Members of the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB) will head to the polls next week to vote for a new chief and council, but it wasn't always that way.
Traditionally the Sechelt Nation had four chiefs, one to represent each of the different families settled in four different areas. Those chiefs were appointed through bloodlines, rather than by election.
"It was like royalty. You were born into it," said Lenora Joe, director of education at the SIB.
The four areas the Sechelt Nation used to call home were xenichen (head of Jervis Inlet) ts'unay (Deserted Bay) sxisux (Pender Harbour) and twankw (Tuwanek).
At that time, hereditary chiefs were in charge of taking care of the needs of their individual families. They met yearly with all the chiefs for naming ceremonies, to give away princesses and to appoint new chiefs.
"We were responsible for taking care of not only our land, but our people and taking care of our elders," said hereditary chief Calvin Craigan.
He was groomed for chieftainship from an early age and given the nickname Boss Man.
"When I was born my grandfather named me Boss Man, and I often wondered as I grew up why they called me that," he said.
Children destined for leadership spent a lot of time learning about the ways of their people and listening in on important meetings with elders and chiefs.
When Craigan was about seven years old, the elders came to his mother to ask that he take on the role of hereditary chief.
"She said no three times and then the elders came back and she said, 'If Calvin wants to do it and he wants to dedicate himself to that, then OK.' So they came to me and asked me and that's when I agreed," Craigan said.
While hereditary chieftainship was passed on in each individual family, it was never forced upon anyone. There was always a choice whether or not to take on the title.
But once the Indian Act came into play and amalgamation took place, the Sechelt people soon lost their right to govern by hereditary chieftainship.
"The government amalgamated all of the small family groups into one nation, and by that time we were quite decimated by disease. So there wasn't a huge number of Sechelt people left, but they held a meeting and the chiefs agreed to try this way [elected chief and council] which has stuck," said Jessica Casey, SIB museum curator and cultural co-ordinator.
At the same time that amalgamation took place and hereditary chieftainship was given up, the residential school started in Sechelt and those hereditary chiefs who once were the patriarchs of their families became watchdogs for the church, which ran the residential school.
"Basically the priests appointed the watchmen for the church and sent them out into the community," Lenora Joe added.
"Of course the church and the department of Indian Affairs is coming in and they're putting a lot of restrictions on us and assimilating us. They were saying, 'We don't want you speaking your language. We don't want you practising your culture. We don't want you doing any traditional ceremonies. You have to burn all of your regalia.'
"So they appointed these watchmen and some of them were hereditary chiefs and they said, 'You have to go out and watch your people and report back to us who's not conforming.' If they didn't conform they got brought in and punished," Joe said.
Soon it was obvious the change agreed to by the Sechelt Nation was not serving the Sechelt people and they decided to go back to hereditary chieftainship and their old ways of governing themselves. But it was too late.
"There was a letter signed by Chief Julius to the department of Indian Affairs indicating they had agreed to try it, it wasn't working, and they were going to go back to the hereditary chiefs," Joe said. "Then there's a response from the department of Indian Affairs indicating, no, they were not allowed to. There was no reason given"
By that time the reserve system had been established and many of the Sechelt Nation's traditional areas were now settled by non-native people or owned by the government as Crown land. It seemed the fight for hereditary chiefs was lost and the new electoral system was destined to stay, although the tradition of appointing hereditary chiefs still exists and the position is honoured among families.
Under the electoral system of today, SIB members will vote for one chief and four councillors to represent them, but the job has changed considerably.
"Being a chief now means being an expert in almost everything. You have to do lots of reading because there are lots of government documents to go through, and you're responsible for the governance of the community," said current Chief Garry Feschuk.
"You have administration and you have to oversee everything. You are involved in all of the negotiations with the government and with industry. And our Band is headed for a big fight with the two levels of government [federal and provincial] with the seeking of declaration of title for our territory. That takes up an enormous amount of time.
"So it's finding that balance and still moving forward because there's a chief and four council members and everything's coming at you from every different angle and you still have to do the work," Feschuk said.
"You still have to find that balance while you keep moving forward."
