Assembly of First Nations

The NIB was a national political body made up of the leadership of the various provincial and territorial organizations (PTOs) which lobbied for changes to federal and provincial policies.[5]

The following year, the NIB launched its first major campaign in opposition to the 1969 White Paper, in which the Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, proposed the abolition of the Indian Act, the rejection of land claims, and the assimilation of First Nations people into the Canadian population with the status of other ethnic minorities rather than a distinct group.

Supported by a churches, labour and other citizen groups, the NIB mounted massive opposition to the government plan. On June 3, 1970, the NIB presented the response by Harold Cardinal and the Indian Chiefs of Alberta (entitled "Citizens Plus" but commonly known as the "Red Paper") to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and ministers of his Cabinet. Startled by the strong opposition to the White Paper, the Prime Minister told the delegation the White Paper would not be imposed against their will.

In 1972, the NIB's policy paper "Indian Control of Indian Education" was generally accepted by federal government and the NIB gained national recognition for the issue of Indigenous education in Canada. Undoubtedly, this was one of the last steps in ending the Canadian Residential School System, long opposed by Indigenous people, but also a first step in the push for Indigenous self-governance.[2][6]

In 1973, the Calder case decision was issued.[7] "You have more rights than I thought you did," Prime Minister Trudeau told the NIB leaders.

The NIB gained consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1974, until such time as an international Indigenous organization could be formed. When the World Council of Indigenous Peoples was formed on Nuu-chah-nulth territory the following year with the leadership of George Manuel, it took the place of the NIB at the United Nations.

However, the NIB was not without its problems. Individual chiefs and regional groupings begin to chafe because their only access to the national scene was through their respective PTOs. The chiefs complained they were not being heard.

In 1978, in an effort to let the chiefs be heard, NIB President Noel Starblanket organized an "All Chiefs Conference" on "Indian Self-Government". The Chiefs were delighted with the opportunity, and at a second All Chief Conference, announced that hereafter, the All Chief Conference would be "the one and only voice of Indian people in Canada."

This move coincided with Prime Minister Trudeau's announcement that Canada would patriate its constitution. The question arose as to what would happen with the Treaty and aboriginal rights that had been guaranteed by the Imperial Crown if Canada took over its own governance. Strong national leadership from the Chiefs became essential. The Chiefs formalized their governance structure, compromised by incorporating a "Confederacy" composed largely of the NIB leadership, and made the NIB, an incorporated body, its administrative secretariat. They used the United Nations General Assembly as a model in conceiving what the new Assembly of First Nations would become.

The Chiefs held their first assembly as "the Assembly of First Nations" (AFN) in Penticton, British Columbia, in April 1982. The new structure, which gave membership and voting rights to individual First Nations chiefs rather than provincial/territorial organizations,[8][9] was adopted in July 1985, as part of the Charter of the Assembly of First Nations.

On September 1, 1994, Ovide Mercredi, Chief of the AFN, advised federal government leaders that it must guarantee the rights of Aboriginal people in Quebec in the event of disunion.[5]

In early 2013, documents revealed that the AFN had been operating in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to provide information and conduct surveillance on members of the First Nations community. Documents acquired through access to information requests, reveal that heads of the RCMP, and the Ontario and Quebec provincial police met in the summer of 2007 with then AFN national chief Phil Fontaine to "facilitate a consistent and effective approach to managing Aboriginal protests and occupations."[10]

The AFN, which depends upon the federal government for most of its funding, has sometimes been accused of being obsequious, and not representative of the larger First Nations community.[11][12]