The race is on for the Chief of the FSIN.
Former Meadow Lake Tribal Council Tribal Chief Helen Ben announced her candidacy to run for Chief of the FSIN during last weekend’s Loon Lake pow wow.
Ben says she wants to provide a strong voice for First Nations.
“It’s a force of one and a strength of a nation,” says Ben.
“Individually we can make a difference, we can do whatever we can to try to help our nation and to try to help each other but collectively we are strong.”
Ben plans to attend next week’s FSIN Chiefs Assembly on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation.
One of the challenges that face the next FSIN Chief is a lack of resources to operate the organization.
For the past several years government cutbacks has forced staff layoffs, fewer legislative assemblies and other services.
Ben says she would work with the governments and maximize the resources they do have.
“One of the things of course that has been discussed before is looking at the casino revenues and those kinds of things. That’s always been an option there,” says Ben. “Definitely trying to secure some of our own resources so we can continue as an organization and that has been on the table.”
Ben says the FSIN has to make sure they are providing the services the Chiefs need for their communities.
The FSIN Chief’s position is vacant after Perry Bellegarde stepped down upon winning the AFN election last December.