Reconciliation seems to have hit a wall and there has been very little progress this year.
It’s one more trip around the sun for this old world and this is the time that pundits and political prognosticators give their predictions for the year to come. In the absence of any such persons, I will attempt to map out the coming year in Indian Country.
Cindy Woodhouse from Manitoba is the new national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and she has her work cut out for her if she plans to bring change to the organization.
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The campaign for the leadership was fought by six contenders and calls for a forensic audit were silent, and any criticism against the federal government was muted. Instead, there were unity speeches and commitments to work together.
According to Dan David, a well-respected Mohawk journalist, the AFN has lost its way. In an opinion piece published in APTN he outlined his concerns.
Under previous leaders, the Department of Indian Affairs, now Indigenous Services Canada, neutralized the national office by placing officials on loan who created a cozy relationship with the national chief and the Department of Indian Affairs.
This neo-colonial relationship would have been heavily criticized in the past, but now it’s acceptable because so many chiefs have adopted an administrative approach to governance.
Many years ago, an elder told me that in the future our leaders would be co-opted and become the equivalent of Indian agents. It appears his prediction is coming true.
Former chief RoseAnne Archibald wanted a forensic audit and an end to this compromising relationship. Unfortunately, it was quite acceptable to the chiefs and the result was a non-confidence vote followed by her resignation. Will Cindy Woodhouse knuckle under or will she also want to pursue an agenda for change?
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Her first challenge will be to address the concerns related to the federal government’s clean water legislation. Two organizations representing 100 First Nations in Manitoba and Alberta have raised their concerns and want the bill rewritten.
This fall, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations will hold elections for chief, currently held by Bobby Cameron, first vice chief, currently David Pratt, and third vice chief, currently Aly Bear. The outcome will set the organization’s agenda for the next three years.
Reconciliation seems to have hit a wall and there has been very little progress this year.
The Yellowhead institute recently announced it will stop issuing reports about the progress of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s progress on the calls to action because so little is being done. The Yellowhead Institute is an Indigenous think tank that develops Indigenous policy perspectives.
Reconciliation never really caught on with the Saskatchewan government. There have been no meaningful initiatives at reconciliation. Instead, the provincial government has been selling off pastureland without any consideration to land claims or treaty land entitlement.
On the corporate front, reconciliation has taken a serious hit. In 2021 the Canadian National Railway assembled a blue-ribbon advisory council. Roberta Jamieson and Murray Sinclair were named co-chairs. Jamieson was the former president of Indspire, a national educational and cultural organization.
Before that, she was the first Indigenous woman to graduate from law school and the Ontario ombudsperson. Sinclair was a former associate chief judge of the provincial court of Manitoba, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a former member of the Senate of Canada.
The advisory commission also included Phil Fontaine, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Leanne Bellegarde, a well-known lawyer from Saskatchewan.
This December, two years after the advisory group was formed, all 12 members resigned, stating the company would neither recognize past wrongs nor accept their recommendations.
If the company had treated the advisory council with the respect they deserved, they would have had groundbreaking advice that would have placed the CNR in the forefront.
When future historians look back on the effects of reconciliation, they will see a trail of missed opportunities.
2024 could be a breakthrough year for First Nations-Canadian relations or just another plodding year of placing more restrictions on our treaties as well as kicking problems down the road. We could see some meaningful change, but we need some political will from all the parties.
Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.
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