Nearing the end of my 12th year as the Ontario Regional Chief, I want to acknowledge those I have met and worked with. We have been through much and can take pride in our accomplishments; however, we still have a long way to go.

When I started in this position in 1985, I though I knew a lot about the issues confronting us. I can honestly say I knew what we were for and against, that the Canadian governments were not to interfere with our jurisdictions. I fought to protect and advance our rights, but I didn't have a complete picture of how to implement them.

Later in 1985, I was given an Eagle Feather by the late Spiritual Leader Alex Skead. I didn't know it then, but this was the catalyst that would lead me to understand how rights are exercised through a personal connection and that as a leader I would have to be a role model and Awalk the talk.

As I moved further along the path learning of our traditional and cultures, I eliminated alcohol as part of my life. I began to understand the ceremonies - our own creation stories and histories. I began to appreciate that they were not just myths but were a part of who we are. I met people who influenced my thinking: Jim Dumont, Bruce and Howard Elijah Fred and Peter Kelly.

This connection with our past allowed me to move away from an understanding of our relationship with other government through their laws, that we did not need constitutional recognition because we have never extinguished that right of self determination.

The understanding of our traditions has allowed me to move more fully appreciate our teachings and to know that my commitment is to be a part of rebuilding our Nations. I want to thank the leadership and the people who have allowed me to develop as a leader, a person and citizen of the Leni Lenapi - Delaware Nation. Further, I want to acknowledge my home community beginning with the Chief and Council at Moraviantown and especially my family for their patience and support in allowing me the opportunity to spend my time outside of my home community.

Part of my destiny is to lead by example and to work toward the implementation of our sovereignty and nationhood by working with the First Nation community governments to put in place changes at a pace they are comfortable with. This is where I see we can implement out nationhood without seeking the approval of Canada; this is where I want to direct my energies.

Many of our citizens want to learn and practice traditional values, customs, ceremonies, and languages and we have incorporated some of those values into assemblies. Alcohol is no longer and acceptable part of the activities surrounding our meetings. We take the Annual All Ontario Chiefs' Conference and many of our smaller meetings into First Nation communities. There is an economic benefit to the community hosting the event and it gives the citizens a chance to attend the sessions.

In recent years we have begun to look at things that are essential to the growth and development of our Nations. At the Annual Assembly in 1989, we appointed a number of Chiefs to the First Nations Council to look at the activities needed to begin to exercise our own jurisdictions.

1989 was also the year of the post-secondary crises. While students were holding a hunger strike to bring attention to cutbacks, many of us were riding caravans, organizing protests, closing highways and educating each other and the general public about the Aboriginal and Treaty Right to education.

At the Assembly in 1990, the First Nations Council tabled their first report, which laid out a framework that set the tone of our ongoing discussions on sovereignty and nationhood. The report also set out a number of items to rebuild pride in our communities and to demonstrate who we are as peoples.

For example, the First Nations Council recommended that we begin to use our languages publicly more often - in the identification of our territories and the signs within our communities. They recommended that we fly the flags of our Nation and to move away from the Indian Act in the selection of our leaders and the identification of our citizens.

The summer of 1990 was the crisis at Kanesatake. The lands were part of a land claim dispute unresolved for decades. When the Quebec Provincial Police fired their guns at women and children on July 11, 1990, First Nations in Ontario again showed that we care about what happens to our peoples. We came together to show the external governments that a strike against all.

In 1990, the NDP was elected to form the Government in Ontario. This was a government that we were able to talk to. At the All Ontario Chiefs' Conference in 1991, we adopted the Statement of Political Relationship with the Government of Ontario and signed it later that year. The SPR was political agreement to undertake discussions on a government-to-government basis and was the first time the Ontario government recognized our equal status as governments.

Many First Nations used the SPR as a tool to elevate their issues and to reach political solutions to issues facing their communities. However, as a collective group, we never fully challenged the extent to which the SPR could be used to advance our jurisdiction.

The Charlottetown Accord in 1992 was an attempt to bring First Nations and Quebec into Confederation. Once again, Ontario First Nations stood together in Squamish, B.C. refusing to be absorbed into another system and becoming a subordinate level of government in the Canadian federation. It was then that we elevated our discussions to identify Nationhood as the priority and commitment for our future.

In our attempts to deal with our own internal development within this region, we agreed at the 1994 All Ontario Chiefs' Conference to examine our existing structure, institutions and decision-making processes in order to more clearly establishment of our Nationhood. We envisioned the involvement and participation of Elders and the possibility of establishing Womens' and Youth councils.

In December 1994, a group of First Nations citizens took control over a federal building in Toronto and established ARevenue Rez@ in protest of the violation of sovereign First Nations tax immunity. This protest was carried on for several weeks and in mid-January 1995, the issue was passed on to the First Nations leaders who joined forces with our citizens in urban areas to demonstrate to the Canadian governments that our people could not be separated.

As part of our strategy on April 2nd , 3rd, 4th 1996, the First session of the First Nations International Court of Justice was convened in Ottawa. This was an opportunity to bring international prominence to our movement to have sovereignty and our rights to self-determination recognized. The First Nations International Court of Justice is a constructive way to effectively advance our Nationhood yet costs have prevented us from reconvening the Court.

We have undertaken exercises in our assemblies and talked to each other about what inherent rights mean to us; we have developed assessment tools to assist communities to measure the degree of assimilation in our communities; and we have removed the practice of voting on resolutions in our assemblies and in an attempt to abandon the divisive Amajority rules.@ In its place came a Conference Declaration of Actions to Implement the Ontario First Nations Agenda.

Work toward rebuilding our Nations has also begun. The scholars that we heard from at our Special Assembly in March - Mike Myers, Bob Antone, Jim Dumont, and Andrew Reuben - have recently developed a workbook for the Development of First Nations Self-Determination and Sovereignty. This workbook is entitled ANation Building for Seven Generations into the Future.@ It is a developmental tool that provides practical advice on how to build strength in our communities and nations as we move away from the Indian Act.

It is in this area - the development of our Nations - that I want to dedicate myself over the coming years because I see it as fundamental to the exercise of our sovereignty and a proactive way to implement our agenda.

The growth and development of our Nations will make us strong as a people and prepare us for what lies ahead. The Governments of Canada and Ontario continue to seek every opportunity to diminish, erode, devolve and ignore its responsibility and relationship with the First peoples of this land. The political right wing is taking stands that place a higher value on cost containment than on human life, dignity and honour. First Nations have been labelled tax burdens in the rush to balance the federal and provincial budgets. The sooner we can move away from external governments controlling our lives, the healthier we will become.

Federal and provincial governments have been very effective in fueling that division by preying on the need for an adequate and sustainable level of funding for our community services and organizational structures. Yet when a crisis occurs, when one community faces a threat, we've demonstrated we can come together and mount unequaled support.

In furthering those attempts to help ourselves, we must find a process to determine who our citizens are and develop mechanisms that can be implemented to facilitate their participation in the affairs of our Nations. We do a great injustice to our Nations when we do not recognize all of our citizens regardless of where they live and encourage their participation in the dialogue that takes place.

Internally, we need to devise dispute resolution mechanisms that provide for internal solutions to our conflicts. We need ways to resolve our internal conflicts in a respectful manner that does not impose external values and judgements and future reinforce foreign laws on our people.

The safety of our people must be foremost in our minds. We can no longer invite the Ontario Provincial Police into our communities as a means of dealing with the protection of our people. The discussion around the establishment of a Security Council needs to be brought back to the forefront and acted on.

Recommendations

When the previous Ontario Regional Chief, Wally McKay, left this position in 1985, he left a series of recommendations for the consideration of the Chiefs. I too would like to provide the following recommendations for your consideration:

1: Over the years, I have seen the federal and provincial governments playing us off against each other, especially in matters of money. It is time that we put that aside and stop being drawn to their agenda, elevate our issues and speak on a Nation-to-Nation, government-to-government basis.

Recommendation 1

To put in place a non-political management committee to make decisions on funding allocations within the region. This body would obtain its mandate from the Chiefs in Assembly and have a functional reporting relationship to the PPC. The role of the PPC would be to go after more funding to meet the needs of First Nations communities.

2: I feel we are doing harm to our communities when we do not take positive steps to ensure the participation of all of our citizens in all levels of our deliberations. We provided an opportunity for citizens' input into the assimilation assessment tool workshop during our 1996 Assembly and I am recommending that we expand the practice.

Recommendation 2

That during each of our Assemblies one day is set aside when all our citizens can participate by making their views and priorities known.

3: The way in which we select our leadership is not consistent with where we say we are moving as Nations. Elections create winners and losers and polarize people, thereby creating divisions in our communities.

Recommendation 3

4: The discussion around the selection of leadership extends to the election of Ontario Regional Chief. The Assembly of First Nations is being proposed to be restructured to work on the basis of our original 60 - 80 Nations. Within that time frame, we can determine that we will sit in all forums as Nations. In doing so, the spokesperson will be chosen in a very different was by their individual Nations.

Recommendation 4

That the AOCC return to an ancient and honourable leadership selection method based on our own traditions. This is proposed process calls for Chiefs to physically stand behind the leader that they support as a visual display of their support. This traditional process can therefore be a unifying process of our Nations and our peoples.

It is further recommended that the position of Ontario Regional Chief be eliminated with 6 years. During that time, First Nations leadership will decide on a structure and representation based on our original Nations.

5: In relation to the Chiefs of Ontario office, I am going to repeat the same recommendation that I made two years ago. The Chiefs of Ontario office can be very effective as a coordinating body. The support function to the PPC can no longer sustain the level of activity that we have become accustomed to due to the diminishing levels funding.

Recommendation 5

That a process be established at the level of the PPC to prioritize issues based on Nations, jurisdictions and program in Ontario and identify shared responsibilities and specific timeframes for implementing priorities.

6: As mentioned previously, I am suggesting that we undertake the development of models of dispute resolution that provide for internal solutions to our conflicts. I am recommending that this take place on a priority basis as we can no longer sit idle as communities are being torn apart by external systems that impose settlements that are not lasting ones.

Recommendation 6

That communities develop and put in place standing Dispute Resolution mechanisms within their communities to deal with conflict. As well, a Dispute Resolution mechanism should also be established at the Nation level to assist those conflicts which appear to be unresolvable at the community level.

7: It is time to involve the youth of our communities in our assemblies. We need the youths' voices and perspectives on the development relating to sovereignty and the exercises of jurisdiction.

Recommendation 7

That parallel Youth Assemblies be held concurrently with the annual Chiefs Assembly dealing with the same agenda and that time be made on the last day of the AOCC to hear from the Youth Assembly on their recommendations and solutions. First Nations communities should be prepared to assume responsibility for the participation of the youth from their respective communities.

8: In order to create change including Nation building and movement back to jour own processes and structures there needs to be a Transition Plan in place. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples has recommended that such a body be created to help individual communities work.

Recommendation 8

That a Transition Body be establishing to assist First Nations community and Nation governments in their development and efforts toward nationhood.

Closing

I want to acknowledge the peoples of our Nations that I have been privileged to know and work with. They have been privileges to know and with. They have been a source of knowledge ans guidance for me and I want to thank them for their caring and understanding. I also want to give special mention to the Regional Elder, Fred Plain, for his knowledge and assistance in coordinating the Elders' have remained an important part of our deliberations. Fred, I want to thank you for your assistance and support you have extended to me in my role as Ontario Regional Chief.

I want to acknowledge the staff of the Chiefs of Ontario office for their assistance. Up until two years ago, I as the Regional Chief did not have any political staff. It was at that time that Richard Powless came on board as my Executive Assistant. I want to acknowledge Richard for his dedication and hard work; his assistance has made my job easier.

Before I close, I want to share a recent experience with you. When we begin meetings and ceremonies, we always acknowledge all of Creation and the sky-world. It embraces our big brother the sun who continues to carry on its responsibility by providing daylight and warmth to our Mother, so that she may sustain all of life. It embraces our Grandmother the Moon who regulates the cycles of Mother Earth as well as our women, so that there is a balance and harmony in life. And finally, it embraces the Stars, where we are told our history is recorded.

Recently we were fortunate to witness a traveler across the cosmos - a comet scientists call AHalle Bop.@ I was reminded that this traveler who stayed with us for two months obviously had much to record of our history before taking its place among the others. And I know that the direction we have been moving towards our Nationhood has been recorded. I am confident knowing we are on the right track. So, to the traveler, who honoured us with its presence, I say Miigwetch.