Trudeau to be honoured by Alberta's Tsuut'ina Nation with headdress

After promising “total renewal” of Ottawa’s relationship with indigenous people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will receive a ceremonial honour at Tsuut’ina Nation southwest of Calgary next month.
Trudeau, who has set an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women this spring, and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde will receive headdresses from Tsuut’ina in early March, Postmedia has confirmed.
The honour comes amid Trudeau’s ambitious agenda to rekindle relations with aboriginals. Aside from the public inquiry, his Liberal government has promised to end a long-standing two per cent cap on federal funding increases for First Nations programs, in its first budget. Among other pledges, Trudeau has said his government will review laws imposed on indigenous people by previous governments and quash those viewed to be in conflict with aboriginal rights.
After the Liberals were vaulted to office in the October election, the Tsuut’ina Nation hosted a meeting of First Nations leaders to discuss strategies to work with the new government and keep their concerns in the spotlight.
Leaders at the summit, including Tsuut’ina Chief Roy Whitney, were pressing for better lines of communication with Ottawa.
The Tsuut’ina Nation rarely bestows ceremonial headdresses upon sitting prime ministers, though Canadian leaders have received similar honours from other bands.
In the summer of 2011, the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta named then-prime minister Stephen Harper the band’s honorary chief and gave him a headdress of eagle feathers.
Chief Charles Weasel Head told The Canadian Press at the time that Harper, also given the name Chief Speaker, received the honour because of his residential schools apology in 2008.
Two other sitting prime ministers had received honorary titles from the Blood Tribe: Lester Pearson and John Diefenbaker.