Sinclair, Henderson To Be Honoured By NAAF

Sinclair, Henderson To Be Honoured By NAAF

Thursday, December 01, 2005 at 15:28

 

 

A well-known Aboriginal leader and a respected law expert — both with ties to Saskatchewan — will be receiving National Aboriginal Achievement Awards next year.

 

Jim Sinclair and James (Sakej) Youngblood Henderson are among 14 winners announced earlier this week by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.

 

Sinclair, of the Gordon First Nation, will receive the Lifetime Achievement award.

 

He is currently the president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples of Saskatchewan, but is perhaps best known for launching the first-ever lawsuit against a sitting Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, to get the Métis into the First Conference on Aboriginal Constitutional Affairs.

 

Sinclair was a founding member of the Native Council of Canada and the Métis National Council.

 

In 1990, he was invited by Australia’s prime minister to speak on Indigenous rights. He has also appeared twice before the European Parliament and held a private audience with Pope John Paul II on four occasions to discuss Aboriginal issues.

 

Henderson, of the Chickasaw/Cheyenne tribe in the United States, has spent the last several years teaching law at the University of Saskatchewan’s Native Law Centre, where he has put to use his extensive legal background and his firm belief in traditional Indigenous teachings.

 

Henderson earned a Doctorate of Jurisprudence at the world-class Harvard Law School.

 

He has written eight books, 27 articles in refereed journals, 42 papers and abstracts in conference proceedings and 34 technical reports.