'I felt powerless': Woman who says Arlen Dumas sent her inappropriate messages calls for accountability

A Lake Manitoba First Nation woman says she wasn't surprised to hear new allegations of harassment and sexual assault levelled against a prominent Manitoba grand chief.

Nearly three years ago, Bethany Maytwayashing went public with allegations that Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas had sent her inappropriate messages. Last week, Dumas was suspended in light of new allegations of harassment and assault from someone AMC has identified as a senior staff member. Dumas has not been formally charged by Winnipeg police.  He did not respond to a request for comment.

"I honestly felt a lot of relief when I heard another woman come forward," Maytwayashing said. 

The 25-year-old is no longer living in Manitoba and has moved to Vancouver Island. She says she hates to say it, but this latest allegation has given her story more credibility. Maytwayashing says after she came forward with her story, people blamed her, gaslit her, and bullied her online. 

"No one really believed me," she said. "Honestly, I hope that something is done about it now." 

Dumas has denied that he was trying to start a relationship with Maytwayashing and has said that his communication style was misinterpreted. 

But she says he should have known better. She was new to Winnipeg at the time, young and just beginning to learn about her culture. Maytwayashing says she believes Dumas saw her vulnerability and took advantage of his position of power as grand chief. 

Maytwayashing says she'd like to see a return to traditional ways where women were consulted in leadership decisions.

"This patriarchal society system is not working for us, it's doing a lot of harm to us and it has for generations," she said. "I think we need to go back to our matriarchy and let women lead by example." 

CBC Manitoba has heard from women chiefs who say they have experienced misogyny but weren't comfortable speaking on record. 

Reporters contacted nine Manitoba chiefs, one former chief and one regional chief who are women. Only one of them returned CBC's request for comment. 

In an email, Misipawistik Cree Nation Chief Heidi Cook said the "old boys club atmosphere" is not limited to First Nations politics. 

"It is part of the residue of colonization and not part of our traditional governance structures," Cook wrote. "I see and am part of a return to more traditional forms of governance that are more balanced and welcoming than the colonized forms we had imposed on us." 

When colonizers arrived in North America they brought their own set of social structures with them. Patriarchy was built into the Indian Act and those imposed rules disrupted traditional societies' ways of being, says Cora Voyageur, a member of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and sociology professor at the University of Calgary.