It's high time we acknowledge the rights and sovereignty of Canada's indigenous peoples
What you need to know about the Assembly of First Nations. Many First Nations people live in the remote places of this country that are being eyed by resource developers. But they are also one of the fastest growing segments of the population and some of the least advantaged members of Canadian society...The First Nations are the roughly 900,000 indigenous people of Canada that, for centuries after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, were called “Indians” by people of European descent. They are not the Inuit or the Métis. They have sovereignty and treaty rights.The Globe and Mail's Gloria Galloway wrote this informative piece on "the Assembly of First Nations and the contentious education debate":
Why is education such a hot-button concern for the First Nations?
They, like the rest of Canada, realize their children are not being well-served by the state of education on reserves. Most chiefs attribute the problems of their schools to a disparity of funding between what their communities receive from Ottawa and what other schools receive from their respective provinces. But First Nations leaders say the right to control the way their children are educated strikes at the core of their right to self-determination and sovereignty that is supported by the UN resolution on the rights of indigenous people.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-assembly-of-first-nations/article18856927/?cmpid=rss1
