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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014
wealth—our businesses do this. We
want fiscal stability,” Chief Weasel
Head explains. “We have to know
where we want to lead.”
Rob Crow credits the success of
many economic development initia-
tives to “the foresight of Blood Tribe’s
leadership.” The Blood Tribe entities
are optimally set up with individual
management and boards of directors,
and this has been done to ensure prop-
er management of each entity. “Our
entities were created based on the
strength of our natural resources, and
the value principle Kainaysinni,” Crow
explains.
Kainaysinni is the Blood Tribe’s
value system and vision statement and
reflects that all people have a unique
culture and language to fulfill specific
purposes. Economic development is
an important part of Kainaysinni, cre-
ating opportunities to enable Blood
Tribe members to thrive.
All economic development initia-
tives are piloted under the department
before they become operating entities.
“
The way these are structured is based
on our strengths: agriculture and oil
and gas, these are our two longest
standing successes,” Crow notes.
“
Our principles for business de-
velopment are to do what works (ag-
riculture), promoting that we’re open
for business, such as joint ventures,
and support entrepreneurial activi-
ties. We want to maximize our current
assets to benefit our nation, and each
individual,” Chief Weasel Head notes.
In total there are five main areas that
have all seen success for the Blood
Tribe including agriculture and oil and
gas: tourism development, small busi-
ness development, and development
of reserve lands. All areas are designed
to “create jobs and provide profit for
our people,” Crow says.
Ultimately any Blood Tribe initia-
tive must meet strict criteria to be con-
sidered a viable business opportunity.
“
Every business opportunity must cre-
ate jobs, provide profit, open opportu-
nities to train young people, be owned
and managed by tribe members, must
not damage our natural environment,
and follow the principles of Kainay-
sinni,” Crow explains.
WORKING WITH PARTNER
COMMUNITIES AND IN INDUSTRY
Blood Tribe is open to partnering
with other First Nations groups, as ex-
emplified by a recent agreement with
Fort McKay First Nation. Back in the
spring, Chief Weasel Head and Fort
McKay Chief Jim Boucher began work-
ing out the details of a partnership that
would see Fort McKay, a much smaller
BLOOD TRIBE
