Ed Schultz
Ed Schultz worked on land claims with the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in the 1980s and served on several boards and committees.1) He was elected to Whitehorse City Council and served there from 1991 to 1994. He was the city’s first Indigenous councillor. During his term, in 1993, he ran for nomination as the Liberal candidate in the federal election but lost to Don Branigan.2)
Schultz became Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) in 2000 and won a second term as grand chief in 2003. In a calculated risk, he signed in March 2005 to run for the leadership of Yukon’s Liberal Party in competition with Pat Duncan and Arthur Mitchell. Schultz had a year left as grand chief and would have served another year on the prime minister’s advisory committee.3)
Schultz did not win the candidate position and in 2006 was the co-chair of the Yukon’s education reform committee. He resigned from this position in March. In June 2006, Schultz ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Rick O’Brien for Assembly of First Nations regional chief. O’Brien talked about his work on the Kelowna accord and the need for additional commitments for indigenous health and building capacity in the north. Schultz sought to inspire voters to make changes in their communities and themselves. Many thought Shultz’ previous resignations signalled a lack of commitment.4)
In 2009, Grand Chief Ed Schultz was the executive director of the Council of Yukon First Nations. In 2019, Schultz was the deputy chief of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation. In 2022, Ed Schultz was senior policy analyst, Natural Resources and Implementation, at CYFN. Ed Schultz spoke at an event at Tatchun Creek in 2022, saying that salmon influence First Nation languages, values and traditions, for thousands of years. The lack of a salmon harvest in the last years have been compromised by the lack of annual gatherings at the fish camps.5)