Milton Tootoosis was raised on the Poundmaker Indian Reserve near Cut Knife, SK in Treaty Six Territory. Milton is a descendant of John Tootoosis Sr, a son of Yellowmud Blanket who was a brother to Chief Poundmaker the legend. He is a graduate of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, now the First Nations University of Canada. He is a certified Professional Aboriginal Economic Developer (PAED) by the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO). Over the past thirty-five years Tootoosis has experienced work in the retail sector, in the direct selling industry, for the First Nations University, and as a HRM practitioner in the provincial and federal government organizations, Saskatchewan Crown corporations and the tribal system. He has worked as an economic developer and has been a board member of the Indigenous Leadership Development Institute Inc. for over a decade where had had the opportunity to travel internationally and get familiar with other Indigenous leaders and their cultures, issues and opportunities. Milton has been an an ongoing student of Nation Rebuilding - The Harvard Project and the Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona. He has been an activist for effective governance and policy for his First Nation for twenty years plus. His is a founder and initiator of numerous projects for the benefit of the Indigenous community including collaboration with non-indigenous groups. Tootoosis has been spending a lot of time with traditional knowledge keepers and doing his own comparative research of the best practices for leadership, governance and sustainable economic development. He worked for the National Centre for First Nations Governance and was the Director of Livelihood and Economic Independence for the Office of the Treaty Commissioner in Saskatchewan from 2008 to 2018. Milton just recently completed his four year term as an elected Headman for the Poundmaker Cree Nation. He resides in Saskatoon with his wife Shelly. He has three grown children and two grandchildren. He is the sole proprietor of MGT Consulting.
