‘We cannot go without a National Organization any longer’: the struggle to build unity in Canada’s National Indian Council, 1961–1968

Abstract

In Canada today, there is no single political body which claims to represent all Indigenous people. Instead, separate organisations – the Assembly of First Nations, Métis National Council, and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples – represent status First Nations, Métis, and non-status communities. This article traces the attempts of the National Indian Council (NIC) to create unity across these different groups. In the early 1960s, Indigenous political leaders from across the country viewed national representation as an urgent need, yet by 1968 the NIC folded to make way for separate organisations. Why did this attempt to build unity fail? Examining the NIC’s political aims and contested visions of unity within the organisation, this article will demonstrate that attempting to overcome differences in status and treaty rights led to a failure to engage with the real concerns faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada.