Cultural gatherings, community support highlight Treaty 8 Tribal Association’s 2025

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — There were many highs and lows for the Treaty 8 Tribal Association throughout 2025.

At a roundtable of the organization in Fort St. John, executive director Marlene Roy and her administrative team discussed what went on at the organization this year, along with hopes for 2026.

Joining Roy was Denee Renouf, Holly Yerhoff, Susan Simpson, Miah O’Neil-Simpson, Kim Hucker and Alison Manitowabi.

Yerhoff is an administrator at Treaty 8. A member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Alberta, Yerhoff grew up in Fort St. John and also spent time in Vernon.

She was part of the group which had to clean up a bigoted display of swastikas and profanities which was graffitied on the organization’s south wall at the beginning of the year.

“We drove by and I was just like, ‘what the heck?,’” recalled Yerhoff to Energeticcity.ca. “It was just something I’ve never seen before. Being the daughter of a residential school survivor, it really hurt. It hurt my heart.”

With everyone from Fort St. John mayor Lilia Hansen to the province’s Indigenous relations minister making statements denouncing the action, Yerhoff says the community rallying around “cancelled out” the hate from the display.

On the office’s south wall, now stands a mural dedicated to the history, culture and people of Treaty 8, featuring an Indigenous woman holding up a treaty medal with a backdrop showing a map of the territory against a landscape.

It had come to artist Alisa Parenteau (nee Froh) in a dream she shared with Roy back in 2021. A professional clean-up of the wall and painting was paid for by local companies.

“Alisa had this vision of painting this wall,” said Yerhoff. “It wasn’t just us, it was our community. They all rallied to get that done. It was pretty gratifying.”

Roy described the year as one filled with “connection, challenge, celebration, loss and growth,” with cultural gatherings being highlighted.

Those gatherings included Doig River First Nation’s Doig Day, along with Saulteau First Nations’ Pemmican Days and Prophet River First Nation’s second Gathering of Drummers, the Spirit of the Peace Pow Wow and many others. 

Roy spoke about the first-ever Gathering of Nations which took place in Dawson Creek as something which brought all Treaty 8 Nation communities together, and will continue in 2026.

“We were so lucky to be a part of it,” said Roy. “It represented our communities with strength [and] spirit, and it was welcoming to everyone that attended.”

She added the mural was “a celebration of our stories and our resilience,” with many First Nations people feeling a connection to the artwork.

“The positive feedback that we received was overwhelming,” said Roy. “People saw themselves in the artwork, and they felt connected to it, and it now stands as a reminder of who we are.”

She also said the appearance of prominent Indigenous actor Adam Beach, who was in the area in October, was a pleasant surprise. 

She also pointed to the loss of knowledge keepers and Elders, along with the opioid crisis facing Indigenous communities, as big challenges.

“We have lost a lot of Elders. We have lost a lot of younger members of the community,” said Roy. “The opioid crisis is really, really hard on us.”

Renouf added a digital repatriation of artefacts from the Ridington family to the Dane-zaa people is on the horizon.

The digital repatriation is being made possible through a US$292,000 (CA$414,000) grant to the Treaty 8 Tribal Association from the Virginia-based Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).