As discussed earlier in the report Canadian history as taught in public schools has been distorted.  The spirit and intent of Treaties between indigenous people who owned the land and the Crown which represented non-native Canadians has not been taught in public schools. There is very little understanding of the principles of land ownership, property rights (human rights) and history.

First Nations in Manitoba as of 1997 still had less than ½ of 1% of Manitoba's land base. This was not what was intended in the treaties. To feel comfortable with violation of First Nation property rights, there has to be justification in the minds of the average Canadian.  What is justification?  How are non-First Nation Canadians conditioned to response?

• We paid for the land
• How long must we pay for the land
• Indians are immigrants themselves, they came over the Bering Strait
• Indians didn't have a sense of land ownership
• We developed the land and resources
• Nobody owns the land
• Treaties are musty old documents having no meaning in modern society
• No one should have special Canadian rights based on race

For First Nations the treaties are Canada's recognition of the indigenous people's sovereignty. By signing the treaties, Canada recognized the indigenous people are different than the people who immigrated to these lands.  In order to become Canadian, an immigrant has to pledge their loyalty to Canada. They change their sovereign allegiance. They consciously give up loyalty to the sovereign state they immigrated from. They accept the application of Canadian law unto themselves.

First Nations never consciously gave their sovereign allegiance to their own nation state.  In the minds of First Nations people, the treaties recognized the last of their lands as protected, unceded, unsurrendered, unrelinquished, reserved, sovereign territory. First Nations do not seek special Canadian rights but equal international rights.  The English have a homeland called England where English law is supreme, the French have France, the Italians have Italy, the Germans have Germany etc.  The spirit and intent of treaties was to recognize an indigenous homeland and royalties from the rest of their lands.

First Nations want an adequate share of their own lands, an adequate share of the wealth of resources in Canada and legal recognition of that right. Unfortunately Canadians would never willing give that legal recognition without some compelling pressure.  

Peter Warren's published opinion stated; "the average Canadian Indian is …… a person only too happy to live on a government cheque, …… a parasite, a non contributor". Warren was a radio talk show host with CJOB for over twenty years. CJOB and Warren's show in particular was the highest rated in Manitoba. Unfortunately, the reality is that Warren's opinion is consistent with what Canadians were taught in public schools so First Nations must initiate a public relations campaign to educate the general public.

Canada is the second largest country in the world at 3.8 million square miles of land. The wealth of natural resources in Canada is hard for people in other countries to imagine.  For example based on current revenue projected over the next fifteen years Canadians will see revenue from natural resources and use of the land of 2,665,150,000,000. That is two trillion, six hundred sixty five billion, one hundred fifty million.  This will be covered in more detail in the next section. 

Canada is a member of the G7, and leads all other countries in the world as the largest trading partner of the United States. The two and half trillion dollars does not take into account what profits will be made by banks, lending institutions, insurance and trust companies and interest paid to Canadians. Banks are making record profits. North Americans account for 5% of the world's population but they use over 25% of the world's resources. Due to changing trade agreements and concentration of wealth and power in North America, many countries are experiencing third world conditions.

Forbes magazine recently published a list of the 200 wealthiest working people in the world. Their combined net wealth was over one trillion dollars, an amount equal to the net worth of three billion of the poorest people on earth. Such a concentration of wealth is scary when one realizes that the 200 wealthiest working people in the world had a combined total of 463 billion a decade ago. They have more than doubled their wealth and power in the last ten years. They are not elected representatives of governments, they hold tremendous power and now have more money than most governments in the world.

First Nations people in Canada must recognize the changing patterns of power in the world in order to effectively deal with the issues they are confronted with. Elected governments even in Canada have less and less power to deal with First Nation issues. International agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement, GATT, WTO, and the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment do affect First Nations.