Gary LaPlante
Gary LaPlante is a Plains Cree-speaking member of Moosomin First Nation of Treaty 6.
A husband, father, and grandfather, he holds a traditional education and background deriving from his uncles and other elders back home. In addition, he achieved a BA in History from the University of Saskatchewan and a business administration diploma from a small business college. In 2019, at Kingston Ontario, he was inducted as a Knight to the Order of Saint George.
Gary’s varied work experience includes liaison and advocacy for Indigenous peoples’ interests with business, government, and industry. He has extensive board governance experience, having served on behalf of his tribal council on the then Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations’ Indian Government Commission and other FSIN boards, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, the First Nations University of Canada, and as an alternate to the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies Boards of Governors.
He has served with various committees of the Liberal Party of Canada including as co-chair of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission. Gary has worked in media, publishing three different Indigenous newspapers, was correspondent for a weekly Aboriginal television news program, and was a member of the National Aboriginal Communications Society. He has performed much political liaison and advocacy with numerous entities including Battlefords Tribal Council, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Oil, Gas, and Pipeline corporations, Assembly of First Nations, CIO-Government of Canada, and for Moosomin First Nation. Gary played a founding role in the NRCan L3RP IAMC, the ECCC IAMC Prairie Pastures Conservation Area, and the Parks Canada Fort Battleford National Historic Site Indigenous Advisory Committee.
Further Advocacy has included work with Indigenous Survival International on behalf of Indigenous hunters and trappers countering animal rights campaigns and supporting the Treaty right to hunting and gathering. Close to his heart is ongoing work on behalf of his ancestors toward reconciliation and restorative justice for Stoney Knoll First Nation, Reserve 107 of Treaty 6. Gary’s legacy includes sixteen and counting grandchildren with the most recent one arriving on September 11, 2021.
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