Our History A history of leadership for positive change.
The AFN has been serving First Nations from coast-to-coast-to-coast for decades, with a history of chiefs, political landscapes, and government resistance. Assemblies have been documented as far back as 1870, with organizational name changes, elected chiefs, and ever-changing needs.
When the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) formed a single cohesive lobby group in 1970, there was criticism that it was not truly representative of all the Status First Nations across the country.
That rang true in 1979, when 300 status First Nations and Chiefs traveled to London, England to halt the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution. The Constitution repatriation battle caused, and identified the need, for the NIB to restructure and in 1982 The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) was formed under Dr. David Ahenakew in Penticton, B.C.