PART I of II

Clarence Louie, chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB), in the South Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, has had an outsized impact on First Nations communities and the broader society throughout Canada. Why?

He has a unique life journey. He has been Chief for almost 40 years. He has developed, perhaps, the most entrepreneurial band in Canada. He embraces the fact that the “economic horse” is responsible for the “social cart.”

While he has an eye on business, he is a compelling advocate for First Nations people. He is candid about historical land rip-offs, residential school abuses, and the recent discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops. The backdrop is that in Canada, from the late 1800s to the 1990s, 150,000 children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools. There was also the so-called “Sixties [1960’s] Scoop” when about 20,000 Indigenous children were adopted by white families.

He is the author of a book whose title belies his perspective: Rez Rules [:] My Indictment of Canada’s and America’s Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples. He is a vocal advocate on behalf of his people: “I have no intention of ever being quiet... I will continue to fight for economic justice, return of Rez land, and a return to the self-supporting lifestyle every First Nation once had” [99].

Why write a book? He explains that: “I set out to write a book because I truly want our people to act and live like hard-working people as our ancestors once did, and to be as independent and self-supporting as our ancestors were long before the European empires of Britain and France and Spain planted their racist colonial flags on our territories" [11].

Within Canada, B.C. has one of the worst track records with respect to the treatment of Indigenous peoples. “The government of B.C. has a long history of being a key blocker of a true “nation-to-nation” relationship. I find it appalling that the province with the most First Nations (more than two hundred) and the most Indian reserves (more than fifteen hundred)—the province with the most to gain or lose when it comes to First National poverty or wealth—has among the worst records when it comes to past injustices toward Native rights” [180].

Chief Louie speaks with the strength of a track record recognized throughout Canada. In 2013, Maclean’s named him one of the “Top 50 Canadians to Watch.” He is a member of the Order of British Columbia, the Order of Canada, and in 2019, he became the only First Nations person to be inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. In 2021, he received an honourary doctorate from the University of British Columbia and, in 2022, an honourary doctorate from Queen’s University. 

I interviewed Chief Louie on June 19, 2023. The focus was on business and entrepreneurship. For Chief Louie’s perspective on other First Nations issues, please refer to his book (NOTE: The following content is from the interview. In addition, there are a few quotes with square brackets indicating the page references from his book).

RG: As chief of the OIB, how do you define your duties?

CL: First, I love creating jobs. It starts with our high school students and young people who may be struggling—they need jobs. To me, that's why you go to high school. You learn how to become employable. So, the first thing I like doing is creating jobs for my people because I think every First Nations person needs the dignity of a job. Second, I like making money for my community. Everything costs money from cradle to grave. It's the economic forces that pull the social cart. For example, one of the public schools near our reserve was going to be shut down and there was a public uproar. But the reason for the school being shut down was a lack of jobs that caused people to leave the area.

RG: How do you and the OIB reflect the entrepreneurial spirit?

CL:  I try to create opportunities for my people and I’m accountable for that. We all need a scorecard to be accountable. Most people don't. If you're doing poorly, they don't want to keep a scorecard. But part of your scorecard must be your degree of the financial strength of the reserve. Our scorecard is probably one of the best, if not the best, in the country. We have more jobs than we do band members. [The OIB with 540 members has more than 1,000 jobs.] On a per capita basis we have more businesses and joint ventures than any other First Nation in the country. I think that's a pretty good scorecard that most communities, whether you're native or non-native, would love to have. As a reserve, you are either an independent community or you are a dependent community, just like a country.

RG: How do you sustain an entrepreneurial culture among the OIB?

CL: First, you need to realize that you are never going to get everyone supporting you. All you hope for in a democracy is that most of your people back you. There's not a program around that that gets 100% support. I look for 51% support on anything I do. Most of my people want to be self-supported. They want a good job. They want a regular paycheck. They want to be able to pay their own bills. They want to own nice things. They want to go on holidays. 

Regarding our community, the entrepreneurial spirit goes back thousands of years. History books record that our people were entrepreneurial way back. People know about the fur trade—that was business and enterprise. Our people also traded with each other. As I wrote in my book, the ancestral graves in our area prove that items that came from the far South and the far Northeast ended up in our area. There is archaeological evidence that our people had business relationships between tribes and nations long before the French and English showed up.

It's a challenge to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive. A lot of damage has been done over the years due to colonialism. The colonial situation whether it was in Africa, New Zealand, or North America was intended to take over a race of people - the first thing you need to do is take away their economic ability to support themselves.