Perry
Bellegarde

Perry Bellegarde is a member of Little Black Bear First Nation in Treaty 4 Territory, Saskatchewan, Canada. He devoted more than thirty-five years to First Nations leadership at the local, provincial, national and international levels.

He served two terms as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (2014–2021), representing 634 First Nations and nearly one million people. The Assembly of First Nations is Canada’s national First Nations advocacy organization. Under his leadership, the AFN led and influenced the content and passage of five federal statutes, including the Indigenous Languages Act (2019) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (2021); ended a twenty-year, two-percent cap on federal funding for First Nations, unlocking more than $45 billion in new federal investment across six budgets; and secured a new fiscal relationship enabling ten-year funding agreements for First Nations governments. In Paris in 2015, he led the Canadian effort to secure recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the Paris Agreement.

Earlier, as Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, he negotiated a 25-year gaming framework agreement with the Province of Saskatchewan and advanced the national compensation package for First Nations veterans. He also served as Chief and Councillor of Little Black Bear First Nation.

He describes himself as an oskâpêwis—a helper. He holds a Bachelor of Administration from the University of Regina, where he was the first Treaty Indian to earn that degree.