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Lennard Busch, the former chief of the File Hills First Nations Police Service, transferred the headdress to Dean Lerat on Friday in Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask.
When a person becomes the chief of police, they also become an honorary chief for all the five First Nations that comprise File Hills Tribal Council.
The leaders of communities of the five First Nations — Peepeekisis Cree Nation, Okanese First Nation, Little Black Bear Band, Starblanket Cree Nation and Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation — were present.
Lerat, who is from Cowessess First Nation, is a former staff sergeant with the RCMP. He just retired after 28 years of service on Sept. 30 and jumped right into his new position as File Hills police chief on Oct. 1.
“I always wanted to be part of the First Nations based policing service so that we could grow and this is an opportunity of a lifetime,” said Lerat.
Lerat said he wants to stabilize the police service by incorporating the veteran police with the new recruits to blend their skills and abilities.
Lerat said one of the things that attracted him to the File Hills First Nations Police Service was the possibility of growth. His hope is that in five years time the File Hills police will be doubled in size.
Lerat wants the police service to expand to all of the Treaty 4 communities in Saskatchewan.
“We have the potential to become that amazing Indigenous police service that we can aspire to, like other Indigenous forces across Canada,” said Lerat.
Lerat said he wants File Hills to be Indigenous recruits’ first choice when it comes to wanting to be a police officer.
Busch had been working with the RCMP for 35 years when he joined the File Hills First Nations Police Service.
Busch said when he first joined, he did not have any knowledge of culture and the communities and the issues they were having. He said he was more worried about statistics than he was helping people, but that changed.
“You really had to build the network and learn a lot of things on the fly and as a consequence, you make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes. It was a whole complete career change,” said Busch.
Busch said he’s proud of Lerat.
“I’ve known him for a long time and I have a lot of confidence in him and I just wanted him to know that there’s a lot of people that support him,” said Busch.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Duane Whitford, with Indigenous policing for the Saskatchewan RCMP, was Lerat’s supervisor and came out with other RCMP colleagues to support Lerat in his new role.
“Having Dean as the chief, we can maintain and continue to build that relationship with File Hills and their tribal council,” said Whitford.
Whitford said they will continue to work together but now in a different capacity.
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