A local figure in British Columbia’s First Nations leadership has announced he is stepping aside from his provincial role in hopes that doing so will help inspire greater unity.

“We are at a low tide with B.C. First Nations unity,” Grand Chief Doug Kelly wrote in an open letter Tuesday as he announced he will not run again for executive of the First Nations Summit.

“In many respects, I think we’ve lost our way,” the Soowahlie band member added in an interview Thursday, speaking of a collection of leaders called the First Nations Leadership Council.

“I think it’s time for some of the younger leaders to step up, to join the Leadership Council, to take the work, the challenges, the opportunities and move them forward,” said Kelly, who next month turns 50.

Kelly said the fracturing of First Nations in B.C. stems from two major events.

The first, he said, was the election of Shawn Atleo as the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Kelly said the community was not fully unified on the decision, and he believes that rift has carried forward since. He added that Atleo served as a “facilitator and peacemaker” among B.C. leaders, and that no other members have been able to fill that role now that Atleo is gone.

The second issue, he said, was blowback last year from within the First Nations community over a proposed provincial Recognition and Reconciliation Act, which would have recognized aboriginal land claims throughout the province.

Last August, First Nations chiefs from across the province decided not only to kill the proposed legislation, but also to review the leadership structure that had led to its creation.

“Chiefs rejected the top-down process that saw only three members of the Leadership Council negotiating the proposed legislation,” Kelly wrote in his letter.

“Chiefs did not have confidence in this negotiation team to represent and protect First Nations interests at the negotiation table,” he added.

After that decision in August, First Nations leaders established an All Chiefs Task Force to review the structure of the Leadership Council.

Beverley Clifton Percival is chair of that task force and said her group finished three days of meetings on Thursday. “We all agree there’s strength in us being unified and advancing things together,” she said, adding the group is making good progress and will continue its work to determine how this can best be accomplished.

Kelly said he will continue to be involved with the leadership of his local first nation, and will take on other roles as well.

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