Gwich’in Tribal Council leaders say they will hold a meeting with a view to finding a path forward for member groups after this week’s annual assembly was abandoned.
The assembly, which had been planned for three days in Fort McPherson, will now be held at an unspecified later date.
In a statement on Friday, Gwich’in Grand Chief Frederick Blake Jr said two delegations – the Nihtat Gwich’in Council of Inuvik and Ehdiitat Gwich’in Council of Aklavik – left a separate special assembly held earlier in the week after a ruling that “two delegates could not participate and vote.”
Blake said the special assembly completed its business but the annual assembly subsequently could not reach quorum on its opening day, Wednesday.
Before a rescheduled annual assembly goes ahead, Blake wrote, the Gwich’in Tribal Council will convene “a planning session involving Gwich’in Elders, Youth, leaders of [Designated Gwich’in Organizations] and Gwich’in Band Councils to develop a plan for the GTC to go forward to address the issues and opportunities facing the Gwich’in Nation.”
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In statements of their own, the Nihtat Gwich’in Council and Ehdiitat Gwich’in Council – which are pursuing a legal challenge against Blake and four other GTC directors over earlier matters – said they were “encouraged” by the prospect of a planning meeting, which they said was scheduled for Inuvik on Saturday, October 3. (The GTC’s own statement did not name a date or venue.)
The Inuvik and Aklavik councils said a leadership retreat could “hopefully sort out our challenges for the betterment of our people once and for all.”
They said Aklavik had brought youth delegates to this week’s Fort McPherson meetings, but they were “expelled” on the grounds that proper notice of their participation had not been provided.
Blake said a bylaw requires notification of who the delegates will be 14 days before an assembly. In this instance, he wrote, that notification did not arrive in time but the delegates were offered observer status.
While they acknowledged the existence of that rule, the Inuvik and Aklavik councils argued it had been waived in the past and said this instance had been handled “arbitrarily.”
“The fact that our Assembly is deadlocked over internal conflicts is something that we deeply regret. We are committed to working to change these circumstances,” the two councils stated.
