Raise the Hammer

I don't like writing policy as it's kinda pointless. I much prefer planning grassroots action - it's far more do-able. But for the sake of argument...

Land Claims - it is completely unacceptable that it takes decades to resolve the average land claim. The Douglas Creek Estates had a claim filed in 1992. If that had been handled in a reasonable stretch of time, a lot of the current chaos could have been avoided.

Banks - a very large amount of land taken unlawfully cannot be returned without displacing entire cities worth of settlers. Standard legal practice in these cases is to pay cash (usually with interest) for the land. That's how you get the capital to start locally controlled lending institutions.

Houses - if you doubt that natives build their homes bit-by-bit, go to any reserve. Even if you're just buying lumber and power tools though, you may still need a loan, especially if you're dirt poor. I'm a huge proponent of low-cost green housing methods like Earthships, but even they aren't cheap.

Government - most traditional consensus-based native governance styles are far more democratic than anything offered by either municipal governments like Hamilton's or government-imposed Band Councils. We could learn a lot from the Six Nations Confederacy, and how it makes decisions. And while I'm not saying natives should be forced to stick with ancient ways forever, any "progress" they make needs to be on their own terms, not dictated by colonial governments.

Reserves - we need to abolish the ghettoized reserve system, including the Indian Act. However, First Nations have rights under International Law too. Treaties are not just a matter of domestic policy - Canada has obligations which go beyond our own legal structure. Despite over a century of attempts at extermination and indoctrination, there are more natives than there have been for century. Governments, borders, history - sounds like an argument for autonomy to me. And federally, we need a framework which allows for it (federations do not, necessarily, need central control).

Nearly every country in the world is dealing with these issues, and usually in the same way. Japan, Isreal, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Mexico - indigenous peoples are a fact of life, and they're not going away.