It was an unexpected victory for many when Kenny Loon became Mistissini’s new chief. Loon was working with the Indian Claims Commission when he received the news. These days he is in Mistissini during the week but drives to Ottawa to be with his family during the weekend.
He’s not getting any special privileges. “I’m a homeless chief,” Loon joked, saying he depends on the kindness of others for a place to sleep in Mistissini. A house has been assigned to him but it’s still occupied by a family that is waiting for their new home to be built.
Loon expects he’ll be able to move in by November or December. When The Nation met up with him he was just getting ready to head off to outfitting camp Louis Joliet with Mistissini’s new Band Council for orientation. Besides looking at policies and procedures, an overview of what the old Band Council was working on and their priorities, Loon said the new council would be looking at creating a plan of action.
Though Loon hasn’t read the Cree forestry court case, he told The Nation, “I understand this is what the people of Mistissini want. They’re tired of not going anywhere in negotiations with forestry companies. This is the only way they feel they’ll get action.”
Loon did say he was surprised by the reaction of the Cree communities that aren’t impacted by forestry operations or participating in the court case. “They’re against it. They’re afraid it’s going to have an impact on or slow down the implementing of the Quebec MOU (Memorandum of Un-
derstanding) of 1995,” said Loon.
He said negotiation-versus-the-courts was a hot topic at a recent Council/Board meeting of the Cree leadership. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come gave an overview of the court case and he “had some opposition from the other chiefs.” Loon said the chiefs in the northern Cree communities aren’t directly affected by forestry, “so they don’t know how it is.” Loon said the northern communities weren’t consulted because they weren’t affected, which surprised him.
One of Loon’s promises that confused some people was his proposal to replace band employees with Crees who have college or university degrees. Loon explained he is interested in gradually implementing a band version of the Cree School Board’s Cree Replacement Policy. “I see this as using more of our own resources,” he said.
Loon said he approves of the previous Band Council’s privatization of the outfitting camps Louis Joliet and Vieux Poste. “I think this is the way we should go as part of the band’s economic-development ventures,” he said. “Eventually you may see the band moving away from direct involvement in economic-development ventures.” Loon said he feels the day is past when you’ll see band councils automatically bailing out failing band businesses.
“I think the band is trying to get away from running these types of things. There will beseparate entities that do that because we find the band is constantly bailing out thesebusinesses. We have to stop doing that. I think we need an entity that overlooks economicdevelopment by local people.”
