Developing Legal Frameworks for Urban Aboriginal Governance

Five centuries of contact between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples have had a profound impact upon all the people who now live in the territory known as Canada. While many benefits from contact have accrued to both sides over the centuries, the overall experience has been devastating to the original inhabitants of this land. No one can deny the ravages of introduced diseases that decimated millions of Indigenous peoples, the loss of the vast majority of their traditional territories, the subjugation of independent nations, the disastrous effects of colonization, and the legacy of despair endured by generations who attended Indian residential schools and their children. First Nations have had their sovereignty incredibly undermined by the Indian Act, as well as other means since Confederation. That said, this distinct federal statute recognizes at least some very limited jurisdiction and community governmental authority while seeking to destroy all aspects of nationhood. As such, it has been a small bulwark against the massive forces of total assimilation that prevailed through much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the Indian Act was imposed upon First Nations with no respect for their aboriginal and treaty rights or their inherent sovereignty, the mere existence of federal legislation—especially when coupled with a tiny residue of traditional territory as reserves—has helped to ensure the continued existence of First Nations as polities separate from mainstream Canada. The Metis Settlements legislation in Alberta has played a similar role for the last seventy years for the 5,500 Metis living on the surviving eight settlements with their 1.25 million acres of land. For First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples living off a recognized land base, however, and especially for those living in the more populous southern portions of Canada, the challenge simply to survive as distinct peoples with their own unique needs, interests, and aspirations has been far greater indeed. No non-Indigenous government in Canada has ever been prepared to provide significant space in which governments created by and for Aboriginal peoples can flourish—unless these governments have a recognized, exclusive land base. Even then, Canadian governments have demonstrated no willingness to recognize the legitimate entitlement of Aboriginal communities to retain their traditional governments. Any acceptance of Aboriginal self-government that has emerged over the last few