Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta Annual Report 2011-12

Treaty RelationsCoordinator Gwen Muskwa“We must look back in order to go forward” 1“For Treaty 8 First Nations people, our Treaty is more than a parchment document. It represents aninvoked part of the Creator, a spirit called to come and live among the newcomers and First Nationspeople, to guide all through uncertain times and to keep us warm when the cold winds of ignorancethreaten to isolate us from the rest of the human community. The intended residence of this spirit is notin the paper itself; rather it is to live among the people that are bound to each other by their spoken andwritten word.The spirit of Treaty 8 is about the peace and friendship and those are perhaps the greatest gifts that onepeople can share with another. And that is why First Nations people have struggled diligently for onehundred years to ensure that the Aboriginal knowledge of Treaty 8 is brought to bear.The lack of will by the Canadian governing systems to listen to our Elders and leaders has made thelast one hundred years of treaty a hard and dark time. The Treaty’s spirit has been tethered and held incuriosity. Yet we persist and wish to press forward to benefit from the strength of that spirit that has yetto be fully realized.” 2The above quote comes from the book “Vision Quest – Oti nekan” that was developed for the 100 yearcommemoration of Treaty No. 8 in 1999. One hundred and thirteen years later we continue our struggle with theGovernment of Canada to honor the true spirit and intent of our Treaty. It is our Elders who have this knowledge,traditions, language and oral history of our Treaty and we need to listen to them to honor all they have done andto follow in their footsteps. Like the title of this page states “we must look back in order to go forward” we mustgo back to our traditional systems of governance, culture and language. The Elders have provided and continueto provide their recommendations and knowledge to us, it is now up to us to use this knowledge and continue tomove forward.“Let’s put our minds together to see what we can do for our children”Chief Sitting BullTreaty 8 EldersWe are truly blessed to have had so many great Elders who served on the Treaty 8 Elders Council but it sad thatwe have lost so many of them recently. We will continue our fight in their honor and look at one day implementingthe “true spirit and intent” of Treaty No. 8.The Elders Focus Group continue to meetquarterly however this year we only met threePicture AJJ Isadoretimes as our budget was cut significantly. Wemet in June 2011, September 2011 and March2012. The Elders continue to provide their inputon the various issues facing our First Nationsand on the work that we do here at Treaty 8 FirstNations of Alberta. We have started to catalogueand categorize their concerns so we can bringJJ Isadore Punchy Whitehead Gabe Meneenthose concerns and recommendations forward to the Executive Board and Assembly of Treaty 8 Chiefs. We haveshared with the Elders the recent bylaw and strategic plan that was developed by the Chiefs and Executive Boardwhich has a renewed focus on Treaty.1Vision Quest, Treaty 8 Centennial Commemoration, page 252Vision Quest, Treaty 8 Centennial Commemoration page 25, by Don Lewis Lee CardinalPage 9