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Norman Snowshoe, vice president of the GTC, Grace Blake, Wilbert Firth, Fred Koe, Chief William Koe, Archie Norbert, and Eugene Pascal sit at one of the delegates' tables during the GTC's Annual General Assembly. - photo courtesy of Robert Alexie Jr.

TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON
Details on where the Gwich'in people stand on devolution, and if beneficiaries are in agreement or divided on the issue, remains a secret for now after the 2012 Gwich'in Tribal Council's Annual General Assembly, held in Fort McPherson.

One of the more anticipated topics during the annual assembly was devolution, which was expected to be discussed on the last meeting day, Thursday, Aug. 16. The Gwich'in Tribal Council (GTC)'s new president, Robert Alexie Jr. confirmed the issue was discussed at length, however, the devolution talks were held in-camera and cannot be made public at this time.

"The issue of devolution, we went behind closed doors and we discussed that, and I can't tell you very much more than that or I'll lose my job," said Alexie.

A Supreme Court action filed against the territorial government in February, claiming a lack of consultation on devolution prior to the government's signing of the Devolution Agreement-in-Principle, remains before the courts.

All delegates and members of the public were allowed to stay at the meeting during the devolution discussion, but all media were asked to leave, said Alexie.

"We're still in the process of the litigation and that's still an ongoing issue," he said on why the discussion could not be made public at this time.

A resolution was passed during the assembly to have a draft constitution for Gwich'in self-government completed by the end of 2012, said Alexie.

"We agreed to a team approach on that respect. The tribal council already has a team of individuals working on self-government and their job is to get us a draft constitution by the end of the year," he said.

Aside from the draft constitution, the tribal council is working on self-government negotiations, said Alexie.

The assembly also voted to support the Peel River regional land use plan as-is. The Gwich'in Tribal Council had a hand in developing the plan, along with the Yukon government and the other aboriginal groups whose land lies within the Peel watershed, said Alexie.

"There have been significant concerns about the Peel River watershed, and Gwich'in and the assembly support the continued prohibition, or barring entry on lands in the Peel River watershed planning region for the purpose of locating mineral claims until such time as an approved regional land-use plan is in place" said Alexie.

Motions passed included restructuring the Gwich'in Tribal Council to make it more accessible, accountable and transparent to Gwich'in beneficiaries. What shape this restructuring will take has yet to be finalized, and the GTC is looking into holding strategy sessions during the month of September, said Alexie.

"We're going to try to see where we are, how we are," said Alexie.

One form of restructuring discussed during the assembly is further separating the tribal council, the settlement corporation and the development corporation, so that no one person sits on multiple boards, he said.

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