Trust, relationship need to be rebuilt

First Nation chiefs met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and 12 Cabinet ministers on Jan. 24 in Ottawa in the first ever Crown-First Nations gathering. The meeting was over a year in the planning and had been called for by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.

“(The chiefs are all) kind of optimistic, too. You want to believe something positive is going to happen,” said Tammy Cook-Searson, chief of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, one of 400 chiefs in attendance.

Cook-Searson said after listening to everyone speak it became clear to her that trust was the underlying issue.
“One of the things (Harper) said that kind of struck me is he said that trust was broken on both sides, meaning that they didn’t trust us and we didn’t trust them,” she said.

Too much bureaucracy and the Indian Act, she said, have in part led to that mistrust.

Mistrust is also about broken promises, said Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox in a prepared statement following the day’s events.

“As Nations, we held up our end of the Treaty, yet this government continues to only pay lip service to our relationship. There is no divisible Crown. Canada by way of the enactment of the Constitution of Canada is obligated as a Treaty partner. Otherwise it is in breach of its obligations and in breach of the Honour of the Crown when dealing with Treaty Nations on resource revenue sharing among other issues,” said Fox.

Fox was one of four members who comprised the Saskatchewan delegation that met with Harper the evening before the gathering. Also part of that delegate was Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation, Shoal Lake Cree Nation Chief Marcel Head and Little Black Bear First Nation Chief Perry Bellegarde.
Harper met with about 40 chiefs that evening.

Harper originally intended to be at the Jan. 24 meeting for only the morning. However, his schedule was reworked so he could remain for the day and also participate in break-out sessions.

Discussion centred mainly on economic development for First Nations and increasing employment, said Cook-Searson.

Three discussion groups were held and focussed on economic development, education and skills development, and treaty rights and land claims.

A progress report is to be presented no later than the one year anniversary of the meeting.