Native America Calling: First Nations challenge Alberta’s separation drive

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Native America Calling: First Nations challenge Alberta’s separation drive

Thursday, June 25, 2026

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First Nations challenge Alberta’s separation drive

First Nations and Métis leaders in Alberta are actively opposing the province’s secession movement.

Alberta will hold a referendum this October on whether to separate from Canada. Premier Danielle Smith is in a war of words with First Nations leaders and faces legal challenges from tribes for pushing forward with the vote.

Smith publicly admonished tribal leaders to “check themselves” after the main provincial First Nations chiefs organization said Smith’s actions amounted to “treason.” So far, the public overwhelmingly opposes separation, but the debate is highlighting a very real question whether the provincial government can actually act on separation in light of historic treaties signed with the British Crown long before Alberta was established.

Castle Mountain in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. Photo: Jakub Fryš

Guests on Native America Calling

Chief Troy Knowlton (Piikani), Chief of the Piikani Nation and president of the Blackfoot Confederacy

Danette Starblanket (Star Blanket Cree), assistant professor with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina

Bruce McIvor (Métis), founder and senior partner at First Peoples Law LLP and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law

Matthew Wildcat (Ermineskin Cree), assistant professor and director of Indigenous Governance in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta

Jon Eagle Sr. (Hunkpapa Lakota and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), former tribal historic preservation officer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe