I met Cece Hodgson McCauley in the late 1980’s when she was the chief of the Inuvik Dene Band. She was a savvy businesswoman who started the Band because she knew native people could achieve more as one unit than as individuals. She was around 60 … and I thought she was in her forties, because she had so much energy. Eschia!
I can go on and on about her, but think of this: Cece was the first female chief in the NWT. Forcing herself into a man’s world tells us she was bold, wise, knowledgeable, determined, fearless, and self-confident. Very cool.
People at meetings fondly called her Miss Chief. Get it? Mischief – because she wasn’t afraid to raise difficult issues. The band made her honorary chief for life when she moved to Norman Wells where she became the president of the Norman Wells Land Corporation. Years later, she received an Indspire award for Politics.
Cece wrote her column in News/North for 40 years. Can you imagine? Forty years! Having written a column for four years, I know how hard it is, especially to express strong views like hers. Cece might not have religiously checked her facts, but we always knew where she stood on issues. Always.
Cece was a tireless champion for extending the Mackenzie Valley Highway to Inuvik to improve life in the small communities. Some people don’t support the highway because of easier access to drugs and alcohol, but, agree or not, you had to respect her tenacity.
Cece promoted unity
I will always remember the early 1990’s when we voted against accepting the Dene-Metis Land Claim until it was improved. The Gwich’in voted to accept it because they saw the Inuvialuit going full blast with development after finalizing the Committee for Original People's Entitlement land claim.
When they lost the vote, the Gwich’in male leaders walked out. I can’t remember how Cece voted, but it seemed she didn’t want to vote against the rest of the Dene Nation. She was the last person to leave the assembly, probably because she knew government likes to “divide and conquer.”
Over the years, Cece consistently told us Indigenous people are stronger when united, but they don’t recognize how much power they have. For instance, how many times did she write that the chiefs and Metis presidents should go to Ottawa to demand something? Remember that?
Jean and I spoke to Cece two years ago in Edmonton and I wanted to do a column on her. Cece gave me her daughter’s phone number where she was staying, but I never got around to it despite another wise lady, my wife Jean, reminding me to contact her.
I wanted to ask Cece why she was the last person to leave the assembly and how things could be today, if we had stayed united. Don’t forget, we voted against the land claim because we wanted self-government added to it. So, we could have had one huge land claim and self-government with all NWT Dene and Metis.
But of course, government loves to divide and conquer, so when the Gwich’in asked to go on their own, the feds quickly agreed saying we had rejected the overall land claim so they were going to do regional claims.
We now have regional land claims and the government is able to do what it wants, because we are not the way Cece wanted us to be – united. I say this because I was a GNWT senior manager for twelve years, and I consistently saw government use disagreement between regions to do what it wanted ... and I’m sure it hasn’t stopped. Not cool, man.
Hopefully, Cece wrote a book in which she explains her views on how things could have been if we had stayed united and why she was the last person to leave the Dene/Metis Assembly. In fact, I think she said she was meeting with her publisher when we saw her in Edmonton.
The last time I saw Cece was at the 2017 Association for Mineral Exploration’s Roundup in Vancouver. She was still sharp as a tack.
Mahsi Cho and I honour the memory of a trailblazer.