Grand Chief Percy Joe is a hereditary and elected chief of the Scw’exmx, serving his nation for 47 years until his retirement earlier this year. A fierce champion of rights and title, Joe created unique reconciliation partnerships and approaches grounded in traditional knowledge and Indigenous wisdom and governance.
A residential school survivor, his legacy continues through the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, one of only two schools of its kind in the country – an autonomous, publicly-funded post-secondary institution, founded and governed by Indigenous peoples. As a founder, Joe advocated for an education model and institution guided by Indigenous ways, wisdom and governance.
Guided by the belief that a chief must serve and protect his people, he spent 13 years in the Canadian Armed Forces as a detachment commander and master corporal, serving several missions overseas in the 1960s. He is a founding member and an elected president of the First Nations Veterans of Canada and advocated for equal benefits for Aboriginal veterans. For example, Aboriginal veterans were also not allowed to visit licensed veteran establishments, meaning they could not meet their fellow veterans. Joe was instrumental in improving these benefits and changing these outcomes.
Joe achieved many advancements for his community and the people of the Nicola Valley – in family services, forestry, education, economic development, Aboriginal rights and title.
He also advanced Indigenous language learning, building language proficiency and cultural resilience. Earlier this year and before retiring, he helped conclude a pilot agreement with the provincial government to explore collaborative approaches to manage water resources in the Nicola watershed. This agreement has the potential to become a model for other types of watershed management arrangements across British Columbia.
As a powerful protector of his nation’s ancestral and inherent rights, Joe was one of the founders of the Nicola Tribal Association, which represents 2,550 Indigenous people in the Nicola Valley, Fraser River and Thompson River areas.
He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Special Service Medal (SSM) NATO, the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal (CPSM), UN Forces in Cyprus Medal (UNFICYP), 125 Anniversary Confederation of Canada Medal (Canada 125), and the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD).
