Chief Clarence Louie

At the age of twenty-four, in 1984, Clarence Louie was elected Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band, in the Okanagan Valley. Nineteen elections later, Chief Louie has led his community for nearly four decades. The story of how the Osoyoos Indian Band—"The Miracle in the Desert"—transformed a Native community that once struggled with poverty into an economic powerhouse is well-known. Even today, guided by his years growing up on the Rez, Chief Louie believes that economic and business independence is key to self-sufficiency, reconciliation, and justice for First Nations people.