Treaty Negotiations, 2021

By Kathryn Teneese
Chief Negotiator
Ktunaxa Nation Council

As in previous years I am writing to provide a brief overview of events from this past year related to the treaty negotiation process. I am reporting in my roles of the Director of Treaty and Chief Negotiator. This past year has presented many challenges and limited our ability to gather together for in person sessions.

I have previously mentioned the amended approach to treaty negotiations that has been shared with many of you at Council briefings and Community Information Sessions presented by the Treaty team. As a reminder, some of the key changes are: No longer full and final, No extinguishment of rights, Recognition of our Nation and homeland and Loan Forgiveness. These changes were described in documents previously mailed out to Citizens.

The focus of the treaty department continues to be on negotiations and governance transition. The governance transition work is focused on Nation rebuilding. Work is continuing on the Ktunaxa Constitution that will be available for review and Input in the next few months.

I continue to attend meetings of the First Nations’ Chief Negotiators (that were held virtually this year) to share and gather information from the other tables. I also attend meetings of the First Nations Summit (also virtually) on behalf of the Nation.

In closing I want to once again express appreciation to all citizens for their patience and guidance as we continue with this complex and challenging work of trying to reach an agreement with Canada and BC. I want to remind you that we continue to be guided by the direction provided by Ktunaxa citizens at the outset of the process and further refined at Nation gatherings. We’ve been very clear to the governments’ negotiators that our instructions from the Nation’s citizens have not changed. For those of you who were not involved in that earlier work, you are encouraged to contact the treaty team for information. In the upcoming months we will be seeking citizen feedback on the path forward.

I also want to express my thanks to the past and present staff and elected officials of the Ktunaxa Nation who have helped to advance our agenda. As I have stated so many times, “We need to do all the work we’re doing whether we finalize a treaty or not.” There is much good work that is taking place throughout the Nation that is making a difference. There are also challenges that we have to work through together.

We must continue to focus on making our Nation Vision Statement a reality. That is our challenge and our responsibility.

Kathryn Teneese

Chief Negotiator