Ah neen, Elders, members, youth and children! It is my hope that your families are well, your children are attending school, and if you are parents, you are working. Thank you to the community for supporting my family and me personally during my time of need. From my family, we know some of you understand so thank you! This past month, we have been busy with strategic planning, negotiations and researching options. We are trying to find opportunities for long term employment and build our entrepreneurs. Sometimes it is overwhelming as Leaders must think about so many options, legalities, opportunities, and barriers. We have to learn a great deal from each other, educate one another, and be tolerant of each other. This can be difficult especially when our Senior Managers have to go all the way to Ottawa to get our voices heard and needs met.
Our Band and Financial Manager went to Ottawa on our behalf to meet with Deputy Ministers and their advisors and they presented on all of our behalf, thank you. They also did a presentation in which Councilor Barry attended. Thank you again for our Senior Manager’s dedication to our community and Leadership.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves and government(s) that our Treaty governance structure is also theirs. O’Chiese First Nation, according to government legal formalities and recognition is that our Nation has been in existing since the signing of the Treaty 6 Adhesion of May 1950. We however, know that we have been here since time immemorial. As a Leader, I cannot help but to contemplate how our ancestors fought to entrench and establish the treaty between the newly made federal governments of 1867. The spirit and intent of treaty 6 is to respect, honour and uphold the long term commitment from the federal government its’ secondary government and their constituents. We always had the right and continue to have the right to determine how we govern ourselves. We exercise our rights within the treaty for the continued evolution and advancement of our community in all areas: socio-economically, culturally and spiritually for the provision of an increased quality of life for our people.
As a Leader, not only do I have to acknowledge and govern in the system that the Ancestors provided for us but I also have to govern in our cultural way of life. These two go hand in hand, as our ancestors used ceremony, culture, and tradition to ensure a strong bond. Today, we must continue to strengthen, enforce, and protect the Treaty contents as the world around us becomes more complicated and more populated with immigrants.
As leaders, we must understand the full force and effect of the Treaty 6 and possibly other treaty entities (federal government, BNA Act, constitutional acts, the natural resources transfer act of 1930 [which was enacted without the consultation of First Nations], provincial legislations, municipal governments, policies and legal entities) that impact our way of life. Today, in order to ensure our way of life, to reduce other governmental impacts, to govern with the traditional tools, and to learn with new tools we must become familiar with the legal formalization of all governments.
O’Chiese First Nation recognizes that governing a community requires policies and regulations to assist in manageable and informed decisions. This is why we have created a governance document handbook with future potential leadership in mind as it explains that many historical documents and various levels of governing bodies that influence and impact our way of life. As always, I thank the community, elders, and employees for their continued support, encouragement, and prayers. Always my biggest supporters, my wife and family; I thank you.
Respectfully, Chief Darren Whitford, O’Chiese First Nation