Which brings us back to Percy. "If it wasn't for him," says Don Reimer, Kitasoo's financial controller who has made Klemtu his home for the past four years," we wouldn't have such good housing and education. He's the reason this Band does so well.

Since his early 30's, Starr has been either Kitasoo's elected Chief councillor or Band adminis-trator, and has been a major force on the school board, and housing and various seafood and business committees. "You name it, I've done it," Starr said,"I'm just turning 66 and I see myself doing this job for as long as I'm needed, or as long as I'm able to without killing myself."

A commercial fisherman for most of his life, Starr has worked hard to make sure the 300 people in his village, who still depend primarily on the ocean's resources for their livelihood, have had access to and control over the natural resources in their area. When the fish stock in their area began to drop in the 1980's, for example, he and other people in the community didn't wait for instructions from anyone.

"We started our hatcery with a little five-gallon bucket in the school," Starr said,"and then built an incubation box. It was very succesful, and once DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) saw that, they began to give us support."

It was this take charge and professional attitude in all its self-started fishery projects that brought Kitasoo to the attention of former Fisheries and Oceans Minister John Crosby, whose office nominated Percy for the Order of Canada. Bruce Rawson, DFO's fomer Deputy Minister, said of Starr,"He's a determined and forceful grass-roots kind of leader with very focused goals. Percy wanted to do three things - conserve resources, build the community and create employment, His efforts to reestablish fishing as employment were a great success."

One of Starr's current ambitions is to bring down the price of freight service to Klemtu. "At the moment, it costs 25 cents a pound to ship into Klemtu - you can imagine how much that adds to 100 pounds of flour," Starr said. A year-and-a-half-ago, Starr explained, he and Archie Robinson, Kitasoo's Chief councilor, got the break they were waiting for when B.C. Ferries began to looking at the central coast for creating new tourism oriented ferry runs. But ,from the start, the negotiations process was not easy. "They (B.C. Ferries) wanted 100 percent support - Bella Bella, Bella Coola, Shearwater. But more importantly, the criteria was that the service must pay its own way."

For Klemtu, and the other samll communities involved, it was close to impossible to promise they would be able to promise they would be able to provide enough local passenger traffic to make the run profitable. "So we developed a one-hour walking tour of our hatchery and processing plant, and provided food and cultural entertainment at the community centre. Now we're evaluating the program and might even expand it," Starr said.

Starting in early 1997, Central Coast Carriers, a trucking company that Starr is launching with a local businessman, will begin supplying co-op type freight services between Vancouver / Port Hardy and Bella Bella(Waglisla), Shearwater, Ocean Falls and Klemtu. Realizing the large amount of capital needed to start a trucking business between such remote communities, Starr approache the Heiltsuk First Nation early on about becoming joint partner in the company. The two recently released Central Coast Carriers' aggressive ten year plan.

To the people in Klemtu and neighbouring communities, Starr's leadership style has become well known and well respected. "If you don't know him he can actually come off rekkay strong nd opinionated, but he isn't," says Don Reimer. "He's been a leader for so long he's had to be hard-nosed. When he knows he's right he doesn't take no for an answer. But he's very fair; he works very hard to be fair.

Starr will travel to Ottawa in Febuary 1997 to receive his order of Canada medal from the Governor General.

Select Item Editorial The empty Pipe Role Model Ojibwa Artist '97 Indiginous games Percy Star A sense of community Drum Beats of the Hart Links