The Last President: The Story, the Law, and the Roots of Indigenous Rights

Here at Red Roots Trading Company, some things matter more than products, pricing, or even business itself. Some stories live at the very core of why we exist. One of those stories is told in The Last President, the softcover autobiography of Chief Delbert “Del” Riley, a book that is as sobering to read as it is essential, and as painful as it is powerful.

Without giving too much away, The Last President begins before Del even had the words to speak. He writes of his earliest memories as a small child, his mother speaking Ojibwe to him, a language he could understand long before he could respond. That bond, that grounding in language, culture, and love, was violently severed when tuberculosis, a disease introduced by white settlers, tore through his family. He lost his mother to the disease, contracted it himself, and while still contagious, was forcibly taken from his family home on reserve by the RCMP at just six years old. The destination? A residential school.

What followed in the early 1950's at the church-run Mohawk Indian Residential School is described with honesty and clarity: mental, physical, and sexual abuse carried out by staff whose mission was not education, but erasure. The goal was to strip the “Indian” out of Indigenous children, to whitewash their identity, and to exploit their slave labour for profit on church-owned farmland surrounding the school. It is hellish, and it is real. This is not history at a distance, it is lived experience.

Yet The Last President is not a story of defeat.

Del Riley does not emerge broken. He emerges hardened, focused, and unshakeable. The book traces his journey from survival to leadership, from trauma to action, and ultimately to authorship of some of the strongest and most important legal protections for Indigenous peoples in Canadian history. His work helped shape Sections 25 and 35 of the Canadian Constitution, provisions that continue to define Indigenous rights today.

Section 35 formally recognizes and affirms existing Aboriginal and treaty rights, explicitly including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. It is rooted in reconciliation, acknowledging Indigenous peoples’ prior occupation of the land and their ongoing presence alongside Crown sovereignty. Crucially, it provides a constitutional tool for Indigenous nations to enforce those rights when governments overstep; rights that are not meant to be extinguished, diluted, or negotiated away.

Section 25 acts as a shield, ensuring those Indigenous rights cannot be undermined by other Charter guarantees. It reaches back to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, protecting inherent rights to land and self-governance, and forward to present and future land claims. When rights come into conflict, Section 25 exists to ensure Indigenous rights are not repealed or diminished.

These are not abstract legal ideas at Red Roots. They are the foundation.

Del Riley’s candid acknowledgment and advocacy of Indigenous inherent rights, including the cultivation and trade of cannabis and cannabis products, directly inspired the founding of Red Roots Trading Company. Much like tobacco before it, cannabis represents an opportunity for Indigenous communities to exercise economic self-determination on their own terms. It's important to note that Red Roots is not a conventional business; it is an Indigenous trading post, operating in alignment with inherent rights that predate Canada itself by centuries.

Ottawa sits on unceded Algonquin Territory. Referencing Sections 25 and 35 of the Constitution, and the Royal Proclamation of 1763, here at Red Roots we operate with the understanding that Indigenous peoples have the right to trade freely and unobstructed on their own land. This is not a legal loophole. It is the law. Hard-won, defended, and written into existence by leaders like Del Riley.

The Last President is ultimately a story about refusing to back down. It is about standing firm against racist colonial laws, policies, and legalized hatred. It is about using intelligence, resolve, and relentless determination to break the chains of a legal system that was built without Indigenous peoples, and deliberately against them. Above all, it is about fighting for the future: for our Indigenous children, for our Indigenous communities, and for the land our ancestors walked.

This book matters. Del Riley’s story matters. And at Red Roots Trading Company, it’s one we carry forward every single day. Click Here to purchase your copy of The Last President today!