Western Standard - October 01, 2026


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

Mentioned
Roy Fox Natalie St. Hilaire Ghana Blood Mamioyiks Akapukaks Inesci Queen
Happy Truth & Reconciliation Day! The Kamloops child burial issue is a hoax! AI is getting smarter fast. Should that scare us？

Episode Stats


Length

25 minutes

Words per minute

133.19

Word count

3,374

Sentence count

105

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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 introduce
00:01:30.080 roy fox uh as natalie said from the blood tribe and the gainai blood tribe in southern alberta
00:01:37.180 and um it's important for us to uh to understand the indigenous uh in alberta but uh if i may say
00:01:45.180 um i've been given the the privilege of being able to say okay so i'll explain uh why we've
00:01:53.660 asked roy to be our first guest and that is is that we think the spotlight of history is coming
00:01:58.940 to alberta and specifically to our partnership with the indigenous communities in alberta of
00:02:04.860 course we've talked in the past at other episodes about the treaties are our foundational document
00:02:10.540 confederation came after that and and so we need to understand uh you know understand our partners
00:02:17.900 understand where they're coming from understand what a partnership in the future would look like
00:02:22.460 and i would suggest that if we can get this right we can show the west uh the rest of the west
00:02:29.660 which is most notably british columbia that there can be a great partnership and we can go forward
00:02:35.180 into prosperity together so that's why i think the spotlight is coming to calgary southern alberta
00:02:41.580 and to alberta at large and the indigenous communities here so that's why i thought it
00:02:46.620 was so important for you for you to have a bit of a feel for the indigenous communities particularly
00:02:52.860 blackfoot and uh and and and we can kind of go from there and if we can get this right we can
00:02:58.860 get a lot of other things right so thank you natalie you know many of the many of our people
00:03:04.220 You know, really want to be productive members of not just the tribe, but of society in general.
00:03:14.220 So we see the value of work, the value of having a good work ethic, and we want to contribute to the advancement of our people initially,
00:03:25.220 initially but as well to the advancement of albertans canadians north americans as well as
00:03:32.500 other first nations throughout the america so we uh we we have been unfortunate in some ways
00:03:40.980 in other ways not so fortunate we have a great problem with drugs drug abuse and we're still
00:03:48.820 trying to to see how we can overcome overcome that problem but it's a hard task and certainly
00:03:57.140 one of the ways is to provide more employment more positive aspects for our young people
00:04:04.820 to begin to use we just opened up a twin rink facilities a few weeks ago in standoff and
00:04:12.100 And it will provide a recreational site, not just for our people, especially our young people, but as well for the surrounding communities, you know.
00:04:25.100 So we, our people used to farm and ranch a lot, not so much anymore, but we still carry on businesses and farming operations in the agricultural sector.
00:04:42.100 So we have maybe four or five schools, high school, middle school, the younger ones,
00:04:54.040 and then education facilities for preschool and so on.
00:05:00.520 So much of that education includes trying to ensure that our young people remember our history
00:05:11.700 and speak our language we have many successful people from the reserve we have doctors lawyers
00:05:22.080 nurses people in the health profession social workers and other professions other professions
00:05:33.160 so you know sometimes we have to leave the reserve but we are drawn back to there
00:05:40.860 if people need, I think that we can help
00:05:45.880 with what is happening back home.
00:05:51.420 Now, so there's a, I mean, I'm curious about the governance,
00:05:56.260 you know, on the tribes, like now versus traditionally.
00:06:01.280 How have things shifted?
00:06:03.200 Well, the traditional governance of our people,
00:06:06.340 not just the Ghana blood tribe,
00:06:08.460 but the people of the Mississippi Confederacy, now called Blackfoot Confederacy,
00:06:15.860 you know, we had pretty solid traditional governance in place.
00:06:25.020 It was a lot of times the head chief was selected by wise people, by leaders, by their immediate predecessors.
00:06:44.020 And so if you look at our traditional government, you know, you go back to one of my great ancestors, probably to the eighth generation, who was our leader in the late 1800s, late 1700s, pardon me, late 1700s.
00:07:06.400 His name was Stamikshusak, and so in the early 1800s, he then bestowed his leadership to his son, his biological son, who was also called Stamikshusak.
00:07:25.000 He was the better-known leader, and he was our leader from perhaps 1820 to 1849.
00:07:34.360 And so each clan had their leaders, and then they had the main head chief.
00:07:42.940 And so they carried on the governance of our people in as a fairer way as possible.
00:07:52.660 And then they relied on other aspects.
00:07:57.780 They relied on our spiritual leaders.
00:07:59.860 They relied on our tribe, our confederacy was very spiritual, 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.
00:08:18.800 So they relied on those a lot.
00:08:21.360 As well, our leadership knew the importance of women in leadership.
00:08:27.400 So much of the work was also carried on by our ladies, so much that some of our ladies were warriors as well, and their stories about, you know, accountings of some of their bravery over the years.
00:08:46.380 So then, you know, that carried on, and then the reserve system was introduced after the inestia was made with the crown in 1877, and that's when reserves were made, and we can only live on reserves.
00:09:08.380 But was it a strong, I mean, you talked about the leaders.
00:09:12.120 Was there a strong relationship to the democracy of the members?
00:09:17.880 Of course. It was not known as democracy.
00:09:21.100 It was just one of the ways of our people as far as leadership was concerned.
00:09:27.540 And so you would have a head chief.
00:09:29.840 You'd also have a war chief.
00:09:32.080 Okay. And then you would have clan leaders.
00:09:35.740 clan leaders. Initially, there was many more clans
00:09:39.740 of the Ganablat tribe, but there's clans such
00:09:43.940 as Mamioyiks, the fish-eater clan,
00:09:47.840 Akapukaks, the many-children clan,
00:09:51.120 many tumors banned,
00:09:55.620 and many of them still exist today, even though
00:10:00.000 some do not practice as clans anymore.
00:10:03.460 But you can really begin to see the importance of those clans,
00:10:09.880 and the clan leaders themselves relied on members from their clan
00:10:16.560 to give them direction, to give them direction.
00:10:19.480 The clan leaders then gave direction to the head chief,
00:10:25.540 and the war chief would come in in times of great peril,
00:10:31.660 Times of war where we had battles with other tribes.
00:10:36.300 So it's kind of structured, but much of it was based,
00:10:41.740 it's kind of still based on our spiritual ways.
00:10:45.320 Our people, as well as the people of the Great Plains,
00:10:49.920 of the Upper Missouri, the tribes were very spiritual.
00:10:56.100 They believed in spirituality.
00:10:58.900 They believed in the creator.
00:11:01.660 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.
00:11:18.820 We have many societies that carry on with their practices, and we have other spiritual leaders such as thunder pipe keepers and beaver bundle holders.
00:11:31.100 So that plays an important, they don't really do make the political judgments, but they give advice, they give advice. 0.67
00:11:42.100 You said that the Klan leaders advise the top leader.
00:11:46.100 Yeah.
00:11:47.100 So in our system, in Ottawa, it kind of goes the other way. 0.63
00:11:52.100 The top leader tells the Klan leaders what to think.
00:11:55.100 Yeah, it's a big difference.
00:11:57.100 It's a huge difference, and that's a fundamental difference.
00:12:00.100 So one of the things we want, we, you know, here at Nation of People, we think big.
00:12:04.960 And one of the things we talk about is, is we need to, we talk about reconfederating the country.
00:12:10.280 Yes.
00:12:10.600 And, and the position that I take and is that in order to do that, we have to lay our foundational things first.
00:12:18.840 And to me, that is that we have to, we have to have what we've done in Alberta, which is to start with a strong treaty.
00:12:27.500 Yes.
00:12:27.780 adhere to it, and then we can build our confederation from there.
00:12:32.020 So they came up with the highest form of agreement that two people, two families,
00:12:40.420 two clans, two nations can make to each other, and it was called Inesci. And that was,
00:12:47.140 it was a sacred covenant that they would no longer harm each other, rather they would protect
00:12:54.260 each other from others so the very strict uh sacred agreement that if you you had to adhere
00:13:02.020 to it if you didn't there was tangible tangible things that happened to the offending party
00:13:10.100 and i can name some of them but anyways and so it was a great respect for peace treaties
00:13:18.100 bring it back into the canadian context um you know i want your view on uh you know the treaty
00:13:25.620 of 1877 uh was another inestiny yes inestity was a part of that okay and so that is a sacred
00:13:35.380 sacred trust a part of it yes and uh um and i i want to make the emphasize a couple of things
00:13:42.580 here that that agreement was with the crown the crown and how did you refer to the crown
00:13:47.380 the great the the lady well the the representatives of the crown uh called the queen victoria your
00:13:55.620 great white grandmother great white grandmother okay so everybody gets that picture in their mind
00:14:00.320 yeah but it was actually with a person it wasn't with a thing or some ethereal nation that they
00:14:06.800 represented queen victoria yeah so it was actually with a person and and in in to this day uh and this
00:14:14.400 is my perspective on it is that everyone that has been invited here has a responsibility to
00:14:19.420 those treaties so we all have our own in this day uh yes to those treaties yes and that you're right
00:14:26.660 from the crown uh to the federal government to the provincial governments to everyone that lives here
00:14:32.800 uh and on your side the uh all the indigenous communities we all have this obligation to this
00:14:39.340 partnership and and we have to you know we have a responsibility to respect it yes go forward
00:14:45.080 there's a bit of um a difference in thought about the blackfoot treaty it was called initially the
00:14:52.860 blackfoot treaty and then it was called treaty number seven but it was mainly with the because
00:14:57.740 we were the overriding force uh the four the three tribes anyways in canada and so uh and so
00:15:07.000 So our people, through the historical leadership, historical thought processes, to them, in Neschi was a peace treaty.
00:15:22.400 However, the Queen's representatives changed that, changed that in the written treaty, where they deemed it as a land sale.
00:15:37.000 our ancestors ancestral leaders had no comprehension of someone being able to sell
00:15:44.440 land right you know to talk about the usage of land so uh so that was a basic difference between
00:15:52.680 the original uh intent and the true spirit of that blackfoot or treaty number seven
00:16:01.240 as understood by our traditional leaders uh because none of them knew how to speak english
00:16:10.280 none of them knew how to read the written english words so they relied on translators a lot
00:16:17.720 translators to a large extent really didn't know either the english language or our language
00:16:24.840 to to a great extent and so there was as mentioned before unfortunately during that time as well
00:16:32.680 there was a lot of misinformation yeah which led to a lot of misinterpretation which unfortunately
00:16:39.640 led to a lot of misrepresentation the land sale being one of them so the dynasty was conducted
00:16:48.360 And it is that part that our people, our spiritual leaders, our elders, historians, our leaders now still respect.
00:16:59.220 The part of that was sacred.
00:17:02.300 We can never go against an innest.
00:17:05.580 We can never go.
00:17:06.760 And that's why we respect it.
00:17:08.580 Even though we question the deviousness, the skullduggery that took place in including the land sale on paper.
00:17:18.360 So, you know, that's one of the basic differences.
00:17:21.940 But there was a sacred treaty, sacred agreement.
00:17:26.780 Our people still adhere to it.
00:17:29.820 I know I've read the treaties, and the way I read the plain English is that we're sharing the land.
00:17:35.100 Yes, they agreed to share the surface of the land.
00:17:39.040 Yeah, if I may, I'd like to kind of get into some of the hot issues.
00:17:43.620 You kind of mentioned one, which is the subsurface rights.
00:17:46.340 Yep.
00:17:46.640 I don't think we need to go too deeply into it, but if I may say that, Roy, that there's a feeling that Indigenous should have some participation in the royalties that come out of the ground.
00:18:02.800 And so in that light, we actually have an alternate proposal.
00:18:07.360 And this is sort of in the context that we were sitting down together and trying to find a compromise.
00:18:11.600 One of the compromises that I think of is that the Indigenous also have an issue of getting finances for individual people, as you said, getting a sense of purpose.
00:18:25.500 When one of my friends died from the Pekani, his family said, you know, we need purpose in our people. 0.63
00:18:34.100 And part of the purpose is getting economically integrated into what happens.
00:18:40.060 And so one of the proposals we're looking at is putting an idea on the table of sharing the royalties, but having the money on the Indigenous side going into a sovereign fund.
00:18:54.980 So call it the Indigenous Sovereign Fund.
00:18:57.520 And that fund could do a number of things.
00:19:00.580 One is microloans to the Indigenous community.
00:19:03.960 The other is to provide the financial backstop.
00:19:06.840 Yes.
00:19:07.840 and uh uh and another is to invest in projects yes and we actually didn't talk about this can
00:19:14.560 you talk about the uh your your timothy project in in yeah on the band yeah you know before then
00:19:22.000 i just want to to uh say that our traditional leaders dating all the way back to stomach
00:19:30.880 true so realize the importance of earning your own resource owning your earning your own money
00:19:40.160 so to speak uh because that is what they have always tried to do through the trading they did
00:19:48.320 of an important raw product at the time a commodity at the time which was buffalo ropes
00:19:56.080 So they learned to trade that, and they learned to accumulate finished goods from that, from their trading, especially weaponry.
00:20:06.200 So they did that, so they knew that importance.
00:20:09.980 Today, I think we call it financial sovereignty, and I've tried to practice that as well as others from our tribe, our leadership, practice that.
00:20:21.380 In that, we should always strive to have our own economies, to make our existing economies stronger.
00:20:32.820 Because if you look at most tribes, most indigenous nations in North America, a lot of them like to spout that they are sovereign.
00:20:46.600 But you can't really be sovereign if you're not financially sovereign.
00:20:51.380 okay you're at the beck and call of other governments which is not a sign of sovereignty
00:20:57.480 so we've tried to practice and one of the projects that we've gone into is an agriculture project
00:21:03.860 the blood tribe irrigation project in this new updated treaty partnership one of the
00:21:13.900 possibilities that i want to put on the table is is is advancing that autonomy and so you know in
00:21:20.620 treaties we have this individual relationship for each of us that yeah we've committed to
00:21:25.420 certain things in the treaties it's very clearly laid out which nowadays means money and so what
00:21:31.120 rather than having us send our taxes to ottawa and then they do what they administer it very in a very
00:21:38.020 expensive way and then some of it comes back through the indian affairs office our indigenous
00:21:43.180 affairs office what what we're kind of wanting to put on the table is this concept of instead of
00:21:49.120 that cycle we go to ottawa and say okay we want to reduce our tax and we're going to lock that in
00:21:54.800 and so take the whatever the rate is lock it in and we're not going to pay that number but what
00:21:59.920 we will do is we'll add that number to all of our property taxes and so uh it's an administered by
00:22:06.720 the province because they administer municipal taxes so take a sliver a little bit from every
00:22:12.400 piece of real estate so instead of the small number of people that i think 30 percent of
00:22:17.440 canadians pay net taxes this translates to everybody whether you're in alberta if you
00:22:22.960 have a footprint in alberta you pay this municipal tax that then goes to the indigenous communities
00:22:29.680 and you do your own administration you do all of that yourself it gives you that financial autonomy
00:22:35.200 but most importantly uh right now our situation is that when somebody comes in and wants to develop
00:22:41.760 anything uh a new mine uh you know like in the crow's nest pass there there's no real financial
00:22:49.020 advantage advantage no financial benefit for the indigenous communities to say yes we're you know
00:22:55.220 we're not on the same page so if we restructure this and say if we get better economics you get
00:23:02.100 better economics being both sides do better uh that means that we're on the same page and we both
00:23:09.680 want to see development because we're both benefit from it there's nothing wrong with
00:23:16.880 making money with other groups if we can both make money from some kind of a venture
00:23:24.800 and agreement it should make sense if there is something that draws two groups together
00:23:32.400 is the financial or business agreement that you could put in place.
00:23:44.560 If you do business together, you get to know each other better.
00:23:47.720 Well, you make money together.
00:23:49.360 That's a good feeling, you know.
00:23:51.040 So having everybody on the same page,
00:23:53.400 if we're driving in this war with the United States to advance our economy,
00:23:59.300 I think we need to update our partnership.
00:24:02.020 all across the board and get everybody on the same page
00:24:05.780 so that development is something that helps everybody.
00:24:09.380 And as you said, the Indigenous, in your tribe and many others,
00:24:16.140 proven that they know how to handle money and proven that they can do that.
00:24:20.140 And then if we lay on top of that, the sovereign fund,
00:24:23.260 and then the concept of direct, it's almost like being a landlord,
00:24:27.960 you know fulfilling our our obligations in in in treaty you know in a direct way rather than
00:24:35.880 funneling it through the federal government and then the final piece of it that i i would put on
00:24:40.980 the table is i think we need to have a political partnership too and to me that means let's have
00:24:46.500 an elected senate and let's have indigenous have a certain number of seats inside that senate
00:24:52.040 We are in this together, like it or not, our sovereignty is being assailed.
00:24:57.980 We either work collaboratively, as our forebearers did, or we will pay the price together.
00:25:03.640 And if we, in Alberta, can figure out the path forward in partnership, then we can set
00:25:09.060 a roadmap for others, like British Columbia, the West's other great powerhouse.
00:25:15.000 Thanks to Roy Fox for joining us today.
00:25:18.140 has been wonderful to have you here.