A modern-day group of Papaschase descendants are working to advance their treaty rights and reclaim their reserve's land or get compensation for its loss.
Frank Oliver, in particular, advocated in his local newspaper, the Edmonton Bulletin, for the removal of the Papaschase Cree from their reserve and for the land to become available to settlers.
[2] In 1886, around 80 Papaschase members remained on the reserve, as many had taken Métis scrip due to starvation, broken treaty promises, and lack of assistance from the government.
[3] According to Olson (n.d.), "the Papaschase band lost its entire reserve in South Edmonton under highly questionable circumstances when three men signed a surrender document on November 19, 1888, at a meeting called with four days notice by the government agent.
[5] In August 2006, at least 31 Papaschase ancestral remains were repatriated – some that were being held at the Medical Examiner’s Office and the University of Alberta’s Anthropology Department – and a reburial ceremony took place at the Epcor’s Rossdale site, which had been recognized as a historic cemetery and is protected by law.
As of 2012[update], around 1,000 people claim to be descendants of the Papaschase band, who they argue was illegally evicted from their reserve to make way for settlement and to give the railway access to their land.