Peguis First Nation, Manitoba, has announced trustee elections for its Treaty Land Entitlement Trust, a key body that oversees the community’s land rights and financial compensation from a historic settlement. The call for candidates was posted on July 9, 2026, by communications officer Douglas Thomas and featured prominently on the Peguis First Nation homepage.
The Peguis Treaty Land Entitlement Trust manages a 2008 agreement with Canada and Manitoba that includes $64.4 million in compensation and the right to acquire up to 166,794 acres of additional reserve land. That settlement addressed a long-standing shortfall from Treaty 1, signed in 1871, which promised 160 acres for every family of five but was never fully honoured.
The trust is unusual in having two groups of trustees — Financial Trustees and Community Fund Trustees — who work alongside the chief and council to guide the trust’s goals, including a $5 million Community Fund for education, culture, recreation, and business. The current election follows a separate trustee vote held in January 2025 for the Peguis First Nation Real Estate Trust and Chief Peguis Investment Trust, which replaced trustees originally appointed under former chief Glenn Hudson’s administration.
Current Chief Dr. Stan Bird, elected in April 2023, and council serve as initial trustees until member-elected trustees take office. The upcoming vote gives the roughly 11,400 members — both on and off reserve — a direct say in who will manage the community’s expanding land base and future development.
The treaty land entitlement trust is separate from the Peguis Surrender Claim Trust, a $126-million settlement reached in 2009 after Canada recognized that a 1907 land surrender was invalid. Details on nomination deadlines and voting dates for the TLE trustee elections have not yet been released.
