WEBVTT 00:00:00.170 --> 00:00:03.049 Welcome to Drumbeats, the must -listen -to podcast 00:00:03.049 --> 00:00:05.730 which explains why Indigenous partnerships are 00:00:05.730 --> 00:00:08.689 the key to securing successful outcomes in natural 00:00:08.689 --> 00:00:11.070 resource and infrastructure investment in Canada. 00:00:12.669 --> 00:00:15.189 I'm Mark McNack and my co -host Robert Brandt 00:00:15.189 --> 00:00:17.710 are joined today by former Chief Orei Crowfoot 00:00:17.710 --> 00:00:21.250 of Siksika Nation, Alberta, just east of Calgary. 00:00:21.589 --> 00:00:24.670 He brings a fascinating perspective. Before becoming 00:00:24.670 --> 00:00:27.750 Chief for six years, hearing degrees in finance 00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:31.199 and accounting, worked at KPMG and Ernst & Young. 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.420 He's a CFO, became a chief, and he's applied 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:37.280 that corporate expertise to transform Siksika's 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.619 approach to economic development. In our conversation, 00:00:40.979 --> 00:00:44.240 you'll discover why strategic location and infrastructure 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:47.840 access make certain First Nations exceptional 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:51.219 investment partners. You'll learn how sophisticated 00:00:51.219 --> 00:00:54.420 financial leadership is reshaping Indigenous 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:57.799 economic development. and understand why moving 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:00.100 from poverty management to wealth management 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:04.019 represents a fundamental market shift and opportunity. 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:10.420 Well, Chief Urey Crowfoot of the Siksika Nation 00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:14.859 in Alberta, Sego, and welcome to Drumbeats. Great 00:01:14.859 --> 00:01:19.500 to have you. Thanks for having me. Yes, great 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:24.040 to have you. And a legendary name. that resonates 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:26.400 to the history of Turtle Island, all of North 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:31.480 America. Actually, it is truly an honor. Well, 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:35.079 thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, why don't 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:37.659 you start out by telling us a little bit about 00:01:37.659 --> 00:01:42.719 your own personal background and a little bit 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:52.319 about Siksika Nation. Okay. That basically means 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.540 hello, good day. I'm the one known as Nuxkay 00:01:56.540 --> 00:01:59.379 Stomach. It's my Blackfoot name. It means three 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:03.400 bulls or three buffalo bulls. And so a little 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:06.900 bit about me. Oray is actually, I was named after 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:10.199 a chief. Oray is a Ute chief. I was actually 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.500 born in Utah. I'm not Ute, but I was born in 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:16.699 Utah. So I was named after Chief Oray. And he 00:02:16.699 --> 00:02:19.300 himself was pretty legendary. I read up on Chief 00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:22.580 Oray. And some pretty legendary shoes to fill. 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.620 But then also on the last name, it's Crowfoot. 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:30.460 Which means Crow Indians Bigfoot. It kind of 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:33.199 got condensed down to Crowfoot. My heritage, 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:35.979 my dad's side, I'm half Lumbee, which they're 00:02:35.979 --> 00:02:39.180 from the North Carolina area, Southeast North 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:43.460 America. And my mother is from Siksigah. Well, 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:47.439 she was half Blackfoot, half Soto. The Sotos 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:51.580 are Anishinaabe or Ojibwe. They're from Keys 00:02:51.580 --> 00:02:55.400 Reserve in Saskatchewan. My grandmother's sister, 00:02:55.620 --> 00:02:59.599 her name was Gwen Osup. She was the first elected 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:04.199 female chief of Canada. But then on the Blackfoot, 00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:06.759 I was raised more Siksika. I don't know a whole 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:10.599 lot of the Anishinaabe side. Unfortunately, I've 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:14.159 only gone out to that reserve a few times. But 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:16.979 on the Siksika side, my mother, her name was 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:21.090 Siswiaki, which means cutting woman. Her father 00:03:21.090 --> 00:03:25.169 was Sisua, which is a warrior going to battle. 00:03:25.409 --> 00:03:29.229 His father was Akinum, which is a good -looking 00:03:29.229 --> 00:03:33.469 man or pretty boy. And then his father was Gaiushtoi, 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:37.310 which is a bear ghost or bear spirit. And then 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:40.030 his father was Isapo Moksika, which is commonly 00:03:40.030 --> 00:03:43.729 known as Chief Crowfoot, one of the main signatories 00:03:43.729 --> 00:03:47.150 of the Blackfoot Treaty of 1877. So that's a 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:50.919 little bit of my lineage back from... today to 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:56.699 the Chief Crowfoot of the signing of the 1877 00:03:56.699 --> 00:04:01.039 Treaty for the Blackfoot people. Wow. Those are 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:06.680 pretty good credentials, Rob. Absolutely. And 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:11.060 Chief, you've been Chief for about six years 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:15.479 now, but recently decided not to run again in 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:19.879 the most recent election. That's correct. My 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:24.220 background, I have a finance background. So my 00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:27.600 mother was a big pusher of education. One of 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.259 her sayings is that we need to have a computer 00:04:30.259 --> 00:04:33.019 in one hand and a drum in the other hand. You 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.800 know, we need to know our history, our traditional 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:39.600 or cultural ways. But we also need to have that 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.379 education, that modern day education. And, you 00:04:43.379 --> 00:04:46.339 know, and that was a big she was a big pusher. 00:04:46.339 --> 00:04:49.360 She was a big advocate of education. She had 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:51.360 a master's of math and a master's of science, 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:55.240 Ph .D. in education. She was taught. She was 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:57.279 the president of our college on the reserve. 00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:02.279 It's Old Sun College for 30 years or so. So as 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:05.240 soon as I graduated high school, wasn't even 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:07.500 an option. We were going off to university and 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:11.029 she really pushed us to go off the reserve. She 00:05:11.029 --> 00:05:13.629 said, you know, go off the reserve, earn your 00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:16.569 vocation, earn an education. If you decide to 00:05:16.569 --> 00:05:19.310 come back later, then that's good. But if you 00:05:19.310 --> 00:05:21.889 don't decide to come back later, that's fine, 00:05:22.009 --> 00:05:26.850 too. And so I went down to Utah to went to undergraduate 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:30.329 school at Brigham Young University and got an 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:33.050 undergraduate degree in finance and worked for 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:35.750 a few years. And then I went to East Carolina 00:05:35.750 --> 00:05:39.920 University. And I got a master's degree in business 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.360 administration, MBA with a finance emphasis, 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:47.019 as well as a master's of accounting with a taxation 00:05:47.019 --> 00:05:54.120 emphasis. And so I went and I worked for KPMG 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:57.060 and Ernst & Young to what they call the big four 00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:01.980 accounting firms. And I did some other jobs in 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:05.149 between those jobs. And then also worked for 00:06:05.149 --> 00:06:07.529 this company called XPO Logistics. They were 00:06:07.529 --> 00:06:12.170 a large supply chain company. And my role was 00:06:12.170 --> 00:06:14.129 helping take them from the private sector to 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:17.569 the public sector with Sarbanes -Oxley and all 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:19.410 these control matrix and that kind of stuff. 00:06:19.870 --> 00:06:22.410 To be honest with you, I had no real plans on 00:06:22.410 --> 00:06:24.990 moving back to Siksika. I had no real plans on 00:06:24.990 --> 00:06:28.970 moving back to Canada. You know, I was, I think 00:06:28.970 --> 00:06:32.110 in North Carolina right now, it's 28 degrees. 00:06:33.200 --> 00:06:36.339 Uh -huh. Right now, if I pull which shows you 00:06:36.339 --> 00:06:39.000 a picture of my outside, I got it's actually 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.720 kind of warm today, but it was minus 20 something 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:45.759 a couple of days back. And, you know, it gets 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.720 minus 30, 40 here in Calgary. So I wasn't looking 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:50.759 for where you are. Yeah. Tell us where you are 00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:55.100 today and where six. So I'm located in six. You 00:06:55.100 --> 00:07:00.399 got Alberta, which is about an hour east of Calgary. 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:05.759 And so. So a real quick two second on how I got 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:08.360 to where I'm at. So my finance background, I 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.740 was living in Carolina, working for all these 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:15.379 companies, non First Nation related corporations. 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:18.980 And and then my mother got sick. She had she 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:22.639 had cancer. And so family was real big to me 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.199 as well. And so that's what pulled me home. So 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:28.800 because of all the tools that I had from education, 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:31.959 from the vocation, I wasn't worried about finding 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:34.519 a job. I knew that if you have the right tools, 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:37.800 you can go anywhere. You can go to London. You 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:41.100 can go to Australia. You can go to the reservation. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:43.720 You can go anywhere if you have the right tools 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:46.800 in your toolbox. And so when I decided to move 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:49.920 home, I wasn't worried about a job. But then 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:51.980 things kind of started opening up as soon as 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:54.750 I decided to move home. I got a call within a 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:58.610 week that the CFO for 60 Guy had resigned. So 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:01.230 the CFO position opened up. So I became the CFO 00:08:01.230 --> 00:08:05.990 for 60 Guy. And as the CFO, I was not the chief, 00:08:06.050 --> 00:08:08.290 but I was still interconnected to a lot of the 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:11.209 things going on. And at the time, we were involved 00:08:11.209 --> 00:08:14.110 in a large land claim, a large land settlement. 00:08:14.430 --> 00:08:16.649 And again, I wasn't the chief at the time, but 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:19.389 I was in those meetings. I was in those conversations. 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:22.970 So, you know, one day I was sitting in my window 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:26.009 and looking outside and there's snow. And I was 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.470 like, man, why are we not the most wealthy nation 00:08:28.470 --> 00:08:32.710 in Canada? You know, we're an hour from Calgary, 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:35.230 one of the largest cities in Canada. We're two 00:08:35.230 --> 00:08:37.590 hours from the border, from the U .S. border. 00:08:38.230 --> 00:08:40.610 We actually have four tribes that make up the 00:08:40.610 --> 00:08:42.690 Blackfeet Confederacy. Three are in Alberta, 00:08:42.809 --> 00:08:46.450 one's in Montana. So we have that U .S. connection. 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:49.820 We have a rail spur that runs through us. We're 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:51.940 the second largest reserve in Canada from a land 00:08:51.940 --> 00:08:54.480 perspective. We have 8 ,000 members. We have 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:59.200 a large population of people. We have the only 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.659 trans -Canada highway is a rock's throat from 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:04.940 the reservation. We have a river system that 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:07.200 runs right through the reserve. All these natural 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.899 resources, why are we not the wealthiest nation? 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.519 And again, I'm not trying to say this to put 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:17.320 down anyone, but it's the mindset. of the reservation 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:20.480 mindset you know if you've been trained your 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:22.379 whole life that you're supposed to only stay 00:09:22.379 --> 00:09:24.759 on the reserve you're only supposed to work within 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:28.120 a confined area not a lot of people leave that 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.539 confined space unfortunately you have such a 00:09:30.539 --> 00:09:33.159 reliance on the reservation such a reliance on 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:36.379 chief and council and i'm not a conspiracy theorist 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:39.120 but that was what was built into um you know 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.360 the whole indian act and if you have such a reliance 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:44.740 on on the federal government or on chief and 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:48.009 council You know, try it at home. You know, if 00:09:48.009 --> 00:09:50.889 your kids have such a reliance on mom and dad, 00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:54.190 they're not going to. Why move out if mom and 00:09:54.190 --> 00:09:56.850 dad supply everything. Right. And so a lot of 00:09:56.850 --> 00:09:59.149 that mindset is gone out through the generations. 00:09:59.149 --> 00:10:04.210 So, as you know, Mark, there's very few or raising 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:07.870 robs out there that have ventured off, much less 00:10:07.870 --> 00:10:13.019 off the reserve. much less across the pond, you 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:16.000 know, and to be able to see people that are in, 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.259 now you're seeing more and more of it now, but 00:10:18.259 --> 00:10:21.840 that's recent, right? And so as I was sitting 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:26.700 there pondering this, I said, man, I almost need 00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:30.340 to run for chief because of this negotiation 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:33.600 of this land claim. I saw the current chief at 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:36.320 the time he was negotiating and he had a lot 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.289 of Blackfoot knowledge. but not a lot of financial 00:10:39.289 --> 00:10:42.549 knowledge. And when you're negotiating against 00:10:42.549 --> 00:10:45.830 Canada, you're going up against their top lawyers, 00:10:46.070 --> 00:10:49.110 their top negotiators. And if you're not trained 00:10:49.110 --> 00:10:52.149 in financial tools or all these other aspects, 00:10:52.389 --> 00:10:55.710 you think you're getting an amazing deal, especially 00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:57.370 when you're talking about hundreds of millions 00:10:57.370 --> 00:11:01.070 of dollars, even a billion dollars. How do you 00:11:01.070 --> 00:11:03.789 know what something's worth? And so as I was 00:11:03.789 --> 00:11:05.429 going through that, from an opportunity cost 00:11:05.429 --> 00:11:08.779 perspective, I almost felt like I had to jump 00:11:08.779 --> 00:11:12.720 in and be part of that team. And so I asked my 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.000 mother, I said, mom, you think I should run for 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.580 chief? And she, she gives me the answer that 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:20.980 a lot of native moms give that you don't necessarily 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:23.720 want to hear. She said, well, pray about it. 00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:25.600 And I said, well, I don't want to hear the pray 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.179 about it answer. I don't, you know, what's your 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:31.159 opinion? She said, that's my answer. And that's, 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:34.279 that's it. Right, man. So I went off and, and 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.149 I did some pondering and praying about it. And 00:11:37.149 --> 00:11:40.490 obviously, I ultimately decided to run for chief. 00:11:40.929 --> 00:11:44.370 As I said before, as I get my lineage back to 00:11:44.370 --> 00:11:47.750 Chief Crowfoot, my Uncle Strader was chief for 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:52.389 1990s. My grandfather was on council. My great 00:11:52.389 --> 00:11:56.970 -grandfather was chief in the 50s and 60s. And 00:11:56.970 --> 00:11:59.230 then my great -great -great -grandfather was 00:11:59.230 --> 00:12:02.409 Chief Crowfoot. And Chief Crowfoot's son, Bear 00:12:02.409 --> 00:12:05.629 Ghost, was not chief. He was blind from smallpox. 00:12:06.409 --> 00:12:08.809 But there's been a long line of chiefs. And then 00:12:08.809 --> 00:12:13.009 actually, just last week, the newest Chief Crowfoot, 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:15.190 my cousin Samuel Crowfoot, is now the chief. 00:12:15.769 --> 00:12:18.090 And we're not getting elected in on the name. 00:12:18.850 --> 00:12:22.629 We're getting elected, you know, the name itself. 00:12:22.929 --> 00:12:25.470 That's one thing, too, my mom really pushed, 00:12:25.549 --> 00:12:28.090 you know, I don't want you to rely on that name. 00:12:28.490 --> 00:12:30.929 You know, I want you to be able to have your 00:12:30.929 --> 00:12:35.190 own resume that stands on its own. And you happen 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:38.389 to be First Nation. You happen to be a Crowfoot. 00:12:39.029 --> 00:12:41.269 But, you know, when I worked at KPMG, when I 00:12:41.269 --> 00:12:43.070 worked at Ernst & Young, when I worked at XPO 00:12:43.070 --> 00:12:45.889 Logistics, they didn't care if your grandfather 00:12:45.889 --> 00:12:49.070 was a treaty signatory. They didn't care if, 00:12:49.070 --> 00:12:51.629 I mean, it was cool, but they didn't care if 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:55.850 your last name was Crowfoot. It was, could you 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:59.250 get the job done? You know, results matter. And 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:02.490 Alta Reserve. um that's a lot of the conversation 00:13:02.490 --> 00:13:05.889 is can you get the job done and the results matter 00:13:05.889 --> 00:13:08.389 and that was important to me that's what i wanted 00:13:08.389 --> 00:13:11.649 to be measured upon was was not you know oh that's 00:13:11.649 --> 00:13:13.970 uh you know chief crowfoot's great great great 00:13:13.970 --> 00:13:17.070 grandson or anything like that but can you get 00:13:17.070 --> 00:13:19.230 the job done can you stand on your own two feet 00:13:19.230 --> 00:13:21.850 and i think that that's the mentality that i 00:13:21.850 --> 00:13:24.590 wanted to bring back to 60 guy and and and people 00:13:24.590 --> 00:13:27.769 that come back the rob brands and and and the 00:13:27.769 --> 00:13:30.500 like when they come back to their nation That's 00:13:30.500 --> 00:13:32.779 what they want to bring back is let's restore 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:37.019 that sense of sovereignty, that less reliance 00:13:37.019 --> 00:13:39.879 upon the government. And as we were negotiating 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.879 this 1910 land claim, we ended up settling it 00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:49.519 for $1 .3 billion. That was an all -cash, one 00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:53.259 -time settlement. And to date, I think that's 00:13:53.259 --> 00:13:57.299 the largest one -nation settlement in Canada 00:13:57.299 --> 00:14:00.500 history. And so one of the things when we went 00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:03.360 out to the people and we're discussing about, 00:14:03.539 --> 00:14:06.200 you know, we were going to set, because the chief 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:08.159 and council, we did the negotiations, but we 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.120 have to go out to the nation members for ratification. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:16.139 And by ISC, by the federal government of Canada's 00:14:16.139 --> 00:14:20.419 rules, you're only required one, one consultation 00:14:20.419 --> 00:14:22.580 with the community, at least one consultation. 00:14:23.779 --> 00:14:27.580 We did up almost 30. Because we have a large 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:30.460 population, they're all over the place, and you're 00:14:30.460 --> 00:14:32.639 talking about a substantial amount of money. 00:14:33.179 --> 00:14:37.320 So we wanted to make sure that nobody said, I 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:39.320 didn't know, or I didn't have the opportunity 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:42.879 to know. We wanted to make sure that, look, this 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.860 is an important decision here. If you have any 00:14:45.860 --> 00:14:49.299 questions, now's the time to bring those questions 00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:52.679 up. Because this land claim, it's called the 00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:58.080 1910 Surrender. illegal surrender. And that's 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:00.539 how long it's been since we've been dealing with 00:15:00.539 --> 00:15:04.899 this claim. And so we wanted to make sure, you 00:15:04.899 --> 00:15:07.080 know, this is going to be a history books, legacy 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:11.080 type settlement that everybody was aware of what 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:13.539 was going on. And what was the outcome of the 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:16.639 consultation and what kind of support did you 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:19.200 get for the settlement? I think the referendum 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.639 vote was, I want to say it was plus 80 % approval. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:28.299 Yeah. And and out of the amount of eligible voters, 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:32.700 I want to say almost north of 85 percent of the 00:15:32.700 --> 00:15:35.820 eligible voters came out and voted. So, you know, 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:38.799 you don't have those kind of turnouts in municipalities 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:44.159 when it comes to elections and voting on referendums. 00:15:44.179 --> 00:15:47.120 But this was going to have a significant impact 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.620 to each and every one of those eight thousand 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:53.299 plus nation members. And so and again, like I 00:15:53.299 --> 00:15:55.720 said, you know, we didn't take it lightly. We 00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:59.940 went we did a full on blitz when it came to providing 00:15:59.940 --> 00:16:02.480 this information out to the people. Well, you 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:05.419 sure got the job done if that was your objective 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:10.460 and coming back and historic landmark settlement. 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:14.080 And sometimes the negotiations with band members 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:16.539 about what to do with the settlement funds is 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:20.279 just as difficult. as a negotiation to get the 00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:22.460 settlement in the first place. Talk about what 00:16:22.460 --> 00:16:25.879 you've done with those settlement funds and what 00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:29.919 kind of discussion has there been internally 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.000 within Siksika about how to treat those funds. 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:39.080 Yeah, I think a lot of the chiefs and First Nations, 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:42.000 and I'm not trying to be overcritical, but a 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:43.840 lot of times when they have these referendums, 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.799 They include the distribution as part of the 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:50.919 referendum discussion. We did not. You know, 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:53.379 when we first had these first initial conversations, 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:56.639 that was one of the first questions that people 00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:00.720 asked were, how much will we get from this settlement? 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:05.819 And I reminded the people, I said, look, we're 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:08.799 not discussing the distribution at this time. 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:12.400 We're only discussing the particulars regarding 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:17.210 the case. Because if you vote no on the referendum, 00:17:18.109 --> 00:17:20.890 then there's going to be no distribution. So 00:17:20.890 --> 00:17:22.849 there's no point to even discuss distribution 00:17:22.849 --> 00:17:26.930 until you fully understand the details of this 00:17:26.930 --> 00:17:30.609 case. So I said, now, once this referendum is 00:17:30.609 --> 00:17:34.549 done, we're going to do a second set of conversations. 00:17:35.470 --> 00:17:37.529 And we're going to come back out to the people 00:17:37.529 --> 00:17:41.329 and we're going to discuss options. Now, the 00:17:41.329 --> 00:17:44.170 trust that we designed. in my opinion, is one 00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:47.789 of the more unique trusts in Canada. And we call 00:17:47.789 --> 00:17:50.609 it the Madupeaks Trust. And in Blackfoot, Madupeaks 00:17:50.609 --> 00:17:54.069 means the people. So it's the people's trust. 00:17:54.910 --> 00:17:58.369 Now, at the end of the day, chief and council 00:17:58.369 --> 00:18:03.650 are the fiduciaries. And so, you know, letting 00:18:03.650 --> 00:18:05.450 people know that, you know, there's a difference 00:18:05.450 --> 00:18:09.190 between a fiduciary obligation that a nation 00:18:09.190 --> 00:18:12.500 has. And the non -fiduciary obligation that a 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:15.099 member has, you know, as a as a member, you know, 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:16.940 he's a there's one point three billion divided 00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:19.319 by eight thousand. And each one of us gets that 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:23.019 amount. And, you know, as a nation member, that 00:18:23.019 --> 00:18:25.099 sounds great. That sounds great to me as well. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:29.240 But as a fiduciary, we have a responsibility 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:32.839 to make sure those monies grow. And it's about 00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:36.900 opportunities. And so the first. Part of the 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.619 referendum, we only discussed the particulars 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:43.460 of the case. Secondly, we sat down with counsel 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:46.059 as the fiduciaries, and once it was approved 00:18:46.059 --> 00:18:49.039 as yes, we said, okay, guys, how are we going 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:52.859 to divvy this out? So it was a quorum of counsel. 00:18:52.980 --> 00:18:55.480 We all agreed upon it. There were certain numbers 00:18:55.480 --> 00:18:58.299 that were thrown around. We ended up landing 00:18:58.299 --> 00:19:03.240 on $40 ,000 per person, which still was $320 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:06.819 million that went out the door. within the first 00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:11.079 year of the land claim. Now we also, we didn't 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:15.079 just want to do a big 40 ,000 per person. So 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:17.140 we said, how can we do this? That's going to 00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:21.940 have the least bad impact on our people and the 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:25.599 most beneficial impact on our people. And so 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:29.819 what we did was we, we divided it by three. So 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:32.819 we did three distributions in a year. The first 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:37.630 one was, So we settled this claim in late December. 00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:40.529 December was when the referendum took place. 00:19:40.690 --> 00:19:47.849 December of 2021. 2022 is when it was executed 00:19:47.849 --> 00:19:50.970 and finalized. So the monies came in our account 00:19:50.970 --> 00:19:58.430 in May of 2022. So in that July, we did a $20 00:19:58.430 --> 00:20:01.880 ,000 initial. In December, we did another $10 00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:04.720 ,000. And then the next, the following July, 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.140 we did another $10 ,000. So we did $40 ,000, 00:20:07.140 --> 00:20:10.299 but we did a $10 ,000, $20 ,000, $10 ,000. And 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:12.599 so, you know, and that had the best impact on 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:16.980 us as well because the other, the first distribution, 00:20:17.079 --> 00:20:19.880 you know, during the $20 ,000, we were able to 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:22.759 hold back half and keep that in the market. It 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:24.680 was earning some dollars while we were waiting 00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:27.460 for the next. And then, you know, earning some 00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:28.859 dollars while we were waiting for the third. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.740 But at the same time, by spreading it out, in 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:35.400 my opinion, it allowed people to say, you know 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:37.339 what, now I can plan for the next one. Now I 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:40.400 can plan for the next one. And so you saw people 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:43.160 actually buying furniture, going on vacations, 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:47.000 doing some investing. It wasn't just splurge 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.240 people just spinning as if they was, you know, 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:54.440 a lot of times you see First Nations. If they 00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:57.559 do a distribution, it's one lump sum and it's 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:00.599 kind of a feast or famine. And also, too, the 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:02.819 way we designed the trust, we have what I call 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:05.720 buckets. So there's multiple buckets. So one 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:08.539 is a legacy bucket. So that's your traditional 00:21:08.539 --> 00:21:11.940 kind of trust investments. And then one is called 00:21:11.940 --> 00:21:15.480 the community bucket. And that that one has the 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:19.059 bulk of it. Fifty percent of the funds went into 00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:24.250 that bucket. And that bucket is mainly for. That's 00:21:24.250 --> 00:21:27.250 where the input from the community. So at least 00:21:27.250 --> 00:21:30.630 once every three years, the Treasury Board goes 00:21:30.630 --> 00:21:33.769 out and does surveys and whatnot and says, what 00:21:33.769 --> 00:21:35.769 are some of the needs of the people? What are 00:21:35.769 --> 00:21:38.549 some of the wants of the people? You know, is 00:21:38.549 --> 00:21:41.910 it community centers? Is it housing? Is it recreation? 00:21:42.509 --> 00:21:46.410 And whatever it is, and then those results from 00:21:46.410 --> 00:21:48.910 that survey go to the Treasury Board, and then 00:21:48.910 --> 00:21:51.130 that comes up with a list of priorities from 00:21:51.130 --> 00:21:54.359 the community bucket. Another bucket is a lands 00:21:54.359 --> 00:21:57.200 acquisition bucket. So most of these big settlements 00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:01.299 are result of land claims. But because of most 00:22:01.299 --> 00:22:04.359 First Nations are in a feast or famine mindset, 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.680 you know, most don't buy back land, you know, 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:09.980 or most don't acquire back land. They're going 00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:13.660 to supplement their funding or supplement other 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:17.059 programs. And so we wanted to make sure, hold 00:22:17.059 --> 00:22:20.619 on a minute, this claim is a result of a land 00:22:20.619 --> 00:22:24.259 claim. So let's put some monies aside purely 00:22:24.259 --> 00:22:28.019 to acquire more lands, whether that be reservation 00:22:28.019 --> 00:22:30.480 lands, whether that be fee simple lands, whether 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:33.740 that be traditional lands, cultural lands. So 00:22:33.740 --> 00:22:35.940 we had to develop a lands acquisition strategy, 00:22:36.099 --> 00:22:39.079 you know, and where should we purchase these 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:41.500 lands? What's the purpose of these lands? Do 00:22:41.500 --> 00:22:43.900 we turn some to reserve? Do we keep some in fee 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:47.640 simple? So all that strategy was developed. And 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:50.799 then the fourth bucket is essentially a dividend 00:22:50.799 --> 00:22:54.809 bucket. or a distribution bucket so we put um 00:22:54.809 --> 00:22:59.109 some monies in that bucket and um and each each 00:22:59.109 --> 00:23:02.869 year up to 85 can be dumped out of the earnings 00:23:02.869 --> 00:23:06.869 and so you know the first year i think that first 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:11.009 distribution after the 20 after the 2010 10 was 00:23:11.009 --> 00:23:14.829 around 1100 bucks and people were like man that's 00:23:14.829 --> 00:23:17.630 that's not a lot of money But in the next year, 00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:19.509 it was twenty five hundred bucks. And, you know, 00:23:19.509 --> 00:23:23.109 so it's only this is only year year three of 00:23:23.109 --> 00:23:26.490 that of that bucket. Right. And so I wanted to 00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:28.509 be able to see how money operates and how money 00:23:28.509 --> 00:23:32.450 grows. And so from that bucket in 10 years time 00:23:32.450 --> 00:23:34.970 or seven, eight years time, you're going to see 00:23:34.970 --> 00:23:37.069 ten thousand per year distributions. You know, 00:23:37.089 --> 00:23:39.869 you're going to see. And as people see how how 00:23:39.869 --> 00:23:42.309 money compounds and how money grows and how their 00:23:42.309 --> 00:23:46.210 distribution or dividend. from this money is 00:23:46.210 --> 00:23:48.829 actually benefiting them, each one of those guys, 00:23:49.029 --> 00:23:51.910 you can start planning on some of those things. 00:23:52.329 --> 00:23:55.309 And each one of those buckets has its own individual 00:23:55.309 --> 00:23:59.109 investment strategy and investment policy. So 00:23:59.109 --> 00:24:02.410 once we settled the claim, that was big. There's 00:24:02.410 --> 00:24:04.490 a lot of nations that settled, not as large, 00:24:04.529 --> 00:24:08.490 but large claims. And you hear it a lot in Indian 00:24:08.490 --> 00:24:12.450 country where they end up distributing 80 % of 00:24:12.450 --> 00:24:16.799 it out. large amounts out. And then year two, 00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:21.059 three, four, five, 10, the money just isn't growing 00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:23.339 as much because the corpus didn't start out. 00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:26.259 It started out small. So even though we gave 00:24:26.259 --> 00:24:30.339 out $320 million, we still had a corpus of a 00:24:30.339 --> 00:24:33.519 billion dollars. And so that corpus has grown 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.539 on an average of 20, 25 % for the last two, three 00:24:37.539 --> 00:24:42.160 years. That's pretty good returns. As that bucket 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:44.880 keeps growing, you know, in a in a 10 years time, 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.059 you know, we should have three billion dollars 00:24:47.059 --> 00:24:50.720 in that. But, you know, and so we're going to 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.740 I think we're going a long ways for financial 00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:58.079 sovereignty. And I think that the trust itself 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.200 was just as important, if not more important 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:03.920 than the settlement. But it's a chicken and egg 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:05.460 thing, right? You can have the best trust if 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:08.660 you don't have money to put into it. And so settling 00:25:08.660 --> 00:25:12.089 that land claim was huge. getting the right trust 00:25:12.089 --> 00:25:15.089 account for those monies to operate and generate 00:25:15.089 --> 00:25:17.450 the best returns with the least amount of risk 00:25:17.450 --> 00:25:22.049 is just as large. And so those were two of the 00:25:22.049 --> 00:25:24.710 big items that I was able to do under my leadership. 00:25:25.430 --> 00:25:28.690 And so at that point, you know, you know, I decided 00:25:28.690 --> 00:25:31.130 at that point, you know, do I stay in and be 00:25:31.130 --> 00:25:35.710 a 30 year chief or do I chase down Rob Brent 00:25:35.710 --> 00:25:38.829 and try to be more successful on the on the on 00:25:38.829 --> 00:25:41.849 the on the private sector? And it's a little 00:25:41.849 --> 00:25:45.089 combination of the two. I have a tribe of 8 ,000. 00:25:45.369 --> 00:25:49.309 I also have a tribe of four. And sometimes his 00:25:49.309 --> 00:25:54.690 chief, our tribe of four, gets overlooked by 00:25:54.690 --> 00:25:58.849 trying to manage the tribe of 8 ,000. And that's 00:25:58.849 --> 00:26:02.329 also in the corporate world as well. And so those 00:26:02.329 --> 00:26:05.250 are some of the reasons why I decided. to pass 00:26:05.250 --> 00:26:08.130 the torch, if you will, to my cousin Sam. He 00:26:08.130 --> 00:26:10.309 still had to get elected, and he did, but decided 00:26:10.309 --> 00:26:14.730 to step away from being the elected chief. Such 00:26:14.730 --> 00:26:18.089 a great story. Talk to us about, I know it's 00:26:18.089 --> 00:26:19.970 only been three years since the settlement, but 00:26:19.970 --> 00:26:24.369 has day -to -day life changed on the reserve 00:26:24.369 --> 00:26:29.750 for members? It has, but we live in a microwave 00:26:29.750 --> 00:26:34.170 society, and everybody wants... Instant change, 00:26:34.349 --> 00:26:38.890 you know. Now, I take a lot of pride in saying 00:26:38.890 --> 00:26:41.910 that you can, in my opinion, you can drive through 00:26:41.910 --> 00:26:45.869 six you got today. And if you drove through six 00:26:45.869 --> 00:26:49.490 you got six years ago, it's still it's a different 00:26:49.490 --> 00:26:52.509 six you got looks a different six you got. Now, 00:26:52.630 --> 00:26:55.430 we still have a long ways to go. You know, we 00:26:55.430 --> 00:26:59.710 were we were 100 years or more, 150 years under 00:26:59.710 --> 00:27:02.420 the Indian Act. So we're not going to fix this 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:06.720 overnight. But, you know, when I got on as chief, 00:27:06.900 --> 00:27:10.019 we didn't even have security. You know, right 00:27:10.019 --> 00:27:13.400 now and on First Nations in Canada, security 00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:15.819 is not considered an essential service. Policing 00:27:15.819 --> 00:27:18.619 is not considered an essential service. And I 00:27:18.619 --> 00:27:22.420 feel like one of my biggest strengths is I'm 00:27:22.420 --> 00:27:25.180 pretty aggressive and I'm a fairly good negotiator, 00:27:25.220 --> 00:27:27.819 in my opinion. And so we went to the federal 00:27:27.819 --> 00:27:30.910 government and we negotiated. We were the first 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:34.410 First Nation over 20 years for Canada to agree 00:27:34.410 --> 00:27:38.849 to enter into a policing agreement with. So in 00:27:38.849 --> 00:27:40.150 the next couple of months, we're going to be 00:27:40.150 --> 00:27:43.250 hiring our police chief at Siksika. You can have 00:27:43.250 --> 00:27:46.009 all the monies in the world, but if you don't 00:27:46.009 --> 00:27:48.309 have security, if you don't have safety, if you 00:27:48.309 --> 00:27:50.690 don't have these other key elements that make 00:27:50.690 --> 00:27:57.549 a successful atmosphere or ecosphere, then you're 00:27:57.549 --> 00:28:00.200 going to always have these gaps. And so, you 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:02.859 know, that's the area actually where Sam is really 00:28:02.859 --> 00:28:05.200 strong. You know, Sam would be in his background 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:08.079 as a lawyer. He was a chief judge in the States 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:11.700 for some years. And so, you know, his expertise 00:28:11.700 --> 00:28:16.920 in coming up with constitution and bylaws and 00:28:16.920 --> 00:28:18.779 getting our police in where we need to be getting 00:28:18.779 --> 00:28:21.640 our police commission. I think he's better suited 00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:25.220 for that role than I am. And so I was more suited 00:28:25.220 --> 00:28:29.970 for the. the negotiations part and the finance 00:28:29.970 --> 00:28:33.430 part. And I think it's now, again, it's his season. 00:28:33.950 --> 00:28:35.829 They kind of come in. So I don't, I don't feel 00:28:35.829 --> 00:28:38.769 like 60 guys going to be even taking a step down. 00:28:38.869 --> 00:28:41.109 It's just going to be a lateral step over, but, 00:28:41.109 --> 00:28:43.690 but we need all those components, you know, but 00:28:43.690 --> 00:28:46.630 everybody wants to see, you know, community centers 00:28:46.630 --> 00:28:50.390 built overnight, a new tribal center overnight. 00:28:50.529 --> 00:28:52.750 And, and, and it just takes times. If you're 00:28:52.750 --> 00:28:54.670 going to do it right, we want them done right 00:28:54.670 --> 00:28:58.400 at 60 guys. But you can see, you know, now we 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:00.759 have peace officers. So we paid out of our own 00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:03.319 dollars to have peace officers, our own peace 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:06.359 officers on the nation. Because the RCMP, they 00:29:06.359 --> 00:29:09.559 just were not, they would come if they got called, 00:29:09.660 --> 00:29:11.440 but they're not going to come out and do any 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:15.539 preventative kind of drive -thrus and, you know, 00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:17.279 preventative maintenance, if you will. You know, 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:20.319 it's always calling after the fact. And so, you 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:23.019 know, and as we know from a financial or business 00:29:23.019 --> 00:29:26.359 standpoint, preventative. it's quite a bit cheaper 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:29.819 than detective and and so we want we wanted a 00:29:29.819 --> 00:29:31.579 lot more of the preventative stuff we wanted 00:29:31.579 --> 00:29:33.599 peace officers driving around our own people 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:36.000 driving around the communities restoring that 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.799 our own our own so we had to pay out of our own 00:29:39.799 --> 00:29:42.500 dollars for that and we've had to pay out of 00:29:42.500 --> 00:29:44.960 our own dollars for some other resources but 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:48.420 we looked at it as an investment not as a cost 00:29:48.420 --> 00:29:51.440 and so you know i think those are some of the 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:54.170 things that i think we have the one of if not 00:29:54.170 --> 00:29:57.809 the first one of the first prosecutor's office 00:29:57.809 --> 00:30:01.230 in canada so you know we don't have we have a 00:30:01.230 --> 00:30:03.990 crown prosecutor but they act for the crown so 00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:07.089 we had our own 60 god prosecutor that acts on 00:30:07.089 --> 00:30:10.710 behalf of 60 god on our own bylaws and so you 00:30:10.710 --> 00:30:13.569 know now we don't have that reliance on the the 00:30:13.569 --> 00:30:17.309 rcmp to enact our bylaws we have our own prosecutor 00:30:17.309 --> 00:30:20.210 to enact our own bylaws now again Those dollars 00:30:20.210 --> 00:30:21.970 are going to have to come from a 60, we're going 00:30:21.970 --> 00:30:24.309 to have to bring those dollars forward. And so, 00:30:24.309 --> 00:30:26.490 you know, one of the things that we went when 00:30:26.490 --> 00:30:28.289 I went out to the people and we discussed this 00:30:28.289 --> 00:30:31.230 land claim, I said, guys, it's not about the 00:30:31.230 --> 00:30:34.910 money. It is, but it's not. But it's about the 00:30:34.910 --> 00:30:38.470 opportunities that the monies can bring, you 00:30:38.470 --> 00:30:41.450 know, because a lot of these funding arrangements 00:30:41.450 --> 00:30:44.869 and, you know, you can go from Mi 'kmaq to Squamish 00:30:44.869 --> 00:30:48.779 and everywhere in between in Canada. coast to 00:30:48.779 --> 00:30:51.220 coast to coast, and a lot of these funding agreements, 00:30:51.500 --> 00:30:54.599 you're going to get the minimum, right? And the 00:30:54.599 --> 00:30:57.980 minimum, you can survive on it, but you're not 00:30:57.980 --> 00:31:00.859 going to get much past survival. And so, you 00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:05.180 know, how do you go on to thrive state? And fortunately, 00:31:05.339 --> 00:31:07.059 unfortunately, however you want to look at it, 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.180 First Nations are going to have to do a lot of 00:31:10.180 --> 00:31:12.980 that on their own. And it's only a handful of 00:31:12.980 --> 00:31:15.960 First Nations, unfortunately, they have the access 00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:20.359 to the capital and the dollars to be able to 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:21.960 say, you know what, we're going to do this on 00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:24.539 our own. Matter of fact, that was one of the 00:31:24.539 --> 00:31:27.000 negotiating strategies I used when we got our 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:28.900 policing bill, because when we went and met with 00:31:28.900 --> 00:31:31.779 Ottawa, I frankly told the Minister of Justice, 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.500 I said, look, we're doing this with or without 00:31:34.500 --> 00:31:38.539 Canada's agreement. So we're not asking you, 00:31:38.599 --> 00:31:42.059 can we have our policing back? We're asking you, 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:44.920 which side of history do you want to be on? Do 00:31:44.920 --> 00:31:46.579 you want to be on the history that denied us 00:31:46.579 --> 00:31:48.700 our safety? Or do you want to be on the side 00:31:48.700 --> 00:31:51.259 of history that was agreement with us? Because, 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:53.859 you know, now, if we didn't have dollars to be 00:31:53.859 --> 00:31:56.160 able to back that up, then it's just an empty 00:31:56.160 --> 00:31:59.859 threat. And so as we get further along in these 00:31:59.859 --> 00:32:03.460 conversations today, I do feel like that's where 00:32:03.460 --> 00:32:07.420 First Nations need to be going towards. And I 00:32:07.420 --> 00:32:09.779 think they are going towards that, you know, 00:32:09.779 --> 00:32:12.990 economic sovereignty. Because you can say I'm 00:32:12.990 --> 00:32:17.369 a sovereign nation all day long. But if 98 % 00:32:17.369 --> 00:32:19.349 of your funding comes from the federal government, 00:32:19.809 --> 00:32:23.569 you're not sovereign. You're fully relying upon 00:32:23.569 --> 00:32:27.509 the federal government. And so how do you create 00:32:27.509 --> 00:32:30.869 that sovereignty, that true sovereignty? I think 00:32:30.869 --> 00:32:34.890 financial sovereignty is a key in that. And so 00:32:34.890 --> 00:32:38.230 now there's conversations with Mark Carney, the 00:32:38.230 --> 00:32:40.940 prime minister of Canada and other. interested 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:45.660 bodies and even worldwide about how does that 00:32:45.660 --> 00:32:49.200 inclusion or that indigenous participation, how 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:52.200 does that look? And how does that go towards, 00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:54.980 I don't even like to use the word reconciliation, 00:32:55.259 --> 00:32:58.420 but how does that go towards restoring these 00:32:58.420 --> 00:33:01.319 First Nations back to being able to stand on 00:33:01.319 --> 00:33:03.880 their own feet and have less of that reliance 00:33:03.880 --> 00:33:07.160 onto the federal government? Wow. I would have 00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:09.039 loved to have been a bug on the wall in Ottawa 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:11.559 when you were having the discussions with them. 00:33:12.380 --> 00:33:15.460 Okay. Wow. They didn't know what to do with you. 00:33:15.480 --> 00:33:17.220 And of course you have your Southern accent as 00:33:17.220 --> 00:33:19.799 well. And that slight charm that comes with it. 00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:22.559 They were like, what's happened here? They probably 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.160 were checking to see if they still had their 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:28.500 clothes on after you left. Right. That is really 00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:31.400 important history for people to understand what 00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:34.089 happens and the barriers. that the indigenous 00:33:34.089 --> 00:33:37.029 nations have to go through just to claim what 00:33:37.029 --> 00:33:40.069 many non -indigenous Canadians just accept is 00:33:40.069 --> 00:33:42.630 that's, that's their rights, right? When you 00:33:42.630 --> 00:33:45.750 talk about policing, I mean, that's just unbelievable. 00:33:46.309 --> 00:33:49.509 And Mark, you started off this podcast by saying, 00:33:49.630 --> 00:33:51.750 you know, being from England, you didn't know 00:33:51.750 --> 00:33:54.829 a whole lot about the indigenous. The irony is 00:33:54.829 --> 00:33:58.299 people here in Canada. When I have a lot of these 00:33:58.299 --> 00:34:01.039 conversations with my colleagues in Calgary and 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.039 and even, you know, the next town's over. It's 00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:08.440 astounding how much even my neighbors, because 00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:11.500 I don't live on the reservation. And, you know, 00:34:11.559 --> 00:34:13.579 I bought an acreage right outside of Calgary 00:34:13.579 --> 00:34:16.980 and a lot of my neighbors, good people. But they 00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:19.039 said, I didn't know the chief could live off 00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:21.650 the reservation. You know, I didn't know. And 00:34:21.650 --> 00:34:23.949 they weren't being racist or they weren't being 00:34:23.949 --> 00:34:26.949 they just don't know. And it's it's amazing how 00:34:26.949 --> 00:34:30.190 much history. As a matter of fact, right down 00:34:30.190 --> 00:34:33.409 the street from where I live, less than two kilometers 00:34:33.409 --> 00:34:36.590 from where I live was a residential school. And 00:34:36.590 --> 00:34:39.969 people that live within one kilometer of that 00:34:39.969 --> 00:34:43.510 old residential school. Some people still believe 00:34:43.510 --> 00:34:46.030 those didn't really exist. You know, like, you 00:34:46.030 --> 00:34:48.369 know, there's there's that kind of conversation 00:34:48.369 --> 00:34:51.900 in Canada. So it's not all the way across the 00:34:51.900 --> 00:34:53.880 pond. We don't even have to go across the street 00:34:53.880 --> 00:34:57.119 for people to not understand what's going on 00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:00.199 in our backyard. Just to clarify, although I 00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:03.000 live here now and I'm also British, I was born 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:06.400 in Brandon, Manitoba, and I'm a Canadian through 00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:08.519 and through. And of course, there was the residential 00:35:08.519 --> 00:35:12.280 school in Brandon. I was six or seven when we 00:35:12.280 --> 00:35:14.539 left, but I remember seeing that building up 00:35:14.539 --> 00:35:17.579 there. And as I said, I knew nothing of this, 00:35:17.659 --> 00:35:20.179 just as you've explained your... where you're 00:35:20.179 --> 00:35:22.619 living now, your neighbors, many of them don't 00:35:22.619 --> 00:35:24.159 have any understanding. I'm sure they've got 00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:27.280 a great appreciation now. Perhaps there's opportunities 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:31.860 in federal politics for you as well, because 00:35:31.860 --> 00:35:34.719 Canada needs good people at the top. So maybe 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:37.539 you have to go out and fight for all Canadians 00:35:37.539 --> 00:35:41.440 now after you've done such a sterling job in 00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:46.199 your area. Thank you to Chief Orre Crowfoot for 00:35:46.199 --> 00:35:48.679 sharing his insights with us. And thank you for 00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.539 viewing and listening. Mark your calendars for 00:35:51.539 --> 00:35:54.400 the upcoming 2026 Summit taking place on the 00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.599 8th of April. Be sure to share, subscribe, and 00:35:57.599 --> 00:35:59.639 leave a review on your favorite podcast channel. 00:36:00.260 --> 00:36:02.760 Thanks for listening to Drumbeats. Until next 00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:03.079 time.