Western Standard - Can Alberta and Indigenous nations build a new path to prosperity？

00:00:00.000 Are we at war with America? It is certainly an economic confrontation and a clash of insults

00:00:06.260 upon which our sovereignty may be at risk. The battlefield fight hinges on whether Canada

00:00:12.200 can provide economic stability and prosperity in the face of not just the American administration's

00:00:18.680 belligerence, but also our own internal infighting and squabbling. Canada is belatedly coming

00:00:25.700 around to Alberta's position that we need to nurture prosperity, lean into resource development,

00:00:31.200 and build infrastructure to diversify our trade relationships. This is Nation of People.

00:00:55.700 I'm Natalie St. Hilaire, and with me today is Randy Royer and our first guest, Roy Fox, past chief of the Blood Tribe in Southern Alberta.

00:01:07.660 Today, we are discussing the question, can the diverse parts come together, figure out our differences, and align for mutual prosperity and security?

00:01:18.160 And can Alberta once again lead the way?

00:01:21.160 randy can you introduce roy fox for us thanks so much natalie um well it's my pleasure to

00:01:29.740 introduce roy fox uh as natalie said from the blood tribe and the guy and i travel uh blood

00:01:35.400 tribe in southern alberta and um uh it's important for us to uh to understand the indigenous uh in

00:01:43.360 alberta but uh if i may say um i've been given the the privilege of being able to say okina tsukawa

00:01:50.100 And so, Roy, how do you greet all our folks at home?

00:01:54.820 Friends and relatives, I am Makinima, and I send my greetings to all of you

00:02:18.980 who are listening to my words regarding Inesci, a sacred covenant,

00:02:26.360 as told to me by traditional and spiritual leaders

00:02:31.080 through their historical accountings.

00:02:35.980 Normally, that is the greeting that I would use.

00:02:39.740 I would say,

00:02:41.340 and I've translated to friends and relatives.

00:02:45.460 or I would say who I am and extend my greetings to all of you who are listening to the words that

00:02:58.500 we are we are saying. Thank you Roy. The Okinitsukawa is what was given to me to be able to say it which

00:03:06.100 is hello um welcome to our lands is that is that a good translation yes yes so i'll explain uh why

00:03:15.620 we've asked roy to be our first guest and that is is that we think the spotlight of history is coming

00:03:21.140 to alberta and specifically to our partnership with the indigenous communities in alberta of

00:03:27.060 course we've talked in the past at other episodes about the treaties are our foundational document

00:03:32.820 confederation came after that and uh and so we need to understand uh you know understand

00:03:39.300 our partners understand where they're coming from understand what a partnership in the future would

00:03:43.780 look like and i would suggest that if we can get this right we can show the west uh the rest of the

00:03:51.300 west which is most notably british columbia that there can be a great partnership and we can go

00:03:57.060 forward into prosperity together so that's why i think the spotlight is coming to calgary southern

00:04:03.220 alberta and to alberta at large and the indigenous communities here so that's why i thought it was so

00:04:09.140 important for you for you to have a bit of a feel for the indigenous communities particularly

00:04:15.060 blackfoot and uh and and and we can kind of go from there and if we can get this right

00:04:20.820 we can get a lot of other things right so thank you natalie yeah well i mean let's get personal

00:04:26.900 right off the bat how do you know each other anyways well as the saying goes we went to

00:04:33.380 separate schools together anyways uh we both attended uh the catholic central high school

00:04:40.740 in letbridge i was ahead of him by a few years and i knew some of his older brothers and

00:04:47.780 And one of his older brothers was actually the president of the student union of Catholic Central.

00:04:56.480 And later on, my younger brother, a little smarter than I am, he also became the president of the student body of Catholic Central.

00:05:08.480 So we got to know them.

00:05:10.160 And his family has been in the hotel business for a long time.

00:05:15.120 and they were also involved in sports and so on.

00:05:19.120 So we got to know each other that way.

00:05:23.180 And, you know, I certainly, you know,

00:05:25.860 growing up in the Catholic community in Lethbridge,

00:05:28.960 I certainly felt that the Kainai Blood Nation 0.99

00:05:32.400 and the Pikani were sort of, you know, 1.00

00:05:36.340 I call them my home crowd. 1.00

00:05:38.960 And so, you know, we grew up together,

00:05:41.520 we played sports together and all that stuff.

00:05:43.540 And Roy and I got to know each other kind of years later.

00:05:47.920 But Roy's been a great representative of the blood tribe just outside of Lethbridge.

00:05:55.260 And so that's kind of how we know each other.

00:05:58.420 Yeah.

00:05:59.000 So how big was the blood tribe like in and around Lethbridge?

00:06:02.360 What's the magnitude of that?

00:06:03.980 How big was the blood tribe?

00:06:05.060 Oh, well, our tribe, the reserve lands are the largest in Canada.

00:06:10.980 As well, we have approximately 13,000 members of the Blood Tribe.

00:06:18.780 Many of us do not live on the reserve anymore,

00:06:23.280 but still there is quite a number that still reside on the reserve.

00:06:30.180 Our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren still live there.

00:06:34.760 And the tribe, through its administration, through some of its corporate entities, service entities, we employ over 2,000 of our people there, which we're fortunate to have been able to establish.

00:06:52.700 It's perhaps greater than in some other First Nations.

00:06:56.960 What's life like on the reserve?

00:06:59.040 I grew up on our farm and ranch.

00:07:02.080 I did not speak English until I went to boarding school

00:07:07.760 and I was taught how to work on farm and ranch

00:07:11.620 our folks had raised cattle, horses of course

00:07:15.320 sheep, hogs, chickens

00:07:17.980 and we were taught how to work earlier on

00:07:22.000 and then we were sent off to boarding school

00:07:24.680 which is a whole different experience

00:07:27.040 but you know many of our people

00:07:31.060 you know really want to be productive members of not just the tribe but of society in general

00:07:41.040 so we see the value of work a value of having a good work ethic and we want to contribute

00:07:49.120 to the advancement of our people initially but as well to the advancement of Albertans

00:07:55.860 Canadians North Americans as well as other First Nations throughout the

00:08:01.800 Americas so we we we have been unfortunate in some ways in other ways

00:08:08.860 not so fortunate we have a great problem with drugs drug abuse and we're still

00:08:15.520 trying to to see how we can overcome overcome that problem but it's a hard

00:08:22.260 task and certainly one of the ways is to provide more employment more positive aspects for our

00:08:30.500 young people to begin to use we just opened up a twin rink facilities a few weeks ago in standoff

00:08:38.580 and uh and it will uh provide uh a recreational site not just for our people especially our young

00:08:47.860 people, but as well for the surrounding communities, you know. So, our people used to farm and ranch

00:09:00.500 a lot, not so much anymore, but we still carry on businesses and farming operations in the

00:09:07.460 agricultural sector. So we have maybe four or five schools, high school, middle school,

00:09:17.700 you know the younger ones and then and then education facilities for preschool and so on

00:09:27.780 so much of that education includes trying to ensure that our young people remember our history

00:09:39.220 and speak our language yeah it's quite a task in these days of technology so what's it like for

00:09:47.060 members of the tribe that end up living off the reserve in the cities or towns?

00:09:52.740 Well, I guess I was one of the first ones to leave the reserve for educational purposes. I

00:10:00.580 went to Lethbridge Catholic Central and took my grade 11 and 12. But the real reason I went to

00:10:07.460 Lethbridge was to play junior hockey and I met many fine teammates and to this day I stay

00:10:14.500 keep in contact with some of them and uh and we have developed a bond uh from that

00:10:23.460 junior hockey is uh is a great uh teacher uh of of young people i think uh teaches us the value

00:10:33.220 of hard work and preparing yourselves teaches you the importance of teamwork which i've used in my

00:10:41.540 later years whilst I became involved in tribal politics. So many of us now live off the reserve,

00:10:52.100 either to go to school, to go to colleges, universities to work there, and so on. So

00:11:01.380 So we want to ensure that the resources go to those that most need it.

00:11:11.780 We're okay.

00:11:12.940 We've had jobs and so on.

00:11:15.380 And we have had, we're given those opportunities.

00:11:18.740 And most times we accepted those opportunities.

00:11:21.920 And a part of that is having to leave the reserve.

00:11:24.880 But, of course, we stay in touch with our people back home all the time.

00:11:31.380 I still help our chief and counsel in some of the work that they do,

00:11:39.240 kind of an advisor to them in certain areas.

00:11:43.400 And, you know, we have many successful people.

00:11:49.400 From the reserve, we have doctors, lawyers, nurses,

00:11:56.440 people in the health profession, social workers, and other professions, other professions.

00:12:05.420 So, you know, sometimes we have to leave the reserve.

00:12:09.980 But we are drawn back to there.

00:12:13.260 If people need, I think that we can help with what is happening back home.

00:12:22.800 Well, if I may add to that, a bit of the testament of mixing the communities together was friendship.

00:12:29.220 And, you know, some of the friends that I had from the Pekani tribe were, frankly, they were great football players.

00:12:37.880 And if I may tell a quick story, in our high school, we had a great high school team at Catholic Central in football.

00:12:44.780 And we were going to the U.S. to play football.

00:12:48.520 So I'm going to tell that story, Roy.

00:12:49.980 there was about 12 000 people in the in the at the game and uh and so before we came to town they

00:12:57.080 had you know pictures of individual pictures of our entire team in the front in the center of the

00:13:01.500 of the local newspaper and uh i mean we got beat because we played their rules and we i think we

00:13:08.140 had three touchdowns called back because some obscure rule but uh but anyways at the at the

00:13:13.540 end we found out that that uh you know we went down there because we had actually never played

00:13:18.620 football against any african-americans so we were kind of like what is this going to be like

00:13:22.620 turns out they said what they said to us is well you guys have

00:13:25.820 indigenous guys on your teams we're afraid they're going to scalp us

00:13:31.500 so that program where you know there was an integration was it was a great program and i

00:13:38.140 think it uh brought a lot of good athletes to our school is what it did yeah um now so there's a

00:13:45.420 I mean, I'm curious about the governance, you know, on the tribes, like now versus traditionally, how have things shifted?

00:13:54.900 Well, the traditional governance of our people, not just the Ghanabla tribe, but the people of the Nitsitapi Confederacy, now called Blackfoot Confederacy.

00:14:07.180 You know, we had pretty solid traditional governance in place.

00:14:19.140 It was a lot of times the head chief was selected by wise people, by leaders,

00:14:32.420 by their immediate predecessors.

00:14:37.600 And so if you look at our traditional government,

00:14:42.080 you know, you go back to one of my great ancestors,

00:14:45.440 probably to the eighth generation,

00:14:48.540 who was our leader in the late 1800s,

00:14:54.520 late 1700s, pardon me, late 1700s.

00:14:58.840 His name was Stamikshulshuk.

00:15:01.180 And so in the early 1800s, he then bestowed his leadership to his son,

00:15:13.600 his biological son, who was also called Stomachrosa.

00:15:17.620 He was the better known leader, and he was our leader from perhaps 1820 to 1849.

00:15:26.800 And so each clan had their leaders.

00:15:31.180 And then they had the main head chief.

00:15:35.380 And so they carried on the governance of our people in as a fairer way as possible.

00:15:45.100 And then they relied on other aspects.

00:15:50.220 They relied on our spiritual leaders.

00:15:52.960 They relied on our tribe, our confederacy was very spiritual.

00:16:00.000 Had a lot of spiritual beliefs in the Creator, spiritual societies, holy people, people who carried thunder pipes, and so on, beaver bundles and the like.

00:16:11.220 So they relied on those a lot.

00:16:13.780 As well, our leadership knew the importance of women in leadership.

00:16:20.680 So much of the work was also carried on by our ladies.

00:16:26.740 so much that some of our ladies were warriors as well

00:16:32.900 and their stories about, you know,

00:16:35.560 accountings of some of their bravery over the years.

00:16:38.820 So then, you know, that carried on

00:16:41.860 and then the reserve system was introduced

00:16:45.860 after the inestia was made with the crown in 1877

00:16:53.840 and that's when reserves were made

00:16:58.020 and we can only live on reserves.

00:17:01.420 Roy, you told the story about the one maternal lady

00:17:06.060 that fought in the war.

00:17:08.200 Oh, yeah.

00:17:09.000 Well, that one, that's quite interesting.

00:17:11.500 You know, the accounting that had been given

00:17:13.500 from some historians is that she was involved.

00:17:20.080 She was involved in what people called the last great Indian battle between our confederacy and the iron confederacy.

00:17:36.300 Iron confederacy was composed of several tribes.

00:17:40.120 And of course, the Nisitna B confederacy, we had four tribes, sometimes five, sometimes six.

00:17:46.880 Anyways, the battle took place in 1870, and it was in the river bottom of Sikohkutuk, of Lethbridge, and one of the accountings was as they were driving the enemy back across the river.

00:18:03.640 The river was just red with the blood spilled by the enemy.

00:18:07.820 One of our ladies was one of the first that crossed,

00:18:12.560 and she had a six-shooter, or not necessarily a six-shooter, 1.00

00:18:16.260 but she had a hand pistol, and she was killing off the enemies, 0.98

00:18:20.900 and she became quite known for that. 0.98

00:18:24.300 So over the course of our history, we've had female members

00:18:32.440 that have become quite prominent some of my uh ancestors you know were were affiliated with

00:18:39.480 with leadership and uh and um and represented began a blood tribe in their trading activities

00:18:47.480 with the uh with the american fur company so there has been instances then i have some of

00:18:55.560 those accountings so what if i made that one of the things that that we have presented in this

00:19:00.840 podcast is that uh that the indigenous communities and i of course you know think of the guy night

00:19:07.640 uh you know it's a very strong uh democracy where people the individual members are respected

00:19:13.480 and uh and you're introducing the concept that they had a very strong maternal aspect to their

00:19:18.040 governance too but uh but was it a strong i mean you talked about the leaders was there a strong

00:19:24.840 relationship to the democracy of the of the of course it was not known as democracy it was just

00:19:33.000 one of the ways of our people as far as leadership was concerned and so you would have a head chief

00:19:40.680 you'd also have a war chief okay and then you would have clan leaders clan leaders initially

00:19:49.000 there was many more clans of the Ganablat tribe, but there's clans such as Mamioyiks,

00:19:56.440 the fish-eater clan, Akapukaks, the many children clan, Akaksimaks, many tumors band,

00:20:07.320 and many of them still exist today, even though some do not practice as clans anymore.

00:20:14.360 But you can really begin to see the importance of those clans, and the clan leaders themselves relied on members from their clan to give them direction, to give them direction.

00:20:30.160 The Klan leaders then gave direction to the head chief, and the war chief would come in in times of great peril, times of war where we had battles with other tribes.

00:20:46.980 so it's kind of structured but much of it is was based it's kind of still based on our spiritual

00:20:54.980 ways our our people and as well as the people of the of the great plains of the upper missouri

00:21:03.060 the tribes were very spiritual they believed in in in spirituality they believed in the creator

00:21:12.180 And so that is why even today, back home at least, with our Ghana Blood Tribe leaders, they still rely on advice, guidance from our spiritual leaders.

00:21:29.720 We have many societies that carry on with their practices,

00:21:35.520 and we have other spiritual leaders such as thunder pipe keepers and beaver bundle holders.

00:21:42.420 So that plays an important.

00:21:44.460 They don't really do make the political judgments, but they give advice.

00:21:51.720 They give advice. 0.78

00:21:52.560 And the Klan system, as far as governance, really is not used too much anymore.

00:22:00.160 Because we do have, we were, we began the voting, voting of our people in the early 60s.

00:22:11.680 And we would put in people every two years.

00:22:15.280 So there's a couple of things I'd like to highlight in what you said,

00:22:17.860 because it ties into what we have said in previous episodes.

00:22:21.760 and that's number one you said that the clan leaders advise the top leader yeah so in in our

00:22:30.640 system in ottawa it kind of goes the other way the top leader tells the clan leaders what to think

00:22:36.700 yeah yeah and it's a big difference it's a huge difference and that's and that's a fundamental

00:22:41.020 difference um and so that was the one thing that i i thought was very important um but now that

00:22:46.860 going to ask about. Yeah, well, I'm curious about your medallion. Oh, my medallion. This is the

00:22:53.580 chief's medallion that was given to my great ancestor, Stamik Sosak, who was our war chief

00:23:04.380 and our chief as well as the war chief of the whole confederacy. And the medallion was given

00:23:13.020 to him sometime in the 1820s, could have gone into the first part of the 1830s. It was given to him

00:23:24.940 as a result of an agreement. I don't know. I don't think it was a treaty. It might have been

00:23:30.060 that they had made, and that was one of the gifts that the American government had given to

00:23:36.860 our chief, and then the warchief of the Confederacy, and the medallion, it was minted in 1789,

00:23:50.940 1789, and it has a picture of a young George Washington. I believe he was the first

00:23:59.420 president of the USA. And so this was handed down from him to his son

00:24:08.420 to his son, to his nephew, to his nephew, so some of the leaders did not hand over

00:24:38.140 a chieftainship to their biological sons. At that time, many people adopted nephews or nieces

00:24:51.820 if they thought they were strong, if they had some promise of being good leaders.

00:24:59.580 And so this is what happened when Binakwim selected Red Crow,

00:25:10.620 seen from his nephew's son, which he had adopted.

00:25:14.600 Red Crow then did the same thing to his nephew's son,

00:25:19.400 Makwiyupistoki, crop-eared wolf.

00:25:22.900 Crop-eared wolf then bestowed it to his natural son,

00:25:25.880 Atzut was shot both sides and the same shot both sides bestowed it to his natural son Nadosap. 0.81

00:25:34.880 He achieved Jim shot both sides and when Chief Jim was going to retire, he asked his nephew if he would run on behalf of the Klan, on behalf of him. 0.77

00:25:47.880 And, of course, it took some time for Makinima to answer, because I was scared of the responsibility.

00:25:55.880 But in the end, my mother, my late mother, probably the third time I'd asked her, she said,

00:26:05.880 Your chief has asked something of you. Are you going to refuse him?

00:26:13.880 Are you going to refuse our leave?

00:26:19.320 That's all she needed to say.

00:26:20.620 I said, okay.

00:26:21.600 I finally told Chief Jim, all right, then.

00:26:24.040 I was fortunate enough to then be elected as well.

00:26:29.840 Oh, great.

00:26:30.700 But I have a quick question for you. 1.00

00:26:32.180 Shot in both sides is the name that I know from the Pekani. 0.70

00:26:35.180 Is the name Shot in both sides? 1.00

00:26:37.340 Shot in both sides, yeah. 1.00

00:26:38.100 Yeah, I know some of the guys that are on the Pekani tribe. 1.00

00:26:42.180 Are they the same family, or how does that work?

00:26:45.460 I don't think so.

00:26:47.320 Okay.

00:26:47.900 Shot Both Sides was given that name by his father.

00:26:53.380 His father was Maguiobistoki, Crop-Herd-Wolf, or Agata, the owner of many horses.

00:27:02.580 It was a feat that he had accomplished during a skirmish that they had had with enemies further south.

00:27:10.540 Okay, so it was quite a feat that he accomplished.

00:27:15.600 He was actually being shot from both sides as he dared them to hit him.

00:27:21.440 He ran through the valley bottom, and the enemy was shooting at him from both sides.

00:27:27.960 And he didn't carry a weapon.

00:27:29.800 He got to the end, stopped his horse, and came back.

00:27:33.400 It was only before he got back that he was shot in the leg.

00:27:37.680 He didn't get knocked off.

00:27:38.840 he didn't get enough but he made it back shortly after through sign language the enemy appeared on

00:27:46.560 the other side side saying things they basically told him we are going to leave now we're leaving

00:27:52.080 because man and his horse is going to defeat us so that's how he got his name and then he bestowed

00:27:58.660 it to his nephew oh yeah his son his son yeah that's a great story okay that that explains the

00:28:05.060 relationship there. That's great.

00:28:08.560 So, one of the things

00:28:09.620 we, you know, here at Nation

00:28:11.620 of People, we think big. And

00:28:13.520 one of the things we talk about is

00:28:14.980 we talk about reconfederating

00:28:17.460 the country. Yes. And

00:28:19.060 the position that I take

00:28:21.180 is that in order to do

00:28:23.520 that, we have to lay our foundational

00:28:25.320 things first. And to

00:28:27.560 me, that is that we have to

00:28:29.160 have what we've done in Alberta,

00:28:31.800 which is to start with

00:28:33.320 a strong treaty, adhere to it, and then we can build our confederation from there.

00:28:40.040 So I want to ask you, Roy, first of all, tell us your view of treaty and the history of treaties.

00:28:49.240 Sure. As I mentioned before, you know, treaty making in Nesci was a practice

00:28:59.720 that was has been there for a long time and again a blood tribe and the confederacy made in nasty

00:29:08.120 with some of our traditional enemies uh because uh our confederacy controlled a large area of land

00:29:18.600 uh the southern half of alberta southern uh or third of us of saskatchewan on the southern end

00:29:26.600 pretty well all of montana northern wyoming and into bc a little so

00:29:35.960 other tribes other nations also used the land probably also claimed it so many battles many

00:29:43.480 spirits skirmishes ensued and then after a while and again of the tribe and the confederacy

00:29:51.400 decided, well, maybe it's time to make peace with some of our treaty, and they probably felt the

00:29:58.500 same way. They probably got tired of killing each other. Anyways, so they came up with the highest

00:30:06.100 form of agreement that two people, two families, two clans, two nations can make to each other,

00:30:14.160 and it was called Inestsi, and that was it was a sacred covenant that they would no longer

00:30:20.860 harm each other, rather they would protect each other from others. So it's a very strict

00:30:28.940 sacred agreement that if you you had to adhere to it, if you didn't, there was tangible,

00:30:36.140 tangible things that happened to the offending party, and I can name some of them, but anyways,

00:30:44.160 And so it was a great respect for peace treaties, inestity.

00:30:50.060 Bringing it back into the Canadian context,

00:30:53.280 I want your view on the Treaty of 1877 was another inestity.

00:31:00.160 Yes. Inestity was a part of that.

00:31:03.220 And so that is a sacred trust.

00:31:06.560 A part of it, yes.

00:31:08.200 And I want to emphasize a couple of things here.

00:31:12.660 that that agreement was with the crown the crown and how did you refer to the crown the great the

00:31:18.500 the lady well the the representatives of the crown uh called the queen victoria your great

00:31:26.100 white grandmother great white grandmother okay so everybody gets that picture in their mind yeah

00:31:30.660 but it was actually with a person it wasn't with a thing or some ethereal nation that they

00:31:36.660 represented queen victoria yeah so it was actually with a person and and in in to this day uh and

00:31:44.100 this is my perspective on it is that everyone that has been invited here has a responsibility to those

00:31:49.540 treaties so we all have our own in this day uh yes to those treaties yes and that you know right from

00:31:56.740 the crown uh to the federal government to the provincial governments to everyone that lives here

00:32:02.660 and on your side, all the indigenous communities,

00:32:07.280 we all have this obligation to this partnership.

00:32:10.740 And we have a responsibility to respect it.

00:32:14.200 Yes.

00:32:14.580 Go forward.

00:32:15.300 There's a bit of a difference in thought

00:32:18.500 about the Blackfoot Treaty.

00:32:21.220 It was called initially the Blackfoot Treaty.

00:32:23.880 Then it was called Treaty No. 7.

00:32:26.360 But it was mainly because we were the overriding force,

00:32:30.960 the three tribes.

00:32:32.660 anyways, in Canada. And so our people, through the historical leadership, historical thought processes,

00:32:48.180 to them in Neschi was a peace treaty. However, the Queen's representatives changed that,

00:32:57.780 change that in the written treaty, where they deemed it as a land sale. Our ancestral leaders

00:33:09.360 had no comprehension of someone being able to sell land, you know, to talk about the usage of

00:33:17.400 that. So that was a basic difference between the original intent and the true spirit of that

00:33:29.040 Blackfoot or Treaty No. 7 as understood by our traditional leaders because none of them knew

00:33:38.460 how to speak English. None of them knew how to read the written English words, so they relied

00:33:45.060 on translators a lot translators to a large extent really didn't know either the english

00:33:53.040 language or our language to to a great extent and so there was as mentioned before unfortunately

00:34:00.260 during that time as well there was a lot of misinformation yeah which led to a lot of

00:34:06.960 misinterpretation which unfortunately led to a lot of misrepresentation the land sale being one of

00:34:14.280 them. So the inestity was conducted, and it is that part that our people, our spiritual leaders,

00:34:24.000 our elders, historians, our leaders now still respect. The part of that was sacred. We can

00:34:32.680 never go against an inestity. We can never go. And that's why we respect it, even though we

00:34:40.000 question, the deviousness, the skullduggery that took place in including the land sale on paper.

00:34:49.840 That's one of the basic differences, but there was a sacred treaty, sacred agreement. Our people

00:34:57.760 still adhere to it. I know I've read the treaties, and the way I read the plain English is that we're

00:35:04.000 sharing the land yes they agreed to share the surface of the land yeah because then they knew

00:35:10.720 the importance of agriculture absolutely there is a sign they used to use it went like this

00:35:16.080 to the depth of the plow yeah oh right yeah yeah so it indicated that was for the surface yeah

00:35:24.000 and so when we talk about a new in destiny uh we're talking about a new modern version of that

00:35:31.040 partnership of that sharing the land and about going forward making that the foundation of what

00:35:36.640 a new and better canada you know forming this partnership that we can uh you know move forward

00:35:41.680 with and you know and for those in british columbia who i suggest are are going to be

00:35:47.600 the critical ones that decide what happens in this in this near term if i may i'd like to

00:35:53.360 kind of get into some of the hot hot issues you kind of mentioned one which is the subsurface

00:35:58.400 rights yep um yeah i i i don't think we need to go too deeply into it but if i may say that uh

00:36:06.000 roy that there's there's a feeling that um that there's the indigenous should have some

00:36:12.800 participation in the royalties that come out of the ground yes and so in that light uh we actually

00:36:18.480 have an alternate proposal and this is sort of in the context if we were sitting down together and

00:36:22.640 trying to find a compromise uh one of the compromises that i think of is that the

00:36:27.600 The Indigenous also have an issue of getting finances

00:36:31.360 for individual people, as you said,

00:36:35.420 getting a sense of purpose. 1.00

00:36:37.940 When one of my friends died from the Pikani, 0.97

00:36:41.700 his family said, you know, we need purpose in our people. 0.90

00:36:46.520 And part of the purpose is getting economically integrated

00:36:51.060 into what happens.

00:36:53.280 And so one of the proposals we're looking at

00:36:56.480 is putting an idea on the table

00:37:01.240 of sharing the royalties,

00:37:03.100 but having the money on the Indigenous side

00:37:05.420 going into a sovereign fund.

00:37:07.700 So call it the Indigenous Sovereign Fund.

00:37:09.920 And that fund could do a number of things.

00:37:12.980 One is microloans to the Indigenous community.

00:37:16.360 The other is to provide the financial backstop.

00:37:19.240 Yes.

00:37:20.300 And another is to invest in projects.

00:37:24.580 Yes.

00:37:24.820 And we actually didn't talk about this. Can you talk about your Timothy project on the band?

00:37:31.620 Yeah. You know, before then, I just want to say that our traditional leaders dating all the way back to Stammy Cruz realized the importance of earning your own resource, earning your own money, so to speak.

00:37:54.820 Because that is what they have always tried to do through the trading they did of an important raw product at the time, a commodity at the time, which was buffalo ropes.

00:38:08.760 So they learned to trade that and they learned to accumulate finished goods from that, from their trading, especially weaponry.

00:38:18.600 So they did that.

00:38:20.040 So they knew that importance.

00:38:22.240 today i think we call it financial sovereignty and i've tried to practice that as well as

00:38:30.000 others from from our tribe our leadership practice that in that we should always strive

00:38:38.720 to to have our own economies to make our existing economy stronger because if you look at most

00:38:48.000 Most tribes, most indigenous nations in North America, a lot of them like to spout that they are sovereign.

00:38:59.740 But you can't really be sovereign if you're not financially sovereign.

00:39:04.280 You're at the beck and call of other governments, which is not a sign of sovereignty.

00:39:09.880 So we've tried to practice.

00:39:11.120 And one of the projects that we've gone into is an agriculture project, the Blood Tribe Irrigation Project, whereby we have the largest irrigation farm in Canada in one contiguous area.

00:39:28.180 and we have pretty well determined that the main crop that we grow there,

00:39:39.920 that we continue to grow, is Timothy Hay.

00:39:44.080 Timothy Hay is a commodity that is sought after worldwide.

00:39:53.240 Initially, we reached agreements with Japan, we reached agreement with the second largest trading house in the world, Sumitomo, and we built a plant right on site, and much of the land was farmed for Timothy, many Timothy fields.

00:40:16.680 And so after the harvest, we bring them to the central area, and then we process and compress the Timothy.

00:40:30.860 And almost 100% of the processed Timothy is marketed worldwide, initially to Japan, to the one company.

00:40:41.940 now several companies, South Korea, Taiwan, even mainline China, the Emirates, our cousins, the

00:40:51.060 Brits, our other cousins, the Irish, and some to the States, not so much. So this is, it was a,

00:40:59.300 it was a worldwide opportunity. And we took advantage of it. And, you know, this operation

00:41:08.900 employs over 100 people, some of them seasonal, from the tribe, as well as bringing back the latest

00:41:21.140 count before we brought back close to 11 million people back in wages, in profits, in lease payments,

00:41:28.900 and in contracts that were done.

00:41:33.460 And, you know, it's a totally self-sufficient corporate entity.

00:41:39.620 And it's growing.

00:41:41.780 Next year, next year, if not already,

00:41:46.200 we will become the largest exporter of Timothy Hay in all of North America.

00:41:54.300 In all of North America. 0.99

00:41:55.160 Again, we will beat the Yanks. 1.00

00:41:56.660 So I hope you're listening there in Washington. 0.75

00:42:01.220 Well, that actually, Rory, one of the other topics is economic sovereignty.

00:42:07.960 Yes.

00:42:08.600 And economic autonomy.

00:42:10.560 And one of the things that I've seen is the Indian Act and the Indigenous Affairs Department are deeply entwined in all of the activities.

00:42:20.960 I mean, land transfers, we can talk about that.

00:42:23.740 But it's deeply entwined.

00:42:25.240 And the question is, is in this new updated treaty partnership, one of the possibilities that I want to put on the table is advancing that autonomy.

00:42:39.440 And so, you know, in treaties, we have this individual relationship for each of us that we've committed to certain things in the treaties.

00:42:46.760 It's very clearly laid out, which nowadays means money.

00:42:49.600 and so what rather than having us send our taxes to ottawa and then they do what they administer

00:42:56.320 it very in a very expensive way and then some of it comes back through the indian affairs office

00:43:02.360 our indigenous affairs office what what we're kind of wanting to put on the table is this concept of

00:43:07.740 instead of that cycle we go to ottawa and say okay we want to reduce our tax and we're going to lock

00:43:13.620 that in and so take the whatever the rate is lock it in and we're not going to pay that number

00:43:18.880 but what we will do is we'll add that number to all of our property taxes and so uh it's

00:43:25.780 administered by the province because they administer municipal taxes so take a sliver

00:43:30.280 a little bit from every piece of real estate so instead of the small number of people that

00:43:35.680 i think 30 percent of canadians pay net taxes this translates to everybody whether you're in

00:43:41.760 alberta if you have a footprint in alberta you pay this municipal tax that then goes to

00:43:48.120 the Indigenous communities, and you do your own administration, you do all of that yourself,

00:43:52.580 it gives you that financial autonomy. But most importantly, right now, our situation is that

00:43:59.280 when somebody comes in and wants to develop anything, a new mine, you know, like in the

00:44:05.920 Crow's Nest Pass there, there's no real financial advantage, no financial benefit for the Indigenous

00:44:13.120 communities to say yes we're you know we're not on the same page so if we restructure this and say 0.87

00:44:19.120 if we get better economics you get better economics being both sides do better uh that

00:44:26.860 means that you know we're on the same page and we both want to see development because we're both

00:44:31.480 benefit from it there's nothing wrong with uh making money uh with other groups if we can both

00:44:41.280 make money from some kind of a venture and agreement it should make sense anyways we

00:44:49.360 realized the importance of partnership we realized the importance that each party in that partnership

00:44:57.600 has to have some gain yes exactly otherwise you know why go into it you know why go into it and so

00:45:04.560 we've been doing that and we've been helped by uh uh you know a partner that we've developed over

00:45:12.160 the years from the states very smart people uh and we've gone into some of those areas of investment

00:45:20.080 initially in the oil and gas subsequently in the agricultural sector we had a a big expansion

00:45:29.360 of our irrigation project right we developed a corporate entity called gana

00:45:37.440 oh anyways that that's the that the the the business arm yep of the irrigation development

00:45:44.160 gana forage and they are the business partners and they do all the things but we have a partnership

00:45:50.960 with an equity provider and so you know we have to find innovative ways of accessing capital

00:45:58.560 because if you look at the existing federal legislation you know we we have a little chance

00:46:05.040 of securing uh great amounts of cash to go into business initiatives but if we have something like

00:46:12.240 this this would be the ideal vehicle to use you know and so you know that is something that we've

00:46:19.760 looked at before i think it'll i'm pretty sure it's going to work and uh and uh and uh it could

00:46:27.120 be of benefit to more than just a small select group of First Nations. It could benefit. And

00:46:35.920 the province would gain from that. The province would gain from that. The feds would gain from

00:46:41.680 that. So it's something that it's an agreement that could be daunting to undertake. But if we

00:46:51.600 all see you know the results at the end of the tunnel it should spur us on to really go into

00:47:00.880 that kind of activity and even though sometimes we have we don't see eye to eye with some federal

00:47:10.880 or provincial politicians you know that sometimes we can lay aside and we can learn more from each

00:47:19.360 other from these kind of partnerships if there is something that draws two groups together

00:47:29.600 is the financial or business uh um agreement that you could put in place if if you do business

00:47:40.480 together you get to know each other better well you make money together that's a good feeling you

00:47:45.040 So having everybody on the same page, if we're, you know, if we're driving in this war with the United States to advance our economy, you know, I think we need to update our partnership all across the board and get everybody on the same page so that development is something that helps everybody.

00:48:04.000 And as you said, you know, the Indigenous, in your tribe and many others, proven that they know how to handle money and proven that they can do that.

00:48:14.760 And then if we lay on top of that, the sovereign fund and then the concept of direct, it's almost like being a landlord, you know, fulfilling our obligations in treaty, you know, in a direct way rather than funneling it through the federal government.

00:48:32.280 And then the final piece of it that I would put on the table is I think we need to have a political partnership, too.

00:48:38.660 And to me, that means let's have an elected Senate and let's have Indigenous have a certain number of seats inside that Senate.

00:48:47.340 But we won't go into that deal right now.

00:48:49.960 Natalie, I'm going to turn it over to you.

00:48:52.280 Roy, thank you very much for coming on the show.

00:48:55.660 It's been wonderful and I really appreciate it.

00:48:58.260 Thank you.

00:48:58.600 And I hope that the football clubs in Southern Alberta are still doing well

00:49:02.660 and enriched by some young athletes from both the Pekani and Gainai Reserves.

00:49:10.000 Yeah, I'm sure they'll do better than what our team is doing in Calgary.

00:49:18.820 Thank you very much, Rohi.

00:49:20.480 You're welcome. Thank you.

00:49:22.040 Thank you.

00:49:22.680 We are in this together, like it or not.

00:49:25.340 Our sovereignty is being assailed.

00:49:27.960 We either work collaboratively, as our forebearers did, or we will pay the price together.

00:49:33.560 And if we, in Alberta, can figure out the path forward in partnership, then we can set a roadmap

00:49:39.720 for others, like British Columbia, the West's other great powerhouse. Thanks to Roy Fox for

00:49:46.600 joining us today. It has been wonderful to have you here.

Western Standard - September 30, 2026

Can Alberta and Indigenous nations build a new path to prosperity？

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