'Indian Time' Doesn't Cut It

Chief Clarence Louie on Native Work Ethic

I first learned about Chief Clarence Louie in a Facebook post where he talks about his philosophy and his views on Indian Time. Here is an except:

"'I can't stand people who are late, he says into the microphone. Indian Time doesn't cut it. '

'My first rule for success is Show up on time.'

'My No. 2 rule for success is follow Rule No. 1.'

'If your life sucks, it's because you suck.'

'Quit your sniffling.'

'Join the real world. Go to school, or get a job.'

'Get off of welfare. Get off your butt.'

'Our ancestors worked for a living, he says. So should you.'

He is aboriginal himself. Chief Clarence Louie is seen, increasingly, as one of the most interesting and innovative native leaders in the country even though he avoids national politics.

He has come here to Fort McMurray because the aboriginal community needs, desperately, to start talking about economic development and what all this multibillion-dollar oil madness might mean, for good and for bad.

Clarence Louie is chief and CEO of the Osoyoos Band in British Columbia's South Okanagan. though he looks like he would have been an infant when he began his remarkable 20-year-run as chief.. He took a band that had been declared bankrupt and taken over by Indian Affairs and he has turned in into an inspiration.

In 2000, the band set a goal of becoming self-sufficient in five years. They're there.

The Osoyoos, 432 strong, own, among other things, a vineyard, a winery, a golf course and a tourist resort, and they are partners in the Baldy Mountain ski development. They have more businesses per capita than any other first nation in Canada.

There are not only enough jobs for everyone, there are so many jobs being created that there are now members of 13 other tribal communities working for the Osoyoos. The little band contributes $40-million a year to the area economy.

'The biggest employer,' he says, 'shouldn't be the band office.'

He also says the time has come to get over it. 'No more whining about 100-year-old failed experiments.' 'No foolishly looking to the Queen to protect rights.'

Louie says aboriginals here and along the Mackenzie Valley should not look at any sharing in development as rocking-chair money but as investment opportunity to create sustainable businesses. He wants them to move beyond entry-level jobs to real jobs they earn all the way to the boardrooms. He wants to see business manners develop: showing up on time, working extra hours. The business lunch, he says, should be drive through, and then right back at it.

'You're going to lose your language and culture faster in poverty than you will in economic development', he says to those who say he is ignoring tradition.

The first step, he says, is all about leadership. He prides himself on being a stay-home chief who looks after the potholes in his own backyard and wastes no time running around fighting 100-year-old battles.

'The biggest challenge will be how you treat your own people.'

'Blaming government? That time is over.'

Chief Clarence Louie is a renowned Canadian First Nations leader and businessman. As the Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band since 1985, he has been pivotal in transforming the band's economic landscape, founding the Osoyoos Indian Band Development Corporation and launching North America's first aboriginal-owned winery, Nk'Mip Cellars. Louie's impactful leadership has earned him national and international recognition, including the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada.

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