First Nations Economic Development

Keith G. Brown, Mary Beth Doucette and Janice Esther Tulk (eds.), Indigenous Business in Canada: Principles and Practices. Sydney, Nova Scotia: Cape Breton UP, 2016. 303 pages. ISBN 978-1-77206-004-7. $27.95 paperback.This text book is full of useful information for those Indigenous students seeking to understand how to approach business from within Indigenous communities. It not only addresses the stumbling blocks encountered by those attempting to start a business, but it approaches those issues through standard business principles. Barriers that might be encountered are explained and various options are presented for overcoming them. This teaching could be perceived by some Indigenous communities as favouring government imposed laws that overrule their informal leadership structures. However, knowledge and understanding are the keys to moving forward.Explanations of the governances, laws, Native rights, and differences between Nations and non-Indigenous people are well presented. This background provides an understanding as to why there are obstacles and differences and opens the mind to possibilities that avail themselves for Indigenous people within the business world. History has taught Indigenous peoples to see themselves as segregated from other Canadians, when in fact they need to see themselves as a real part of the modern world and as self-sustaining and productive contributors to the economy.On page 30, the authors state that "A goal shared by most Indigenous communities in Canada is for their lands to be places where community members-their own citizens-want to live". It is my experience that traditionalists often view education and success in the outside business world as threats to the preservation of culture and identity. Often, young people who have obtained a good education and work off the reserve are drawn back into the isolation of their reserve and traditional practices because elders tell them "to shed the ways of the white world".... a step backwards. Derek's story in chapter four is a great motivational example of success that can be experienced while living on a reserve. Stories like his can help initiate positive thinking in young Native entrepreneurs. Important benefits and economic advantages are shown for both those on-reserve and off-reserve. Business financing, training, business plans and mentors are discussed - all important points necessary when starting any business. Old stereotypical beliefs that "an Indigenous person cannot get financing to help start a business" are put to rest when options for help are made known with real examples.Fear of change is real (41). Self-government agreements allow Aboriginal governments substantial land-management authority. However, they are often not finalized due to the lingering mistrust of past government influences (23). Traditional chiefs compete with the formal chief-and-council system imposed by the Indian Act (42). Even so, the growing youth population on reserves must be taught to see business success and ambition as non-threatening and the way to become self-determining: "Motivations by parents and elders must change from the 'Wards of State' past attitudes that relied on transfer payments." "They cannot isolate themselves into their traditions."There is a limited understanding of Aboriginal circumstances by non-Aboriginal firms and individuals (69). …

Australia has a 30-billion-dollar knowledge industry, yet this industry barely recognises Indigenous Australian knowledge developed for over 60,000 years. This knowledge is important to understanding life on this planet. A 2012 regional Aboriginal education report noted "These ways of thinking and planning are our great gift to a world that desperately needs solutions...Unfortunately, this gift has not been accepted yet, or even noticed" (NSW Department of Education and Communities). Through continued denial of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience, their knowledge is largely hidden from mainstream Australia and to the rest of the world. This study examines what inhibits appreciation of Indigenous Australian knowledge through two sequential interviews with 26 non-Indigenous senior managers in business, finance and economics.

Canadian federal law has been interpreted by provincial governments as allowing them to legally operate an Internet gambling website as long as the patronage is restricted to residents within that province. First Nations have however on two separate occasions challenged the provinces of Quebec and Alberta for jurisdictional primacy over the right to regulate online gambling: the Kahnawá:ke First Nation in Quebec and the Alexander First Nation in Alberta, both contend that they are sovereign nations empowered to enact their own gambling legislation, an authority grounded in their respective treaty relationship with the federal crown and its predecessors. In the wake of the ongoing debate between the Kahnawá:ke First Nation and Quebec, and the brief encounter between Alberta and the Alexander First Nation (2006-07), this chapter seeks to elaborate on two key questions: (1) to what extent do treaties establish First Nations as sovereign bodies? and, (2) do the treaties provide the Kahnawá:ke and Alexander First Nations’ peoples the right to operate online gambling?

We sought to take a first step toward better integration of social concerns into empirical ecosystem service (ES) work. We did this by adapting cognitive anthropological techniques to study the Clayoquot Sound social-ecological system on the Pacific coast of Canada's Vancouver Island. We used freelisting and ranking exercises to elicit how locals perceive ESs and to determine locals' preferred food species. We analyzed these data with the freelist-analysis software package ANTHROPAC. We considered the results in light of an ongoing trophic cascade caused by the government reintroduction of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and their spread along the island's Pacific coast. We interviewed 67 local residents (n = 29 females, n = 38 males; n = 26 self-identified First Nation individuals, and n = 41 non-First Nation individuals) and 4 government managers responsible for conservation policy in the region. We found that the mental categories participants—including trained ecologists—used to think about ESs, did not match the standard academic ES typology. With reference to the latest ecological model projections for the region, we found that First Nations individuals and women were most likely to perceive the most immediate ES losses from the trophic cascade, with the most certainty. The inverse was found for men and non-First Nations individuals, generally. This suggests that 2 historically disadvantaged groups (i.e., First Nations and women) are poised to experience the immediate impacts of the government-initiated trophic cascade as yet another social injustice in a long line of perceived inequities. Left unaddressed, this could complicate efforts at multistakeholder ecosystem management in the region.

Keywords: antropología cognitiva, aversión por la pérdida, cercano a la costa, costero, inequidad, personas indígenas, servicios ambientales Nutrias Marinas, Justicia Social y Percepción de los Servicios Ambientales en la Sonda de Clayoquot, Canadá Resumen: Buscamos dar el primer paso hacia la integración de las preocupaciones sociales dentro del trabajo empírico de los servicios ambientales (SA). Hicimos esto al adaptar técnicas antropológicas cognitivas al estudio del sistema socio-ecológico de la Sonda de Clayoquot en la costa del Pacífico de la Isla de Vancouver en Canadá. Utilizamos ejercicios de clasificación y listados libres para obtener la percepción local de los SA y para determinar las especies alimenticias preferidas de habitantes locales. Analizamos estos datos con el paquete de software de análisis de listados libres ANTHROPAC. Consideramos los resultados a la luz de una cascada trófica en desarrollo causada por la reintroducción por parte del gobierno de la nutria marina (Enhydra lutris) y su expansión a lo largo de la costa del Pacífico de la isla. Entrevistamos a 67 residentes locales (n = 29 mujeres, n = 38 hombres; n = 26 auto-identificados como individuos de las Primeras Naciones, n = 41 individuos no pertenecientes a las Primeras Naciones) y a cuatro administradores gubernamentales responsables de la política de conservación en la región. Encontramos que las categorías mentales de los participantes – incluyendo a los ecólogos preparados – utilizadas para pensar sobre los SA no empataban con la tipología académica estándar de los SA. Con referencia a lasúltimas proyecciones de los modelos ecológicos para la región, encontramos que los individuos de las Primeras Naciones y las mujeres tenían * email jlevine@interchange.ubc.ca

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the birthplace of the Greenpeace movement, has been a significant site for the articulation and enactment of multifaceted environmental
consciousness. Since 2010, First Nation groups and environmental NGOs have come together to oppose the construction of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in the form of public protests and demonstrations. Using a social networks perspective, we closely examine the nature of these protests and the convergence of First Nation groups and environmental NGOs. We argue that the Vancouver protests ultimately failed to transform into a social movement and had limited impact. While a common concern for the environment links both stakeholders in their opposition to the pipeline project, their motivations are rooted in very different epistemic concerns. For First Nation groups, resistance to the Enbridge pipeline is primarily tied to deeper political processes of regaining territorial control and ongoing struggles for cultural revival within British Columbia.

There is a surprising paucity of information about urban Aboriginal gambling behaviours and practices considering that the urban Aboriginal community is the fastest growing demographic group in Canada and that indigenous people have some of the highest rates of gambling and problem gambling. Interpreting the focus group findings from First Nations and urban Aboriginal participants in Alberta, this study provides insights about urban Aboriginal and rural First Nations attitudes about gambling and the perceived value of the provincial First Nations gaming industry. Although the First Nations focus groups’ were aware of gambling’s associated positive and negative outcomes, they were generally supportive of their communities’ decision to pursue casinos. The urban Aboriginal focus group however identified little positive about the casinos, even if its participants supported the First Nations capacity to pursue casino development. These tensions demand policy makers’ attention, for the First Nations Gaming Policy has the potential to amplify what is a growing ideological divide evident between First Nation and urban Aboriginal peoples.

For Coast Salish communities, traditional gathering ceremonies once structured the heart of formal economic exchange. Within these ceremonies many economies were embedded that spoke to what it means to live freely as Coast Salish people. Freedom meant that Coast Salish had the capability to express spirituality, governance, leadership and economy through gatherings ceremonies. Today, Coast Salish people face residual barriers from colonial state interventions in Canada that had particularly detrimental impacts on the capability to practise gatherings, and have yet to fully recover from those impacts. The economic consequences of historically restricted freedom from Coast Salish economic exchange in gatherings have not been shown.

To date a dearth of data has made it difficult to evaluate the success of First Nations casinos in Canada. This paper helps remedy this situation by presenting a three-province overview (Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta) of First Nations gaming models. Two key findings are offered that First Nations seeking gaming market entry, and provincial officials should genuinely consider. First, while each province has adopted a unique approach to First Nations gaming policy they have each opted to direct substantial revenues out of First Nations communities and into their own treasuries. Second, the evidence suggests that larger gaming properties located nearby a significant market provide more benefits versus smaller properties situated in more isolated areas. The subsequent discussion elaborates each provincial model’s revenue generating power, how the revenue in question is being allocated and its corresponding socio-economic impact, whether increased problem gambling and crime have resulted as predicted, while exploring employment trends to determine whether they have developed as anticipated.

This book was put together thanks to the following participants who shared their stories: Frank Patterson, Betty Lucas, Jimmy Johnny, Walter Peter, Rose Lemieux, Catherine Germaine, the late Helen Buyck, Lena Malcolm,
Donnie (Donald) Germaine, Bella Peter, Simon Mervyn, Nancy Hager and Margaret Ball.

All thirteen participants are First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun citizens and residents of the small town of Mayo, in
the Yukon Territory. First Nation of Nacho Nyäk Dun is the name people gave themselves at the time of the land
claims and Self-Government processes. Roughly translated it means ‘Big River People’. Before contact with Europeans, First Nations referred to themselves as Dän, meaning ‘people’. When a reference to this time is made the term Hude Dän, meaning ‘Old people’, is used.

The book is based on an oral history study conducted between 2015 and 2019. The main purpose of the study is to shed light on how Elders understand the influence of the extractive industry, settlers, and other mining related newcomers on their personal lives and the community in the present and the past. Their stories provide information of approximately one hundred years of interaction with and involvement in the mining industry. The time period covered in these accounts ranges from roughly 1915, the time of the relocation to the so-called ‘Old Village’ or ‘Dän Ku’, until life today.

With the 1979 Community Mandate to move towards Traditional Government, the community of Kahnaw&ke has consistently requested more involvement in decision-making on issues thataffect the community as a whole. The Kahnaw&ke Community Decision Making Process is a response to the community's callfor a more culturally relevant and inclusive process for making community decisions and enacting community laws. The Process is a transitionary measure to assist and facilitate the legislative function of Kahnawd:ke governance. This paper examines the development ofthe process andhow itfunctionsin the modernsettingofKahnawi.ke with the goal of illustrating Indigenous
participatorydemocracy in action.

Buoyed by the success of two large-scale bingos in 1993 Alberta’s First Nations initiated plans to construct reserve casinos to mitigate economic hardships. That year Alberta commenced with neoliberal reforms to slash the provincial budget. On the surface the First Nations’ request seemed rational: they sought an opportunity to become economically self-reliant while contributing to the provincial gaming industry during a period of bureaucratic devolution. This paper examines how ingrained attitudes equating First Nations as wards to the provincial government’s guardianship informed the creation of a First Nations Gaming Policy, leading Alberta to acquire regulatory authority over all reserve casinos. It also innovatively demonstrates how this neocolonial approach was used in concert with a neoliberal model to create a bureaucracy responsible for oversight of reserve gaming, the costs of which were borne of reserve casino revenues thereby resulting in no additional taxation of non-Native Albertans.

The Province of Alberta in 2001 implemented the First Nations Gaming Policy (FNGP) to improve First Nations development potential by permitting the construction of reserve casinos. This paper argues that during the policy development stages provincial and First Nations leaders failed to consider the geographic placement of reserve communities, both in terms of where casinos would be placed, and how gaming revenues would ultimately be distributed. In turn, a policy intended to assist with First Nations economic rejuvenation in Alberta has benefitted a small proportion of First Nations, while exacerbating regional economic difficulties the policy was in part calculated to ameliorate. The authors recommend revisiting the FNGP to establish a more equitable revenue distribution formula resulting in greater distribution of gaming revenues to a larger number of First Nations.

First part of the book manuscript describing the state of small business in the West Nipissing area of Ontario, Canada, including the territory of the Indigenous Nipissing First Nation (Anishinabe). A full version of the book is available at Laurentian University's J.N. Desmarais Library HD 2346 O5 C33 1997. Une version française complète du document est disponible sur le site researchgate.net de l'auteur principal.

To date 17 First Nations have introduced casinos as an economic strategy to help mitigate existing socio-economic disparities in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, while the provincial Nova Scotia First Nations operate ‘Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) palaces’ (i.e., no table games). Although the economic benefits of Native casinos in the United States are well documented, there is very little research to determine whether the same effects exist in Canada. The present research seeks to partly fill this void by evaluating the impact of the recent introduction of casinos to Alberta First Nation (i.e., reserve) communities. Findings show that there is significant variability in the economic benefits between communities. Nonetheless, it is clear that, in general, the introduction of casinos in Alberta has broad economic benefits to Alberta First Nations.

With the 1979 Community Mandate to move towards Traditional Government, the community of Kahnawa:ke has consistently requested more involvement in decision-making on issues that affect the community as a whole. The Kahnawa:ke Community Decision Making Process is a response to the community's call for a more culturally relevant and inclusive process for making community decisions and enacting community laws. The Process is a transitionary measure to assist and facilitate the legislative function of Kahnawa:ke governance. This paper examines the development of the process and how it functions in the modern setting of Kahnawa:ke with the goal of illustrating Indigenous participatory democracy in action.

"Accountability" has been a prominent theme of critics of First Nations governments. Canada's new law, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, requires First Nations to publish annual audited consolidated financial statements they already prepare (and many already publish), as well as a schedule of chiefs and councilors'’ salaries and expenses.
Don Lenihan, of the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, pointed out that this law will not end the debate, since "accountability" means more than reporting where money goes: it means reporting decision-making and "outcomes"—why money was spent on one thing rather than another, and what this achieved.  He adds, "When it comes to accountability for outcomes, mainstream governments are only marginally ahead of First Nations — and hardly in a position to lecture them on it."
Polls conducted by Ipsos in January 2013, during protests by Idle No More—including the fast by Attawapiskat Nation Chief Theresa Spence—showed an 81% national Canadian majority opinion that "no additional taxpayer money should go to any Reserve until external auditors can be put in place to ensure financial accountability." The rub is that First Nations already have external auditors, whose reports are public. Suffice it to say that poll answers demonstrate ignorance as well as opinion trends.

While games of chance have been part of the Aboriginal cultural landscape since before European contact, large-scale commercial gaming facilities within First Nations communities are a relatively new phenomenon in Canada. First Nations Gaming in Canada is the first multidisciplinary study of the role of gaming in indigenous communities north of the 49th parallel. Bringing together some of Canada’s leading gambling researchers, the book examines the history of Aboriginal gaming and its role in indigenous political economy, the rise of large-scale casinos and cybergaming, the socio-ecological impact of problem gambling, and the challenges of labour unions and financial management. The authors also call attention to the dearth of socio-economic impact studies of gambling in First Nations communities while providing models to address this growing issue of concern.