Former Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Markus Louie Sr. has lodged a complaint against the new band office project in Oliver.
The residential school survivor from Kamloops attended the groundbreaking ceremony beside the OIB health clinic (near Sen Pok Chin school) on October 30.
The band is building a new office, which Chief Clarence Louie says will be completed in about 12 months.
Clarence said staff have outgrown the old office on McKinney Road, noting the band wants all staff members under one roof instead of “working out of sheds.”
But Markus said he doesn’t like the new building design, which he claims is more Navajo than Okanagan Nation.
“The whole structure is Navajo, it’s not Okanagan . . . it’s not our people.”
Markus, who is Clarence’s uncle, believes the new design does not represent the Okanagan culture. He said the front of the building depicts a “raised hat” that a native woman would wear, but the design is more like Navajo culture than Okanagan, he reiterated.
Alex Louie, Clarence’s first cousin, said the design should represent a more traditional setting, such as a pit house.
But Clarence told the Chronicle that the hat concept does represent Okanagan culture and tradition because it is designed after the hat that native women used to wear in the Okanagan.
But Markus insists the opposite.
“He (Clarence) is not following the people. It should be built the Indian way.”
Markus, who presided as chief of the OIB in 1970-71, claims that Clarence did not get council’s consent to build the new band office.
“The building wasn’t the idea of the council or the people as a whole.”
Markus believes that the media and the Town of Oliver (and its citizens) should have been informed about this project. He noted that non-aboriginals have a right to know what is happening in the community.
“As a prior chief, I always talked to the community. Why can’t Clarence do the same thing?”
Clarence told the Chronicle that his constituents are band members, not the residents of the Town of Oliver.
When asked why he didn’t invite the media, he said it slipped his mind.
The chief said the OIB has been planning this project for years, noting the majority of the band council supports the development.
Clarence said the existing band office was built in the 1970s and had been added onto a number of times.
Lyonel Doherty
Oliver Chronicle
