Yukon's Steve Smith on growing up with his dad, Elijah Smith — father of Yukon land claims

For Steve Smith, this week's anniversary celebrations for Together Today for our Children Tomorrow — the landmark 1973 document that started land claim negotiations in the Yukon — can feel both personal and political.

That's because the leader and figurehead of that push for Indigenous rights in the Yukon 50 years ago, the late Chief Elijah Smith, was Steve's father.

Steve Smith was still a young man when his father died in 1991 and Steve would later go on to serve as chief of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations from 2014 until last year.

Steve Smith spoke to Leonard Linklater, host of CBC Yukon's Midday Café, about this week's anniversary celebrations, growing up with Elijah Smith, and sometimes having a front-row seat to history.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Are you proud of where the path laid out by your father and others has led?

Oh yeah. Like, it's incredible. 

You know, we have the luxury of being able to look back with 20/20 vision. And you know, I'm surprised that there's not more Masters' or PhD theses on the incredible ability of our people, like [Council of Yukon First Nations] Grand Chief Peter Johnson said before, who just basically came off the trapline to work for our people, and to see how they have all of those skills that very well-educated individuals take many, many years to learn — they had intuitively. And so [there's] pride in knowing that our people actually know how to take care of ourselves.

You knew your father differently, and I don't know how well you knew your father because he was very committed to the cause. What it was like to grow up in that land-claim environment over the years?

Well, it was actually pretty cool. You know, he was kind of the boss and then he became the elder statesperson for the negotiations. So he had a lot of leeway with regard to having his kid hang around with him.

And I actually did, like I truly loved my father, pretty much the most in the world when I was a kid and so I forced myself upon him and he took me around to so many communities. He took me to Ottawa a couple of times. I sat in while he was working, listening to people like Dave Porter and Dave Joe and Victor Mitander and Richard Sidney and Mike Smith, all discussing behind closed doors about, "OK, so this is our strategy going forward and what are we going to do."

So I got a little bit different perspective than what is sort of seen in public or put on media or whatever, and to kind of understand the sacrifices and the hard work that everybody did.

I was lucky in the sense that most of the summer I just traveled with my dad when he would visit communities. I have so many lifelong friends both my age and like, you know, Percy Henry and of course former Chief [Sam] Johnston. I spent a lot of time in their houses because that's where my dad would go to meet with them and I would hang out with their kids. So it was actually a pretty cool upbringing and yeah, I saw the everyday kind of work that had to go into it.

Do you ever think about, like, "Gee Dad, you really groomed me for this job as chief?"

He always just focused on me to be a good person. To know how to handle myself when I'm in somebody else's country. You know, we'd go to Carmacks and he would say, "These people, you know, you have to respect them. This is their home and you have to respect and act properly." So he was always focused on me, the individual, and how I should present myself.

But actually, sadly enough for him I guess, he always wanted me to be a doctor. He sort of lined up all of my brothers and sisters as to the roles that they would have for the family overall, right? And he would talk about my brother Mike being a lawyer, my other brothers being, you know, carpenters and builders, and my sisters being language, and you know people in administration. And so he was like, "Well, we need a medical person so this is what you need to do, is to be a doctor." 

It wasn't until after he left us that I started to hear from other people like, well maybe it's your turn to take this gentleman's place. Of course, he's like size-50 feet compared to my size 10s, in terms of what he did!

Your dad presented that [Together Today] paper to Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in town recently and you got to meet him. What was that like?

Prime Minister Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, we've kind of crossed paths a couple of times so we kind of have a little bit of a, you know, conversation each time. I understand that he's a busy person, he meets, you know, many hundreds of people probably a week and so I try not to take too much of his time.

We have a bit of an understanding of where we both came from, and the legacy that both our fathers sort of did and especially the legacy in the Yukon. And so, you know, it's always a kind discussion and a gesture and that's usually it.

What does the future hold for those who signed the deal — the First Nations people, and Canada?

I think if the rest of Canada were to follow the Yukon example of always being able to talk things out and discuss things and to try and gain an understanding of where each of us are coming from ... I think that this model that we've got here in the Yukon still has, you know, challenges, but is an example I think for the rest of the country. 

When we come to the people in the Yukon and our future, I think every day we get closer to the dream of us, you know, being recognized that this is our home, and being recognized for the fact that we do have a lot to contribute to growing Yukon as a whole.

And I think the rest of the Yukon community is starting to wake up to the idea that Yukon First Nations, we are a going concern, and we are here for the long haul. And that means the jobs that we create, we're not going to be shipping off to a foreign country because we're going to be able to manufacture something better over there. We are committed to growing this community because, you know, if we grow the whole community it is only going to be positive for everyone.