Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Providence (Mar 24/00) - Newly-elected Deh Gah Got'ie chief, Ron Bonnetrouge, said his first priority as the band's leader is to restore his members' trust in their council.

"I guess our people kind of had uneasiness towards a lot of things that happened in the community," he said. "One of the first things I was going to do is bring the confidence level back to council for the people. It was almost getting to the point where they didn't really recognize the band council, almost."

Bonnetrouge was elected as chief of the Deh Gah Got'ie Dene band in Fort Providence last Wednesday, defeating former Deh Cho MLA Sam Gargan 166 votes to 96 in a two-way race. The election was called last month after former chief Greg Nyuli was removed from office through a non-confidence vote.

Bonnetrouge, who had served as acting chief for the past two months, said he had decided to run for band council back in June at the urging of some concerned community members and some elders.

"It was pretty well with the blessing of the elders that I went into this," he said. "My issue had been that I don't speak the (Slavey) language ... even though I've been raised within a Dene family. That's one of the things I said I'd really work on."

Preserving the language and culture will therefore be one of the areas he will concentrate on, he added.

He will also be getting up to speed on the Deh Cho Process, he noted. He attended the Deh Cho leadership meeting on the Hay River Reserve in early February.

"I had a real good blast of it right there," he said. "Over time it has kind of sunk in. I'm just working on how I would present it to my own council ... there is a lot of reading and catching up."

Chief Bonnetrouge added that he hoped to meet with band council some time this week.

The problems that exist in the community are basic ones, few jobs and a lack of education, according to Bonnetrouge. The hard part will be finding the financial resources to improve the situation, he admitted.

"To get anything initiated we need some funds," he said.