PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. -- A family desperately seeking answers to a loved one's disappearance is being allowed to continue searching for clues on a Manitoba reserve.
Bernice Catcheway -- whose daughter Jennifer disappeared seven years ago -- said the family was barred from searching the Dakota Tipi reserve after searchers brought in a backhoe recently.
Chief David Pashe said searchers were digging holes and knocking down trees with their equipment. He said he would need to see an RCMP search warrant before searchers would be allowed back in.
Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson, who represents northern First Nations, said she sat down with Pashe and his council Monday and the search will be allowed to continue.
"The chief and council will allow them to search and say they've never banned them," said North Wilson, with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. "They just wanted to protect the community from damage with the excavator."
The heavy equipment used in the most recent search was a "one-time offer" from another community and may not be used again, North Wilson added.
Grand Chief Derek Nepinak with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs also attended Monday's meeting with the Dakota Tipi leadership. He said the First Nation is deeply supportive of the Catcheway family and its ongoing search for Jennifer.
The First Nation was concerned because it doesn't have money to repair infrastructure damage "from significant excavations on the reserve" that don't advance the family's search, Nepinak said.
"The leadership wants to ensure that all leads are credible before further significant excavation happens," Nepinak said in a statement. "The leadership has been caught in a difficult scenario between voicing the raised concerns of their community members, while also demonstrating a commitment to help the Catcheway family continue their search."
Catcheway was 18 in June 2008 when she vanished from Grand Rapids while on her way to Portage la Prairie, Man. The family was searching the reserve after a tip that Catcheway may have gone to the community for a party before her disappearance.
The RCMP has said there is insufficient information to request a warrant to search the reserve's landfill or other areas where the searchers looked recently.
The Catcheway family is hoping the RCMP will follow up on some of the tips the family has received rather than search for answers on its own, North Wilson said.
"They're not putting all their hope in that because they haven't seen the RCMP do a lot of the legwork that they've done," she said.
"They're going to search no matter what."
