Introduction Gaining a Purchase: An Introduction to the Public Emergence of the Vocabulary of First Nations’ Self-Government

In 1971-73, when I was collaborating with George Manuel, who was then president of the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada, on his memoir, The Fourth World: An Indian Reality,1 he was of the view that an explicit discussion of self-government aspirations would not benefit either his constituents or his career. In 1980, Manuel’s successor, Noël Starblanket,2 in testimony before the Commons Indian Affairs Committee shortly after the founding of the Assembly of First Nations, set out a detailed vision of self-government. Two years later the Commons mandated a subcommittee of the Indian Affairs Committee to conduct an inquiry which became the Penner Report on Indian Self-Government.