A
First Nation is a legally undefined
term that came into common usage in
the 1980s to replace the term "Indian
band". It was coined by Elder
Sol Sanderson in the early 1980s.
A band is defined as "a body
of Indians for whose collective use
and benefit lands have been set apart
or money is held by the Canadian Crown,
or declared to be a band for the purposes
of the Indian Act". There are
currently over 600 First Nations governments
or bands in Canada. Roughly half of
these are located in the provinces
of Ontario and British Columbia. There
is some controversy over the use of
the term "First Nations"
to either self-describe Indigenous
peoples within Canada, or for non-indigenous
peoples to refer to Indigenous peoples
in this fashion. The reason for this
controversy is that under international
law covenants, "First Nations"
per se, have no standing in international
law. Indigenous peoples or nations,
however, do.
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