Little Black Bear First Nation Chief Perry Bellegarde hopes he has “planted a seed” in the minds of some lawyers about treaties and resource sharing.
Bellegarde was one of the speakers during a two-day Aboriginal law conference hosted by the Canadian Bar Association in Saskatoon last week.
He told them Aboriginal people agreed to share land and resources, not live in poverty.
Bellegarde says his speech seemed to hit a chord with some lawyers:
“I told them to get behind the idea of self-determination, get behind the idea of treaty implementation and resource revenue sharing — because that will close the socio-economic gap between First Nations people and non-First Nations people. And that seemed to really cause a good positive buzz in the room.”
He is hoping they will take that message back to their law firms — and maybe even the courts, if they eventually become judges.