Chief Shane

Chief Shane Gottfriedson in his office.

Shane Gottfriedson looks young to have been the chief of the Tk'emlups Indian Band. At 45, he’s already served eight years as chief.

Sitting in his office, in what used to be the dormitories of the Kamloops Residential School, Gottfriedson is confident in his position and his leadership.

When he talks to me, it’s with the well-practice air of someone who has talked to a lot of media. He repeats his points about development and economic activity several times in our conversation and I respect his ability to stay on message.    

We talked for just under an hour and the conversation ranges from his background to where he sees the future of the band going.

Here are some parts of our conversation:

 “First Nations people, politics, you don’t learn about it, you live it.”

“My biggest goal is I want to empower people and part of empowering people is making sure you’re at the table and looking at opportunities and maximizing whatever opportunities come forth. My goal really is to create jobs so people can provide for their families and if they can’t work, I want to make sure they have an opportunity for education and I think education is really the fundamental tool for First Nations, not only in our community, but all across Canada for success.”

On education and learning:

“When you look at First Nations governing bodies right now, we’re becoming very technologically advanced in the way of our land claims, in the way of our legal fight, you know how we conduct day-to-day business operations. We’re becoming business people. The Kamloops Indian Band owns and operates 10 different operations. We have over 185 employees, over 51 per cent of those employees are band members, 55 per cent are band members and right now we need very very highly skilled people to work for us on many different files so there’s a lot of need for education.”

‘I’m the former school board chairman, the first school board chairman of Sk'elep school and I feel I’m confident I can talk about the school and I think when we look at the school and the chief and council’s vision of that day was really about having our own school, our own identity and really getting back to our cultural roots, not only that it gives people an option to have their kids go to school in the community and one of the things that Ske’lep School of Excellence has provided has been a good sort of background for a comfort level for certain students. Our enrolment numbers are about 120, kids that do go to the school and about 40 of those members are Kamloops Indian Band members so we still have a lot of our people who believe in the School District 73.”

“One of the things kids do get when they come to Sk'elep school is they learn the songs, they learn the language, they learn the culture, they learn the stories and I think that’s one of the key points that the school does at but it’s also a very architecturally beautiful building, it’s a multi-purpose building as well.”

“It’s a world of freedom out there and people have a choice to send their children to school or they have the choice to send them to School District 73.”

“We’ve lost our language. We’re down to probably less than eight per cent of our people are actual speakers of our language. We’re really trying to look at revitalizing our language. As you know through the residential school, our language was taken away. It’s really had impacts on this generation now so as a Chief and a council we’re really trying to put more into our language and culture, whether it’s through Ske’lep School or through our education program, trying to build as many speakers as we can to learn and it’s hard work. It’s a hard dialect to learn, but it’s also something that once you get it, it just flows.”

“it’s something we’re committed to doing not just on a one year or a short-term basis but a long-term basis to get as many speakers as we can in our community.”

On leadership:

 “It’s leadership that’s made us grow and it’s not just Shane Gottfriedson as the chief that made it all happen, there’s many different Cat Chiefs and councilors that played a role in developing our community and I think that’s the great thing about our community, it’s not any one person that makes it or breaks it, it’s a community involvement.”

 “It’s just like any successful business venture, I think it takes teamwork.”

“It’s been fantastic the amount of success we’ve had but are we ever satisfied with that success? No, we always shoot for targets, we always have a strategic plan and we make sure that when we do things, we do it together”

“Whenever you talk about growth and opportunity, I think it’s something to be excited about. I think who wouldn’t want to be excited about something like this.”

 “We do very well on our own. We’re 70, I think last year our budget was 35 million, 70 per cent of that was own source revenue, 30 per cent comes from Indian and Northern Affairs so we’re doing very very well and really it’s based on the simple economic principals of economic development. On the other hand we still have social concerns that we are responsible for and so is Canada. As far as the Federal government goes, they still have a fiduciary obligation, responsibility to us. I think our relationship with Canada has been very good other than our land claims issues which think is another topic but as far as them providing the services that they’re obligated to, it’s been a very good relationship.”

“I think the whole process that they’ve set up for the land claims and the title and rights issues and the treaty issues are flawed sort of systems that really don’t benefit First Nations other than only benefits Canada so from that perspective, I still think some of the Indian Act sort of issues are still a problem for First Nations, recognition of true government to government relationship is still you know needs some light shed on it. We are a governing body, we have that responsibility to look after our people, we do generate a lot of our own source revenue. We do have the ability to collect and sign our own sort of leases, but even some of the policies that do hold us back are on the economic development side of things. It’s been very very frustrating and challenging over the years and following some of the guidelines of Canada in relationship to land developments and following the Indian Act. I think those definitely need to change if there’s going to be any sort of better sort of relations or development for First Nations on their land.”

“I think for us, we’re always survivors, right. We fight for our rights. We’ve never ceded, surrendered our aboriginal title and rights and dealing with today is no different”

About a move to self-government:

“Not so much lately. That was the talk in the nineties that was the big talk and the early ‘80s. I was just a young guy then. Not so much now. I think the only self-governing First Nation that I know is West Bank First Nation.”

“The attitudes and our relationship, both with municipal, regional, provincial and federal governing bodies have changed a lot. I think our relationships have become one out of mutual respect and understanding of what we do for each other and how we contribute to society and I think it’s been a welcome sort of relationship. When you look at the number of initiatives that we’ve created together in partnership, not just for the Kamloops Indian Band but for the entire region, it’s an amazing sort of relationship.”

“There’s many a time where we do not agree on everything but you know what we always leave that table with that respect and we always leave that table with understanding that, hey, you know what you’re the governing body over there, we’re the governing body here, how do we find common ground and peace so I definitely think there’s been a world of difference and change in the relationship where it’s not so racially motivated anymore, Indians vs. non-natives and it’s been pleasant in my eight years as chief anyway.”

“There’s been a lot of recognition given to consultation with our First Nations within our territories so for the most part we have been worked with on certain aspects, but not all aspects”

“We’re getting recognition of our title and rights and we’re getting a say in the decision making, management, revenue sharing and we’re also creating partnership out of these agreements.”

‘I think we’ve always had a long history of governing ourselves. It’s not the white man who’s going to tell us what sort of governance structure we will have. For 10,000 years, we’ve inhabited our land, we governed ourselves, we’ve lived off our land, we’ve always been able to maintain stewardship over our land by cultural ceremonies, by practicing our songs, our teachings, our medicines, our traditional uses, you know and today we still do that. Still today we look at having the land provide for us in other ways that we can survive and I think that’s a testament to itself so I don’t think any sort of non-native institution or government can tell us what’s good for us, we’ll define what’s good for us and I think our people will also define what’s good for us because I think when you look at the different sort of governance models, what works in England or whether it works in the United States or even different parts of the territory doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work for us. That’s the uniqueness about First Nations is that basically we are unique and we’ll be able to decipher what we need for our best interests and I think we’ve done pretty darn good. You know, 10,000 years, surviving all of what we’ve managed to do this date and I don’t think anyone’s going to come in and tell us what will or won’t be good for us.”

“We are the leading First Nations in British Columbia and I think we’re very excited about our mandate and our mandate comes from our people”