Leonard Marchand

Leonard Stephen Marchand was an agronomist and member of the Okanagan Indian Band who earned a master's degree in forestry from the University of Idaho. In the 1968 federal election, running for the Liberal Party in Kamloops-Cariboo, Marchand made history as the first Status Indian ever elected to the Canadian House of Commons (just eight years after First Nations people were granted the federal franchise without losing treaty status).

In 1976, Pierre Trudeau appointed Marchand Minister of State for Small Business, making him the first Indigenous federal cabinet minister. Marchand later served as Minister of the Environment and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1984, fiercely advocating for Indigenous land claims and education.