnered with George Gordon First Nation on the project; Ralston noted that an agreement with one First Nation does not automatically cover obligations to others.
Bell told CBC News its AI data centre projects comply with applicable regulatory and environmental requirements and that it remains committed to engaging with local communities and First Nations. Bell recently announced a larger Saskatchewan AI expansion, and now this seems like it could be a local road block to those plans too, if an agreement isn’t made.
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Burn it to the ground