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Canada's First Nations Reserves Have a Faulty System of Government

The current governing structure on First Nations reserves in Canada has done a very good job in keeping the Indigenous population of this country internalized and dependent.

Three Chiefs from the Piegan Blackfeet, a tribe from Montana and Alberta. via WikiCommons.

The current governing structure on First Nations reserves in Canada has done a very good job in keeping the Indigenous population of this country internalized and dependent. While the Idle No More movement has worked to get land claims back in the national discussion, few people take notice of the governance system that is dividing our First Nations. As an Aboriginal, I’ve seen how this faulty system has become the norm and it’s discouraging to see no clear alternative in development. First Nations identify as a sovereign culture living within Canada, yet we’re expected to govern ourselves in a non-traditional, Western manner. The results are leaving our reserves underdeveloped.

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Some will say that this is how our government wants our Natives to be. The relationship between the Federal Government and the First Nations of Canada does nothing but reflect that. It seems these days Stephen Harper avoids the issue like a guy avoiding his divorced wife. Submitting only to brief “negotiations” and the giving of the monthly cheque. However, for the Aboriginal people of Canada an apology is not enough to heal this proverbially scorned woman. After a long, hard, winding history of colonial oppression it’s a wonder that First Nations people are still around to play the political game at all, let alone win it.

As you can imagine, First Nations communities, prior to contact, did not have legislation, Prime Ministers, or even a court system. Yet their people existed harmoniously. It was understood that there was little to no warfare occurring between tribes. Aboriginal folks were living in communion with Mother Nature. It’s an idealism that borders on a utopia. Still, “What did this governing system look like?” is an over-generalizing question, as Cassandra Opikokew, Associate Director at Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, points out: Each community did it differently. Some had a group of decision makers, who may have all been women, who we would now call elders. They held the ultimate decision making authority in the community and appointed Chiefs.”

Unfortunately, one of the off shoots of colonialism is that cultural knowledge can be scarce, almost to the point of extinction. Today, First Nations struggle with an identity frozen in a historical perception, rather then being seen as a culture alive and kicking. One reason being is that today, their governing system holds only shallow echoes of how it once was. As Cassandra told me, today, we have a Chief and Council system. You’ll have one councilor for every 100 people on the reserve. Each one works on a certain aspect of that reserve such as housing, health, public works etc. The Chief is a part of that circle but their role is focused on taking care of the elders and basically representing the tribe as a whole. So when we hear about Chiefs in the media, they are being held accountable for many people’s actions.”

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Rarely do we hear a media story about Indigenous folks that isn’t riddled with accusations of fraud and mismanagement. Attawapiskat stood out as being one such financial nightmare. In the 2010-2011 fiscal year, Attawapiskat received $17.6 million in federal funds and still that community is dealing with poor socio-economic conditions. For the average Canadian, it’s ridiculous to hear that sort of money should be spent with little results. In her article for the Huffington Post, Chelsea Vowel does a great job breaking down exactly where that money came from and went. She helps diffuse the accusations that someone is irresponsibly trifling with taxpayer dollars. The federal government eventually sent in a “third-party manager” into Attawapiskat, who was by all accounts non-Native, to sort out the trouble. Isn’t that what governments are for? Chief Theresa Spence refused the help and appealed to the courts for a solution to such belittling behavior. The response was to send another cheque. Drew Hayden Taylor points out in his article that this incident was what helped spark the Idle No More movement..

Surely Aboriginal people are able-minded enough to run a Chief and Council system properly, so why is it not working? Second Chief Joe Katt, from Temagami First Nation, was one of the few Chiefs who were willing to speak on this subject. After 22 years in his position, he sees the issue quite clearly.

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“In traditional government, the Chief and Council was not elected to make decisions for the people but on behalf of the people. That’s a heck of a big difference. The people have to be in agreement. I hear it in my council all the time: ‘We have to mandate!’ That’s one of the biggest faults with the democratic system. Anybody who is going to run can make all the promises in the world, and yet once they get their power, do whatever the heck they wish. You’ll find some Chiefs who pay themselves an outrageous salary meanwhile their people are suffering from lack of housing, poor education, so on and so forth. The people hold the power and not a group called Chief and Council.”

I asked Chief Joe for a picture of himself. He sent me this.

Inside the reserve, the issues of the day can look strikingly close to a soap opera. In fact, you can find tales of corruption dramatized in the TV series “Blackstone First Nation”. As it is, the federal government only recognizes an elected Chief and Council. Which means folks of that reserve have to vote for whom they feel should be in power. This approach can leave much of the population uninterested, and the voting soon becomes biased. The general feeling is that First Nations should be allowed to self-govern themselves with a hereditary system as Chief Joe points out.

“Under the Indian Act system, it’s a popularity contest. It’s a very destructive system because it puts family against family, and divides communities right across this land. A hereditary system is when the right to leadership is passed down from one generation to the other. If my great grandfather were a Chief then I would be a hereditary Chief. If you look at the Six Nations Confederacy, what makes their system so strong is that clan mothers (elders) still appoint the Chiefs. They don’t look and say ‘oh this guy over here, he is really handsome and he’s from so-and-so’s family.’ They look at the person’s ability, knowledge, and understanding of the traditions and the values.”

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Some people might think that because Aboriginals live on reserves they are completely self-governing. However, every decision that Chief and Council make has to be brought to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for finalization. The truth is that, if the Minister of INAC really wanted to over turn a decision made on a reserve, he could.

“Our right to self-government does not come from the Constitution of Canada or from our Majesty the Queen. Our right to self-government comes from the Creator who gave us our land bases and our brothers and sisters right across it. The government says, ‘we want to sit down and negotiate self-governing arrangements with you.’ As far as I’m concerned self-government is non-negotiable.”

Land is essentially what First Nations are after and they have to appeal to the federal level to be heard. Here we see some contradictions arise. The federal government is in charge of protecting our rights and our interests, yet land and resources fall under provincial jurisdiction. First Nations reserves deal only with the federal branch so who is actually looking after these issues?

To say this is the only issue would be ill informed. The affair between Aboriginal folks and the remaining citizens of Canada seems to be, from the Aboriginal point of view anyway, a moral one. Treaties were made long ago, back in the times when the colonialists first made contact, and that acted as agreements to keep the peace and share the resources. It was never understood that we, as Aboriginals, were expected to give up such a large amount of what the Creator gave us. In essence, we feel cheated and deeply disrespected. That respect is what Aboriginals are really fighting to regain. The wonderful thing is that tribes across North America have been ready to discuss this matter for decades, but unfortunately, they are met with bureaucratic jargon and finger pointing. So can you see why it’s so hard to appeal to Harper on such a personal level? They should be willing to assimilate a bit of our culture as well.

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This topic of discussion is, admittedly, deeply depressing. So for the sake of positivity and hopefulness, I’d like to point out some of the good things that are happening on the reserves. Cassandra seems to think there is a lot we, as a modern society, can learn from the earliest of First Nations practices.

“Within the last twenty years or so this idea about ‘going green’ has become huge. Natives have been doing that long before contact. Groups had to figure out how to hunt buffalo to sustain our livelihood, but at the same time ensure sustainable use of the buffalo as a resource. I think what we are seeing now are concepts that people don’t recognize as being traditionally Indigenous. These communities tended to account for gender. [We even had an accepted term for LGBTQ people, which was] two-spirited. Two-spirited people were understood to have a connection between two genders in one body. That was highly respected. Another one was accountability. We hear about accountability being so important today, particularly with the senate scandals. Indigenous communities thought in an intergenerational manner. ‘How is this going to affect us ten or twenty years from now? How is it going to affect our children and grandchildren?’”

Clearly the identity of Aboriginal lifestyles has been deeply ruptured by the artificial insemination of a Chief and Council system. But instead of throwing one’s hands up in the air and claiming defeat, Chief Joe is one of many people who have ideas on how to fix this problem.

“We have to create one Native organization that should take care of our status, our non-status, and our Metis peoples on reserve, off reserve, right across Canada. We’re in a whole new economy, a whole new technological age so we have to adapt to that system. I sat down with an OPP officer a number of years ago and I told him, what you’re fighting is a new generation. If the Canadian government still does not wish to acknowledge our rights then I think the next generations that are following are going to say: ‘Well what choice do we have?’ You’re going to find confrontation in places you never figured you would. His reply to me was that he was amazed it hasn’t happened yet.” More about First Nations Issues in Canada:

A Toxic Tour of Canada's Chemical Valley

Idle No More Is about the Environment, Too

Ontario's First Nations Deserve More of the Diamond Industry's Cash