Some say the FNG is NFG

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"First Nation communities must be well governed so that they can achieve economic development." So goes the new Indian Affairs mantra. At every opportunity, the Indian Affairs minister tells us that we should put land and rights and culture on the backburner, and look at our situation in pragmatic terms, with a solution as simple as implementing "good government" in our communities. He believes that our problems can be solved by making band councils (excuse me, "First Nation governments") efficient, accountable and stable, and wants us to ignore history.

Of course, political, social and economic factors are related; and we cannot ever hope to have self-determination without a viable self-sustaining economy. It's a basic point to anyone who understands governance, as is the fact that the band council system is inherently flawed. But this new drive to re-form band councils in the image of white models does not address the root problems we face, nor is it being done to help us recover from the Indian Act. It is being done to capitalize on the damage colonialism has wrought in our lives. We are being encouraged to just get along; and "economic development" is being offered as the payoff and salve for the wounds inflicted on our people. (Translation: infusions of cash and the acceptance of capitalist values will make us feel better and forget that we are colonized peoples.)

This "good government toward economic development" push is the New Big Thing in government circles, taking the place of the recent capacity building rage. Being a well-funded federal priority, it has naturally become the newest rallying cry of the Indian industry. The Indian industry's legions of consultants have started milking government teats all over the country, positioning to be players and paid in the design of complicated and expensive ways to stabilize our communities so that business development can proceed.

As required, Indian Affairs bureaucrats-always moneyed and craving a new purpose-have begun to serve the high priced economic development agenda. The consulting luminaries (so impressive in their authoritative whiteness, I guess) have been talking the bureaucrats into a capitalist flutter. The consultants' pitch must seem like a thunderbolt of insight to the dim and easily impressed denizens of the government's dark fortress: "y'all can help them Indians make money, and finally start looking like the good guys." The machine starts grinding so predictably. Listen to all of the talk these days from the minister of Indian Affairs to his employees in the regions, to the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. It's all about business and "accountability", "access to resources," "development" and the "new economy."

The new agenda's objective of economic integration and business development (as distinguished between other more traditional forms of self-sufficiency) is put forward as the ultimate solution. But the minister, the bureaucrats and the national chief all know something they're not telling us: economic development can only happen if we are socially and politically integrated with Canadian society. In essence, the new agenda is really a hidden one, and proposes that we sacrifice our cultural soul and political principles on capitalism's altar so to be "saved" in economic terms.

The people promoting this new agenda don't talk much at all about the character of government so much as the over-arching need for stability. In the development approach, it doesn't matter what kind of government we have-white or Indian, traditional or not-so long as that government is stable, efficient and co-operates with other authorities to uphold the rule of law.

Stability, in this conception, comes to mean not the Indigenous ideals of harmony rooted in justice, nor peace borne out of respect, nor internal reconciliation. It does not relate to any meaningful resolution of the problems besetting our communities. To the develpment peope, stability is simply this: imposing order, accepting the status quo and making money.

Of course stability sounds like a good thing to begin with, but move the discussion from theory to reality and you find that this concept of good government is just a cover to validate the Indian Affairs system. Are the consultants and the enamoured Indian Affairs Indians talking about restoring traditional governance or rejecting inappropriate systems to design systems based on authentic Indigenous values and principles? Of course not. They are promoting the idea that we should accept our defeat and assimilate. As our reward for being nice and biting our tongues (they hate it when we say things like "we were here first," "you stole our land" and "genocide"), the white man will promise to relax his grip on our throats just enough so that we can generate our own revenue and start paying taxes like every other citizen of his country.

Enter Mr. Nault and his proposed First Nations Governance Act (termed the FNG). In reality, the FNG will be the Indian Act all over again, but this time stripped of any remaining protection of our collective rights and absent of any recognition of that great symbol of our autonomous existence: tax immunity. It will integrate our community governments into the Canadian accountability structure, meaning that the white politicians and the Canadian public will have even more say over how we govern ourselves than they do now.

It will also finally accomplish Canada's long-standing goal of subjecting our governments and our people to the extreme individualism of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The FNG will replace the Indian Act and become an even more powerful instrument of colonial control. In the Canadian constitutional arena, where the concept of Aboriginal rights allows the federal government to infringe (ignore) our human and constitutional rights at will, acceptance of the FNG's notion of stable and accountable government wil lead to the fial extinguishment of autonomous Indigenous nations.

In spite of the sweet talk about economic development and cooperation, the federal government to this day still seeks to extinguish any Indigenous claim to land or rights that does not validate Crown sovereignty. As well, the minister of Revenue has made it very clear in recent meetings with our leaders that the Liberal government will move to eliminate the Indian tax exemption by the year 2005.

This should be no surprise, since the Prime Minister himself designed the 1969 White Paper assimilation plan and has never disavowed it-only 35 years to achieve the final destruction of Indigenous peoples, not a bad career, eh? In the context of this larger plan, the federal government's stated urgency to implement the FNG within two years makes total sense.

By quickly moving the Indians out of the Indian Act and into the new FNG framework, they can then move against those of us left standing who refuse to accept the legitimacy of Canadian sovereignty, and who oppose the municipalization of our governments and paying tax to Canada. (Even better, they will be able to do so with the support of those Indians who will sign on to the FNG development/assimilation agenda.)

Sadly, this all sounds great to the co-operating class of assimilated Indians walking the halls of Indian Affairs offices all over this country. These poor misguided Indian Affairs Indians don't know that to win in the white man's way is no victory at all. They don't realize that there is still something worth fighting for.

The Indian Affairs Indians should spend more time with real people and less time ass-grabbing with their bosses at Indian Affairs headquarters. If they did, they would know that our struggle is about our culture, our values and our freedoms as Indigenous peoples, not about their careers, lining their pockets with cash and trying to get white people to think they're nice.

The major divide between the IndianAffairs Indians and the ret of us is becoming too obvious. A big fight is brewing as the arrogant Mr. Nault tries to rush and ram through his FNG plan to assimilate our people with the help of his corps of condescending Indian Affairs Indians and stable of tamed chiefs. The battle lines are drawn. The main question is this: are you ready to trade your pride and your rights for "economic opportunity"?

Indian Affairs Indians have made their own choice a long time ago, and many of our so-called leaders are thinking about it right now. They stand on one side of the line, the convenient side. Care to join them and get on board with the FNG, Aboriginal rights, taxation, and fee-simple tenure, municipalization and end-of-story?

Not me. I'm on the side of survival, the hard side of the line. Strong Indigenous people, true Onkwehonwe, have resisted the tide of assimilation for 400 years: we're not into giving up easily. Disgusted with the sell-out rhetoric that passes for political discussion in "Aboriginal" circles these days, I asked one of my trusty advisors back home for some words of wisdom.

"Atskwi raktsi'a, what do you think of the FNG?" He thought about it for one heartbeat and shot back: "The FNG is NFG and no f-ing good." Now that's my kind of Indian.