Canadians are consumers so they rely on our resources – I would try as much as possible to protect my land rights and not extinguish them.

The land is going to belong to our grandchildren.

I don’t think the better lifestyle in other communities is a reason for us to sign.

Signing away your rights is like signing away your culture.

We never signed anything.

Everyone else has signed and we are in the middle of it and that is what is making us poor here.

How can we deal with companies and governments without abandoning our land?

It’s good not to sign because we can’t sell our rights. It’s not something you can sell.

People told me that, as chief, I didn’t bring much, but what I tried to do was address the social problems. I tried to bring respect to the community.

If we don’t do something now, we will be really poor – they don’t know we are here.

We live by technology and it is blocking us.

My priority would be to keep young minds occupied – to try to get them away from gambling. We must break the cycle.

My priority as chief was to look at how people were living and to let them live a little more safely. I wanted to do something about drink and drugs. I tried to get them work.