When Cadmus Delorme grew up in Southern Saskatchewan on the Cowessess First Nation reservation, he did not know or believe he was a farmer. Neither did his father or grandfather.

“I remember every spring and fall, a non-Indigenous person would come into the kitchen and leave money on the table for land rent,” remembers Delorme, who would grow up to become Chief of Cowessess First Nation and lead his people to farm. “I asked my dad why we didn’t farm the land and he just said, ‘We aren’t farmers anymore’.”

As a young child, he did not question it. When Delorme got older, and recognized the importance of economics, he did question it. That began a journey into farming which not only expanded his people’s understanding of themselves, but also integrated them into the economics of Canada, a growth Delorme believes is vital to true reconciliation with non-Indigenous Canadians.

“We do not want people to feel sorry for us. We want parity with every other Canadian,” he said. Speaking to farmers at Farm Credit Canada’s Ag Summit held March 13 in London, Delorme recognized that no one there was personally responsible for residential schools and neither did he attend one, though his parents were residential school aware. “We have inherited this moment,” he said.

This moment is about reconciliation and that only truly happens when Indigenous people are fully integrated into the economics of this country, said Delorme. “When that happens, our gross domestic product (GDP) will rise and so will the number of jobs.”

For the Cowessess nation, that meant farming the tens of thousands of acres that were being rented to non-Indigenous neighbours to farm. “When I became chief at the age of 34, it took two years to convince us mentally that we are farmers. We started small, farming 500 acres in 2018. Then we farmed 2,000 acres. When I exited as chief, we were farming 8,000 acres of our own land. Now, we have 45,000 acres of grain-ready land. We could become a big economic driver in our area.”

Delorme said his First Nation added cattle, first for food sovereignty and then to farm. “But we did not know the science of farming or the supply chain,” said Delorme. The Cowessess nation hired non-Indigenous people to manage the farm and teach them how to farm. 

Delorme said they accepted they needed help from non-Indigenous people but there is a note of sadness and frustration because pre-Canada, Indigenous people were farmers. “They may not have been grain farmers but they had an agriculture system that was used for centuries.” Delorme said “it takes non-Indigenous farmers to remind us how much talent we have. We do not lack talent; we just lack the resources to get us to talented places.”

Partnerships were key. “We could not have become successful without local partners like FCC, our local co-operative store and companies like Pioneer,” he said. Delome explained that just getting started was a nightmare because they could not get loans from banks. “There is something called the Indian Act and reservation land is managed by the Indian Act. The Bank Act of Canada and the Indian Act do not jive,” said Delorme. Effectively, reserve land is actually crown land from an economics perspective so the band wasn’t able to use their land as credit to get a loan. In 2017, the band started working with FCC and while it took two years, they came up with a plan to receive a loan without using land as part of the equation. It took three years of negotiation with the local Co-operative to receive credit in the spring to buy seed.

Getting into the history of the Cowessess nation,  Delorme explained the Cowessess stopped living a nomadic lifestyle in the 1890s. “We agreed to be farmers and it was agreed the Crown would help us become farmers.” By 1920, there was a strong Indigenous presence in agriculture. However, due to a “relationship and mindset”, plans and policies were put in place to remove the Indigenous people from agriculture and by 1950, non-Indigenous farmers were largely farming Indigenous land. By 2010, there were no more Indigenous farmers. 

“It was thought that farming failed because the First Nation people lacked either an interest in farming or an appetite for it,” said Delorme. “That isn't true.” It’s the plans and policies he referenced that led to farming failure. Delorme provided an example by explaining that a pass system was developed to allow Indigenous people to leave the reservation to sell their agricultural products. However, the passes were not given in a timely way, allowing non-Indigenous farmers to sell their products first, creating an opportunity imbalance. Delorme also talked about land surrenders and other ways the government undermined Indigenous farming success. He talked about John A. MacDonald and how his statue is triggering for Indigenous people because McDonald called first nations people savages. It was MacDonald  who determined  Indian children should be withdrawn from their parent’s influence and put into industrial schools to acquire the mindset and thoughts of white people.

Delorme also talked about the unmarked graves of residential school children. “These unmarked graves are validation of the pain we feel trying to remain Indigenous in a country that is still a little oppressive of our worldview.”

“I tell you this not for you to feel guilt or shame, but because you were never taught this,” he said. 

“We inherited this moment together,” said Delorme. “We are on a journey and it is time to assess your minds because truth comes from the brain and reconciliation comes from the heart.” 

Delorme said Indigenous people are also on a journey of reconciliation. Tracing his own lineage, he referenced his great-grandmother who was born in 1882 and never went to school. She learned via “vertical lineage teaching” which was lost when his aunts attended residential school and were given “horizontal learning”. Delorme said Indigenous people want their vertical lineage teaching back, to learn from their ancestors in the worldview they believe in.

Education and economics are foundational to get Indigenous people back to that point and that is what Delorme wants non-Indigenous farmers to understand. 

Looking to the future of agriculture among the Cowessess first nation, Delorme said the goal is to start creating their own by-products. “We also need capacity building and we need some of your talents because we haven't had that for two to three generations,” he said. 

Before ending his talk, Delorme urged farmers to consider reading the following books to fully understand the agriculture history, loss and rebirth of farming among the Cowessess and Indigenous people in Canada: 

– Treaty Promises, Indian Reality: Life on a Reserve by Harold Lerat

– Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table by Carol Anne Hilton

– Lost Harvest by Sarah Carter

Delorme finished by speaking about his young daughter who has dreams of being a pilot. “The toughest person to be in this country right now is an Indigenous female. We are raising a little pilot and we know we have to try twice as hard to get her there but we accept the challenge. She is why reconciliation is so important. If my daughter ever has a daughter, I hope she will not have to try twice as hard to raise her daughter.”

Conversations around reconciliation are “the most uncomfortable conversations we need to have” but “our kids will thank us for having those tough conversations.” ◊