Models of Indigenous Self-Government
Models of Indigenous Self-Government
Learning Goal: I can explain what self-government means for First Nations peoples and describe at least two different models of self-government that exist in Canada today. I can connect the push for self-government to the idea that the right to self-determination was never surrendered.
Most First Nations in Canada are still governed under the Indian Act. Their chiefs and councils are elected under rules set by federal law, and many of their decisions, from band membership to land use, require federal approval before they take effect. The Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations holds authority that an elected municipal or provincial government would never accept from a higher level of government.
Self-government replaces that arrangement. A self-governing First Nation negotiates or legislates its own jurisdiction, meaning it makes and enforces its own laws in areas such as land management, membership, education, health, and finances, without needing federal sign-off. Self-government does not mean independence from Canada. It means First Nations exercising the authority to run their own affairs as nations, the way any government runs the affairs of its own citizens.
In 1986, the Sechelt Indian Band on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia became the first First Nation in Canada to achieve self-government, under the Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act. The Act transferred roughly 1,030 hectares of reserve land to full Band control and gave the Band its own constitution and law-making powers, similar to a municipal government. In 2022, Parliament modernized the Act, renaming it the shishalh Nation Self-Government Act and adding law-making power over child and family services and alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is a legislated model: Parliament passed a law recognizing the Nation's self-government.
In 1998, the Nisga'a Final Agreement took a different route. It was the first treaty in British Columbia in over a century and the first treaty in Canada to write self-government directly into its text rather than relying on separate legislation. When it took effect on May 11, 2000, the Indian Act stopped applying to Nisga'a citizens entirely. The Agreement recognized close to 2,000 square kilometres of Nisga'a Lands in the Nass Valley and created the Nisga'a Lisims Government, elected every five years, which shares jurisdiction with British Columbia and Canada over lands, resources, education, health, and social services. This is a comprehensive treaty model: self-government negotiated as one part of a larger land claims settlement.
The most recent example is close to home. On May 2, 2023, Chief Darcy Bear of the Whitecap Dakota Nation, a Dakota community just south of Saskatoon, signed a self-government treaty with Canada after negotiations that began in 2009. Whitecap members approved the treaty by a 92 percent vote. It is the first stand-alone, treaty-protected self-government agreement of its kind in Saskatchewan, giving the Nation law-making authority over governance, land, natural resources, membership, language and culture, education, health, and financial management. Unlike the Nisga'a Agreement, it addresses governance on its own, without being tied to a comprehensive land claim.
These three models look different, legislated, treaty-based, and stand-alone, but they rest on the same idea. First Nations governed themselves long before Confederation, and that authority was never given away. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states in Article 3 that Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination, and in Article 4 that this includes the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs.
As you learned in Lesson 8, Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognized existing Aboriginal and treaty rights but never entrenched a right to self-government. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations had already argued this point in position papers published in 1977 and 1979, stating that First Nations sovereignty was inherent and had never been surrendered to Canada. Every self-government agreement signed since, from Sechelt in 1986 to Whitecap Dakota in 2023, is a step toward Canada formally recognizing an authority First Nations never stopped holding.
Key Idea: Self-government is not a power Canada grants to First Nations. It is the exercise of an inherent right to self-determination that First Nations never surrendered, recognized through different legal paths, legislated, treaty-based, and stand-alone, depending on each nation's history and goals.
inherent right: A right that belongs to a people by virtue of who they are, rather than a right granted by another government. First Nations describe self-government as an inherent right because it existed before Canada did.
self-determination: The right of a people to freely decide their own political status and pursue their own economic, social, and cultural development.
comprehensive self-government agreement: A negotiated treaty that sets out a First Nation's law-making authority in detail, such as the Nisga'a Final Agreement or the Whitecap Dakota self-government treaty, as opposed to authority created through federal legislation alone.
1. "Whitecap Dakota Nation and Canada sign self-government Treaty." Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, May 2, 2023. https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2023/05/whitecap-dakota-nation-and-canada-sign-self-government-treaty.html
2. "Self Government." Whitecap Dakota Nation. https://www.whitecapdakota.com/our-government/self-government/
3. "Nisga'a Treaty." Nisga'a Lisims Government. https://www.nisgaanation.ca/government/nisgaa-treaty/
4. "Canada and shishalh Nation mark Royal Assent of historic self-government legislation." Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, June 24, 2022. https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2022/06/canada-and-shishalh-nation-mark-royal-assent-of-historic-self-government-legislation.html
5. Welch, Deborah, and Michael Payne. "Sechelt." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sechelt