The sun was beaming but the wind was blowing cold Saturday morning when Dolleen (Dolly) Logan was officially sworn in as chief of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation and she was looking forward to the end of the outdoor ceremony at Ron Seymour Memorial Park on the Shelley reserve.
It was a historic day for the Lheidli T’enneh people, who on April 8 elected Logan as the second female chief in their history, which dates back about 9,000 years.
Prince George mayor Lyn Hall stood next Logan, who raised her right hand as Regina Toth, a granddaughter of Mary Pius, the first elected female chief, read out the Oath of Office to Logan.
Logan’s light summer dress and jacket wasn’t keeping her warm in that cutting breeze and she was thinking she should have followed Toth’s lead and worn her winter jacket for the occasion. But duty called and Logan was willing to sacrifice her own comfort to look sharp for the cameras that captured her signing the oath, knowing that when it was all over she’d soon be inside a warm house helping her son lay down some new flooring.
As chief, Logan knows she’s now seen as a role model for other indigenous women to follow her lead to become high-ranking business executives or career politicians and she’s ready to accept that responsibility.
“To be chief of the nation, I’ve heard a few girls talk about it and they’re so proud, so happy,” said Logan. “It’s time for change but not really change but a difference. That’s what they see chief as and I’m pretty excited to know that they can accomplish anything they want.
“It’s very important that they see it, because it was male-dominated for many years, and there are more female chiefs being elected in, so it’s all positive and exciting, and it gives them hope for the future that, hey I can do this.”
Logan has had a couple weeks to get used to the fact she’s now the chief but her new job title and all it entails will take time to get used to.
“It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet but it’s very exciting,” said Logan. “I have Mary Pius to live up to now.”
Logan is the mother of two adult children, a son and daughter, and has three grandchildren with a fourth on the way. She says she wants to merge her own female qualities to her position as chief, as Pius did when she was elected in 1969.
“I think I can bring a different perspective, like we’re all business-minded but there’s the female touch – we’re all socializers, we’re caregivers, we’re teachers, we’re nurses, daycare providers, the list goes on forever,” Logan said. “It takes us all working together to raise our children, we can’t just leave it to one organization. We all have to work together. If we work together we’re unstoppable.”
Logan was a member of the band council for six years prior to the election, having served several years as executive assistant to then-chief Dominic Frederick, who lost the chief position to Clay Pountney in 2019 after a 15-year term. She’s worked for the Lheidli T’enneh for 13 years, after beginning her working career in the band’s sawmill making shingles. Her grandfather, August Quaw, and her uncle, Peter Quaw, were both former Lheidli T’enneh chiefs.
Logan hopes to build bridges, literally and figuratively, to draw the 550 Lheidli T’enneh members closer together. She aims to improve communications between the band council and the people, not just those living in Prince George or on the Shelley reserve, but even to those who live as far away as California, Arizona, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“I want to have more membership involvement in major decisions, if something comes up I want the elders and everyone to know what they see,” said Logan. “Honestly, I don’t think it should be left just to chief and council, it’s the whole nation’s future and we should all be involved.
“I know everyone in the band and they know they can phone and talk to me about anything. I’m open to listen to things and open to listen to the youth to hear what they want and how they see the future because, technically, they’re the ones that are going to be taking over soon.”
Logan said everyone has a cell phone or a computer and there’s no excuse for not being able to communicate with all of her nation’s people. But until quite recently those tools to make voices heard in her community were not widespread .
“I remember back when I was working in treaty (negotiations) in 2007, not many people had house phones, so you were phoning one person to get ahold of another person to get ahold of another person,” she said. “Now it’s cell phones. Bang.”
Logan brings renewed optimism that a bridge across the Fraser River will get built to connect the Southside and Northside subdivisions of the reserve, about 20 kilometres northeast of the city. Although there are only about 100 people living at Shelley there is a definite division in attitude that separates the two sides and access is part of that problem. Southsiders can drive directly to and from Prince George on Shelley Road but to get to the Northside involves a more indirect route through Northwood Pulp Road. To drive from one side of Shelley to the other takes 15 or 20 minutes.
The Southside has the gas station, band office and school, while the Northside will be home to a new health centre under construction that’s slated for completion in the fall. Logan said there is a certain degree of jealousy among the residents that one side gets more amenities than the other.
“We need a bridge to join those two communities and I’d like to have a band office on the Northside big enough to hold community meetings and have the town people come in,” she said. “A lot of members grew up in Prince George but a lot of them have never seen the reserve.”
Logan is proud of how well her people have followed health orders to limit the threat of the pandemic, with just one positive case, a man living on the reserve who was quickly isolated with his family as soon as the positive test was confirmed. She estimates 98 per cent of the of the Lheidli T’enneh have received their first doses of vaccine.
Logan drew 151 votes to defeat the incumbent Pountney, who had 102 votes, seeking his second term. Jason Gillis (13 votes) finished third. Hall and Toth also delivered the Oath of Office to newly-elected band council members Frederick, Crystal Gillis, Helen Lisa Buzas, Marcel Gagnon and Joshua Seymour, who like Logan, were elected for two-year terms.
In the council vote, Gibbs drew 94 votes and incumbent Buzas had 90 votes. Frederick was also elected to band council ( 74 votes), as was Gagnon (73 votes) and incumbent Seymour (70 votes).
The new lands committee was also sworn in Saturday as Art Kaehn, chair of the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and Jim Martin, RDFFG chief administrative officer, delivered the Oath of Office. Joining the lands committee were Rena Zatorski (140 votes), Elaine Gagnon (137 votes), and Wendy Jael (106 votes).
