Page 23 - Moose Deer Point First Nation

Local First Nation Government and

Leadership

Chief Barron King, left, with councillors, Joely Schrader, Myrna
Burnside, Linda Roxanne Williams, Josh Isaac, 2018

Moose Deer Point First Nation is governed by an elected Chief
and four councillors. All members of the First Nation over the
age of 18 are eligible to vote in these elections, whether they
reside on the First Nation territory or live elsewhere. The issue
of where voters live is an important one for the members of
the First Nation, and there are many different views on whether
people who live off-territory should be allowed to vote. People
who run for elected office in the First Nation must live on the
First Nation to run for council, but any First Nation member may
run for Chief, no matter where they live.

Our present-day First Nation model of government was WORDS TO KNOW
established by the Indian Act in 1876 and was revised several campaign: planned activities
aimed toward reaching a goal
times since then (see page 68 of the Resources section for more
candidate: a person who is
information about the Indian Act). Elections are held every two
running for a public position
years. They follow CIRNAC guidelines, where candidates are
Indian Act: federal laws that
nominated, a campaign is run, and votes are cast, much as any govern all parts of life for
election held in Canada. First Nations people who are
registered under the act
Our community is unique in its governance, since we tend to nominated: when someone’s
have a pattern of long-term leadership. Leaders tend to serve name is entered in an election
several terms as chief or councillor, which has helped to develop
a very stable government structure. We have had both male and
female chiefs in the past.

Moose Deer Point First Nation 21

ogemawahj_community_book6.indd 21 2019-02-27 11:44 AM