Perry Bellegarde, Cree, 1962-
He is a Canadian First Nations and Métis activist and politician, who was elected as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations on December 10, 2014. A member of the Little Black Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan (Treaty 4), he has served as a band councillor in Little Black Bear, as chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and as the Saskatchewan regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
After high school he attended the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College, and in 1984 Bellegarde became the first Treaty Indian to graduate from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Administration. Following his graduation, he worked as director of personnel for the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, before joining the Touchwood–File Hills–Qu’Appelle Tribal Council in 1986. In 1988, Bellegarde led negotiations to transfer management of the Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Hospital, where he was born, from the federal government to local First Nations, and initiated and implemented the city of Regina's new urban service delivery centre for First Nations people. His many other accomplishments include leading Little Black Bear First Nation out of 3rd party management and facilitating its re-qualification for CMHC housing after a 13-year period of no new housing; assisting the implementation of a national multi-million dollar compensation package for First Nations veterans and their spouses; facilitating the restoration of the Treaty lands in Fort Qu’Appelle to reserve status for Treaty Four First Nations
In May 1988, Bellegarde became president of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, a position which automatically made him a regional vice-chair of the AFN. He served in this role until 2003, and was later reelected to another term in 2012.
Bellegarde was a candidate in the AFN's 2009 leadership election, in which he was defeated by Shawn Atleo on the eighth ballot after six successive ballots on which the candidates were virtually tied.
He did not run in the 2012 election but that year completed the Certified Corporate Board Training sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada and McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business. After Atleo's resignation in 2014, Bellegarde ran for the leadership of the AFN and won on the first ballot.
Chief Bellegarde has spoken on indigenous rights at the United Nations, and has supported an inquiry and a plan of action on Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
