A divisive, hard-won meeting between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper ended Friday with the Conservative government agreeing to revisit historic treaties and speed up comprehensive land claims.

Despite rancourous boycotts by some chiefs and a door-pounding protest on the front steps of the prime minister’s working office Friday, more than four hours of face-to-face talks set the stage for another round within the next month.

“We have achieved some movement today,” Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said in a statement.

“The prime minister listened respectfully to chiefs and responded to all they brought forward and for the first time, provided a clear mandate for high-level talks on treaty implementation. Prime Minister Harper also committed to high-level discussions on comprehensive claims.”

But secondary demands — including a repeal of contentious sections of the government’s omnibus budget bills — were dismissed or put off for another day.

And in order for the commitment to treaty talks to work, the Ontario and Manitoba First Nations who boycotted Friday’s meetings will have to come back into the Assembly of First Nations fold.

That’s because those are the country’s two key regions governed by treaties, and they need to figure out how the broad strokes of Friday’s agreement apply in their areas, said Grand Chief Edward John from the First Nation Summit in British Columbia.

“They need to be involved in the development of the modalities of that. The treaty First Nations need to step up and design this,” said John, who attended the meeting.

First Nations in northern Ontario and Manitoba are among the most impoverished in Canada, and their people have long complained that Canada is not living up to its side of the treaty.

But the chiefs from those regions refused to attend the Harper meeting because it did not include the Governor General — a key demand since the treaties were signed by a representative of the Crown.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said the talks with Shawn Atleo, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and about 20 other native leaders were “frank” and “constructive,” while acknowledging much work remains.

Perhaps most significantly, Duncan said the prime minister and the powerful Privy Council Office — the bureaucracy that supports the PMO — will now take an active role on “those sticky items which are identified which could use some direction from the centre.”

In other words, one year after another highly symbolic meeting that was supposed to reset the relationship between Ottawa and First Nations, a sense of urgency may have emerged.

But the chiefs have yet to declare a victory because they’ve been down this road before, said John.

“Today I have to wait and see what transpires because we were already made promises that were not kept,” he said.

Some might credit the restive, cross-country Idle No More native protest movement, as well as the month-long hunger protest by Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence, for any perceived momentum.

But a central tenet of Idle No More dissent is the government’s overhaul of environmental oversight and protections of fisheries and waterways included in the massive budget bills rammed through Parliament last spring and last fall.

On that point, Duncan said the government saw no reason to make any changes and had fulfilled its constitutional duty to consult with First Nations beforehand.

“We’re quite comfortable that we have met our constitutional obligations with those bills and we believe there’s every reason to proceed,” Duncan said.

He said prime minister makes sure “that there is regular knowledge of any concerns that may come from the First Nation leadership,” regarding legislation.

Atleo and the chiefs in the meeting with Harper and his ministers pushed hard on that point, but made no progress, John said.

“That’s the crux of the problem.”

Plus, Harper did not give any ground on First Nations’ requests to set up a public inquiry on violence against aboriginal women — a key demand for many grassroots protesters that has garnered support across the country.

Atleo did not immediately speak to the media after meeting the prime minister, opting instead to consult first with his large, divided constituency of chiefs.

It was not immediately clear whether the results of the meeting would be enough for the two sides to find enough common ground to re-establish Atleo’s leadership, repair the Crown-First Nations relationship and quell restless protesters across the country.

Atleo’s ability to recover politically from the schisms and drama of the past two days “depends on the outcome of the meeting,” said Harvey Yesno, grand chief for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which groups reserves across northern Ontario.

Yesno was among those who boycotted the meeting with Harper. But he said the Ontario chiefs are not ready to ask for Atleo’s head simply because he met Harper against their will.

“There will be another time for that kind of discussion,” said Yesno. “We have to move things along.”

Most of the chiefs demanding a boycott are covered by historical treaties with the Crown, while Atleo comes from B.C., where there are no treaties. That background has always served as a sore point for Atleo among the chiefs of Ontario and Manitoba, and it’s a long-standing division within the Assembly of First Nations, Yesno said.

If Atleo is able to deliver a concrete process to revisit historic treaties and modernize them — a process led by a powerful person in government, with strict timelines to deliver results — then his reputation would be restored, Yesno said.

Contrary to Harper’s original plan, he stayed for the duration of the afternoon talks, along with several key cabinet ministers: Duncan, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Treasury Board Secretary Tony Clement.

Missing from the government list was Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, whom First Nations were hoping to meet to discuss a different way of sharing the bounty from natural resource extraction.

On the First Nations side, Manitoba, Ontario and Northwest Territories stuck to their guns and did not send high-level representation, according to lists of attendees from the government and from the Assembly of First Nations.

Indeed, Manitoba chiefs with headdresses and drums blocked one of the entrances to the building across the street from Parliament Hill, signalling their opposition both to Harper and to the Assembly of First Nations leaders inside.

One of the most strident hold-outs, Derek Nepinak, the grand chief of the Manitoba assembly of chiefs, told CBC late Friday afternoon that the significance was “not necessarily what we accomplished politically.”

“We’ve been strung along on this Indian Act policy path where little funding announcements are made from time to time in these trumped up meetings with the prime minister.”

“We broke away from their containment tools today,” said Nepinak, calling it “a very great victory for our people.”

Thousands of protesters filled the streets around Parliament Hill, chanting, dancing and demanding that Harper act to improve the conditions on reserves.

First Nations, including Spence, were also scheduled to meet separately with Gov.-Gen. David Johnston at Rideau Hall later Friday at a private “ceremonial” meeting.





Here is how the First Nations’ eight demands fared:

Agreed

Commitment to a high-level process on treaty implementation.

Commitment to speed up resolutions of land claims and affirmation of inherent rights.

Designate decision-makers within the Privy Council Office to specifically oversee the Crown-First Nation relationship.

Much consensus

Harper agreed talks on resource equity should be part of the high-level process on treaty implementation, but also need to include provinces.

Make funding for First Nations sustainable, in line with growth of the population. Harper agreed this would be part of the treaty and comprehensive land claims discussions.

Guarantee schools for every First Nation. Harper agreed education is important but didn’t make firm commitments.

Some consensus

All legislation needs to be compatible with indigenous rights, and the parts of Harper’s budget omnibus bills that contravene aboriginal rights need to be repealed. Harper agreed the government has a duty to consult with First Nations, but will not repeal the omnibus bills.

Disagreed

Set up a public commission to focus on murdered and missing aboriginal women.