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Chief Rita Smith
Abe and Rita Smith
Chief Rita Smith, the mother of the Horton Band, 1918 - 1996. Rita had the distinction of being the first woman to have been Chief of two Bands, Annapolis Valley and Horton. And, throughout her life, she was a fighter who went after justice with a vengeance.
Rita's first major clash with an uncaring Indian Affairs bureaucracy occurred in the late forties. The cause was the Dept.'s slow response to an application she and her husband Abe had made for housing assistance. The insensitive bureaucracy was in for a surprise, they were about to tangle with a woman who rarely accepted defeat. She won this battle hands down!
During her last term as Chief of Annapolis Valley Rita, with her usual stubborn tenacity, undertook to realize a dream of seeing Horton become an independent First Nation community. In this regard, after several years of fighting, she met with success. On June 6, 1984 Horton was separated from Annapolis Valley and became independent. Rita became its first Chief. During this time, she became a member of the board of directors of the Micmac Friendship Centre in Halifax and remained so until her death. Also she was a founding Chief of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs and was for several years a board member of the Union of Nova Scotia Indians.
Rita was also a past president of the former Mi'kmaq Arts and Crafts Society of Nova Scotia. The dedicated contributions she made towards enhancing and preserving Mi'kmaq culture during her term and through her lifetime efforts is fondly remembered. Photo taken in the summer of 1992. I, with the Chiefs of the Confederacy of Mainland Micmacs, Rita Smith, Frank Meuse, Roddie Francis, Peter Perro, Lawrence Paul and Lawrence Tony, and District Chief John Knockwood, had gone to Toronto for a meeting. The heat in the city that day was unbearable so we rented a car and took a trip down to Niagara Falls to try to cool off. Photo 1992
Halifax Herald column I wrote honouring Rita - January 24, 1997: http://www.danielnpaul.com/Col/1997/ChiefRitaSmith-Nobody'sDoormat.html