Get the 2012-2013 report - Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta

1770’s
Smallpox and other diseases
had a devastating toll on
the Indian population.
Eventually waves of
epidemics decimated
95% of the First Nations
population.
1701
The Great Peace of
Montreal, a Peace Treaty
between new friends and
40 First Nations
Canada and the First Nations Historical Timeline
This year we were able to also sponsor a few Elders to attend the Treaties 1-11 Gathering in Brandon,
Manitoba this year. With the assistance from Sucker Creek First Nation, we were able to utilize their bus
to transport Elders to the meeting. It was a great trip for them and a special thank you to Penny Calliou,
Councillor Terry Calliou and Victor Horseman for taking such good care of our Elders during this trip.
Treaty 8 would also like to initiate a Women’s and Youth Council in the next fiscal year so that we can
engage them on all these initiatives as well and seek their input on these initiatives as well. We would
hope to possibly combine some meeting with the Elders as they want to connect with the Youth and
provide them with their knowledge in all these areas as well as the connection to our language, culture
and way of life.
Guiding Principles to the Treaty Relationship
The Elders have approved and Guiding Principles to the Treaty Relationship at our March 2013 Elders
meeting in Sucker Creek. Now we hope to seek a joint sign off between Canada and Treaty 8 First
Nations of Alberta. Once the GPTR’s are jointly signed off we will continue with a roll out plan to our
communities and schools. We will also utilize these principles with ongoing work with both levels of
government and industry relations.
Page 12
Treaty Commission Report
The Treaty Relations Commission Working Group has continued to meet on the establishment of an
Alberta Treaty Commission based on Resolution R05-2012-09-27. Treaty 6, 7 and 8 all developed
a proposal to continue the work on the Treaty Commission and the recommendations outlined in the
resolution passed by the AOTC. We held a number of internal meetings of the TRCWG meeting to determine
next steps and the first joint meeting was held on November 19, 2012. Since that meeting we
received a letter from Fred Chafe on December 11, 2013 stating the limitations on the establishment of
the Treaty Commission in Alberta will be based on the existing two commissions in Saskatchewan and
Manitoba. We had been exploring the establishment of the Treaty Commission for Alberta for approximately
10 years based on the understanding that it would be a “made in Alberta” model so this limitation
now set after 10 years was very disheartening.
The AOTC was held on January 29-31st, 2013 in Calgary and we wanted to address and discuss the
proposed Treaty Commission. Each of the respective Treaty areas held their own caucuses to discuss
the Chiefs position on the commission. The Treaty 8 Chiefs held their caucus on January 30, 2013 and
it was agreed that based on the letter and limitations set that Treaty 8 was no longer in support of the
establishment of the Treaty Commission based on those limitations.
We have learned that Treaty 6 still wants to pursue the Treaty Commission and it looking to establish
a pilot project on this commission. It is also our understanding that there will be opt-in provisions for
Treaty 7 and Treaty 8 if they decide later that they will want to be part of the process again.