Talk:List of First Nations governments

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[edit] BC List is much larger

A full list of First Nations governments in BC is going to number 500 or so; I'm thinking that should be a separate page although I'm not prepared to spend the time building it right now; it should have a hierarchy by tribal/regional council rather than alphabetized overall as with most lists, I think; sort of an indent tree (see British Columbia Coast). Or would that be called something else than a list, just "First Nations governments in British Columbia", with the proviso that government may also include unrecognized former sovereign bands such as the Sinixt who have no reserves, and therefore no government; then there's the cultural argument posed on Talk:Somena and in the still-POV-but-can't-be-fixed (?) main article Somena; there will be others like it, as the historical native political relationships are vastly different from our modern sense of their governments as in tribal councils and band councils and various nation and association hierarchies, and in many cases there was nothing resembling one of the latter day groupings, as in the Cowichan, where Somena is; there is no such thing as a Cowichan people, which is why I listed them as Cowichan peoples; they all spoke the same dialect of Halkomelem and lived alongside each other, but they were not a chieftaincy-cum-statehood in the way any of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida chiefs were; similarly the Sto:lo, who did not have a common political organization until modern times. Modern-day bands are often broken up into unique-band nations (D'Arcy) and small-group nations (In-SHUCK-ch) even though larger groupings of their historical ethnographic - but not really political - unity; there was no regional government as manifested in the band/tribal council structure today; usually that's reflected in band organization at the Indian Act level, as continues to exist, although there's unique instances like Somena, and also the New Westminster Indian Band (or New Westminster First Nation?) which is in the process for recognition, but has no members (someone is trying to organize urban Indians around a revived Indian Reserve on Poplar Island, the old smallpox quarantine.). Anyway, to repeat my original intent here, the BC list needs to be much larger and should probably have its own article, with maybe only major regional/tribal councils listed, with a "misc" listing for the tiny independents, with referrals to a First Nations in BC list, which can cover the details; the show/hide thing available in talk pages would be handy here in terms of drawbar lists of each council. Interestingly btw they can't be grouped solely by ethnography; there's overlap overganizations such as the Carrier-Ulkatcho which include Chilcotin bands, and some Chilcotin and Lillooet bands are co-members of the Shuswap or Thompson or Sto:lo).Skookum1 02:31, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Further to previous

Also needed: List of First Nations cultural organizations and institutions in British Columbia, or whatever a short form of that might be; I'm thinking the lists of language authorities, edudational institutions, cultural centres, friendship centres, things like Weetama in Whistler and the First Nations program at the Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge (which AFAIK is a partnership between the Squamis Nation or another native organization and the company running the bridge and its other attractions (private sector rather than government, although I'd venture government funding is also at play). Toti:lthet or however it's spelled, the old St. Mary's Residential School in Mission, is another example; as also the (temporary?) operation of former CFB Chilliwack by local First Nations educational and social services (I think it's over now and something else has gone down with that property....or not?). Anyway, all these and more province-wide a pretty healthy list in their own right, and obviously of encyclopedic interest. Not sure what to use as a title, or if I'm up to the task time-wise (as also with the list of First Nations govts in BC discussed above).Skookum1 03:02, 21 December 2006 (UTC)