DCHP-2

Assembly of First Nations Assembly of the First Nations, AFN DCHP-2 (September 2016)

• n. — Aboriginal, especially First Nations, Politics

  the national organization representing status Indians in Canada.

  Type: 1. Origin — The organization was formed in 1982, replacing the National Indian Brotherhood, which had existed since 1968. Its purpose is to protect and promote Aboriginal and treaty rights, land claims, economic development, education, languages, health, housing and all other issues relevant to the First Nations. The term is most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "Assembly of First Nations".

  See also: First Nation  status  Idle No More  

  • 1982  David Ahenakew, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says one reason natives opposed any change in the past is because there was never any assurance from the government that additional land and resources would be provided should the native population suddenly increase.
  • 1983  Nevertheless, the topic sparked some of the harshest debate because the Assembly of First Nations, which represents 300,000 Indians who are recognized and registered under federal law, insists that it is linked to the issue of aboriginal ''citizenship." Native people will decide for themselves who are the citizens or the members of the aboriginal nations, AFN representative Georges Erasmus said. 
  • 1985  The new leaders of the Assembly of First Nations have released documents that they say show recently defeated national chief David Ahenakew spent more than $250,000 of the organization's money in his unsuccessful bid for re-election last July. [...] 
  • 1990  "They spend more on Canada Day than the native media get all year, ” said Pat Brascoupe, national economic advisor to the Assembly of First Nations. 
  • 2001  Matthew Coon Come, national chief of the Assembly of the First Nations, survived an attempted ouster by directing the wrath of Canada's native people at Ottawa in a recklessly inflammatory speech. 
  • 2008  The Vancouver event was organized by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches to raise the profile of a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set to begin later this year as part of a healing process set out in the 2006 federal Indian Residential Schools Agreement.