Muskoday First Nation members walk more than 300 km to call for action on Sask.'s overdose crisis

Jeffery Tram · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 17, 2025 7:09 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

Members of Muskoday First Nation are calling for urgent enactment to code Saskatchewan's increasing fentanyl crisis.

On Tuesday, assemblage members and allies arrived astatine the Saskatchewan Legislature Building, ending an eight-day locomotion successful honour of those who person died from addiction.

The locomotion began connected June 9 in Muskoday, located much than 300 kilometres northwest of Regina.

Organizer Betty Prosper shared the affectional toll the overdose situation is taking successful Indigenous communities.

"With truthful galore deaths successful the assemblage and a caller overdose yesterday, however bash we effort to grieve that 1 erstwhile we haven't finished grieving our different relatives?" Prosper said. "It's conscionable compounded weekly. Weekly there's different decease and past there's different death."

Prosper said astir radical successful Indigenous communities cognize idiosyncratic who is impacted by the crisis.

"We're losing a full generations of moms and dads, leaving each these children," she said.

Erica Hennie, different organizer of the walk, said the thought came from a imagination Prosper had, telling her to bring consciousness of the contented and instrumentality action.

"She came to maine and asked maine if I'd assistance her, truthful that's what we did." Hennie said. "We enactment her imagination into the process of this walk."

Both women accidental the state indispensable enactment straight with Indigenous communities to grow entree to detox and treatment, including much addictions workers and culturally responsive attraction — earlier much lives are lost.

Betty Nippi-Albright, Opposition NDP MLA for Saskatoon Centre, said Tuesday that the strategy is failing radical successful crisis.

"We lone person a tiny model of accidental erstwhile idiosyncratic reaches retired for assistance and we request to beryllium there," said Nippi-Albright. "Three-digit waiting lists for detox is not good. Every azygous day, we perceive radical dying from fentanyl overdose. Crystal meth is ruining lives present successful this province, and the authorities needs to measurement up."

Nippi-Albright said healing indispensable beryllium community-driven and culturally grounded, and that Indigenous-led solutions request much enactment from the provincial government.