Yellow Quill First Nation is located about 260 kilometres east of Saskatoon. Yellow Quill First Nation is located about 260 kilometres east of Saskatoon. (Canadian Press)

Three officials from the Yellow Quill First Nation in Saskatchewan have been charged with theft, after RCMP investigated how money from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation was spent.

Officers have been looking into the case since April 2008, when they received information supporting allegations of theft, the RCMP said Monday in a news release.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a national agency that gives money to First Nations for counselling former residential school students and related activities.

Charles Bighead, 58, Doreen Ahpay, 60, Valene Smokyday, 39, held "health portfolio positions" with the Yellow Quill First Nation, the RCMP said.

Police have not released the amount the three are alleged to have stolen, but each is charged with theft over $5,000.

They are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday in Rose Valley.

Yellow Quill First Nation was part of a major news story in February 2008 when two young girls froze to death in -40 C weather. Santana and Kaydance Pauchay, aged one and three, were found dead in a snowy field dressed in light clothes.

A year later, their father, Christopher Pauchay, was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary after pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing death.

The case brought to light problems of substance abuse on the reserve, which is located about 260 kilometres east of Saskatoon.