Over the eight years that I have been the Chief of Missanabie Cree First Nation, I have had the opportunity to represent our community in many different forums. Those forums ranged from local events to provincial events to national and international events.

 As an example, when I first met with the former Minister of Natural Resources, David Ramsey in 2004, he was not aware of the struggle Missanabie Cree faced in trying to get our land back and to settle our land claim. Minister Ramsey listened to our story and offered, what many other ministers and bureaucrats offered –to see what he could do.

 I went back to the Minister numerous times after, continued to explained to him our difficulties, our history, how we had been neglected by both provincial and federal governments and through all this adversity, how we started businesses, eliminated our debt and ran an annual surplus. He was impressed by the steps we had taken to be  progressive and self-determining. He became the champion with his cabinet colleagues to offer Missanabie Cree a portion of the land that we are entitled to as a First Nation community.  More meetings followed whereby the Minister continued to offer his support for our community to get our land back, eventually sending a letter to me outlining the steps his government would take to address our landless status.

 That was three years ago and it seems that we are still on the starting blocks and race has not started yet. We are further along the road of getting our land back but Michipicoten First Nation opposition to the land transfer has slowed the process down. Their argument is that we are asking for land outside our traditional treaty area even though our ancestors lived and died for generations on that land. Our team, chaired by Audrey Bateson, is working hard to overcome those roadblocks set up by our neighbour to the south.

 At last year’s gathering, Chief and Council presented the members with Canada’s offer  for the settlement of the Treaty Land Entitlement claim. As you are aware we had been negotiating with Canada for over ten years and had reached a point in which both Canada and our team felt we needed to bring the offer to the members to see if the community wanted to further investigate the offer or reject it outright.

It was clear from the initial spirit of the comments that the members in attendance wanted nothing to do with the offer of thirty million dollars ($30,000,000.00). The comments ranged from the fact that we had been without a land base for well over one hundred years to the loss our community suffered from the forced displacement of our people to the withdrawal of the government of Canada’s offer to rebuild our community above and beyond the compensation offer.

 Shortly after the community members turned down the offer, I informed the federal government in a letter that from our perspective, our community felt the price we have paid was too great to accept the offer that was made. 

 Chief and Council have been working with our legal team since then to look at all options to address our land claim issue. We have started legal action against both the province and Canada that will clearly demonstrate that our community has been unjustly treated and both governments have not supported Missanabie Cree to the extent they have supported other First Nations. As many of you are aware, anytime legal action is undertaken, it will have a considerable financial cost associated with the court action. We are looking at securing a combination of our own resources, bank loans and government programs to fund our work.

 On a parallel course, we are also seeking to have our case brought before the new Federal Land Claim Tribunal. The tribunal is legislated to address issues whereby if Canada and a First Nation cannot come to terms (similar to ours), the tribunal will act as an arbitrator of last resort and their ruling will finalize the process. There are funds available for communities to bring their claim to the tribunal process. As the Specific Claims Tribunal process is new, we are not sure the date in which our claim will be brought before the Tribunal, but we have been assured that we will be at or very near the first in line to have our claim addressed.

 This summer is turning out to be very busy with elections for the Chiefs of Ontario (COO), Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

 The Chiefs of Ontario is the organizing group that brings together the First Nation communities across the province. There are 134 First Nation communities in Ontario and the COO lobby the federal and provincial governments. The election this summer will be for the Regional Chief who in turn represents Ontario communities on the national stage with the other Regional Chiefs that sit on the executive committee of the Assembly of First Nations. The Regional Chief for COO is Angus Toulouse and he will be seeking re-election for a second term. At this time, I am not sure who the other candidates are.      Elections occur every three years. This year the Batchewana First Nation hosts the COO assembly and elections on July 7-9. For more information, please visit their website at www.coo.on.ca.

 Missanabie Cree is one of 49 communities that comprise the membership of NAN. This year there will be an election for the Grand Chief of NAN. The elections will be held during the Keewaywin conference (NAN’s annual summer assembly). This year the Chapleau Cree First Nation hosts the Keewaywin Assembly from August 11-13. Elections for Grand Chief and three deputy Chiefs are held every three years. The present Grand Chief is Stan Beardy and the deputy Chiefs are: Alvin Fiddler, Roseanne Archibald and Terry Waboose. For more information on NAN go to www.nan.on.ca.

 Every three years an election for the National Chief of the AFN is held and this year it will be in Calgary July 21-23. It was announced early in June that Phil Fontaine, the National Chief for three terms (1997-2000, 2003-2009) will not be seeking re-election for a fourth term. The National Chief has demonstrated exemplary leadership and courage in the face of extreme challenges, extreme adversity from federal government actions. The new National Chief will have very large shoes indeed to fill for the next three years.

 There are five challengers for the position of National Chief of the AFN for this year. They are: Shawn Atleo (BC), Bill Wilson (BC), Perry Bellgarde (SK), Chief Terry Nelson (MB), John Beaucage (ON). Each candidate has a web site for more information. For more information about the AFN go to www.afn.ca

 With the retirement from politics at this level, the National Chief is leaving the AFN in the strongest position it has ever enjoyed since it was formed (initially as the Indian Brotherhood in the early 1970s) and with the highest level of awareness with the Canadian public it has ever had.

 The National Chief had been instrumental in raising the awareness of our issues and finding support for making necessary changes that contribute to positive change for our communities and for our members across Canada.

 The Kelowna Accord, the Residential School Settlement, the Corporate Challenge, and the formal apology by the Prime Minister for all our members who are directly and indirectly affected by the Residential School era are all examples of successes that are directly tied to the vision of Phil Fontaine and work done by the AFN staff under his direction and supported by the Chiefs from coast to coast.

 I am fortunate to include the National Chief as a personal friend. I have had the good fortune to have watched his work as the Grand Chief of Manitoba First Nations to his rise as the National leader of 633 communities nation wide. Recently, I was invited to a retirement party for the National Chief in Toronto, hosted by many corporations that have worked closely with the National Chief over the years. I was honoured to have been asked to say a few words at the event expressing that I was sorry to see The National Chief step down but was understanding of his need to walk a different path and find new challenges for the years ahead.

 The National Chief looked relaxed and content with his decision. While I also understand the difficulty of leaving a job to which he committed so much of his energy and time, he looked content to know that it was time to move on. It will truly be big moccasins to fill – good luck to all the candidates for all the elections.

            -Okie Mahkan Glenn Nolan