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That Attawapiskat has received millions upon millions of dollars in funding over the years, for a community of just 2,000 people, has clearly not only failed to help it thrive, but likely had the opposite effect. We’ve not had much better luck relocating troubled nations, holus bolus, as the ongoing struggles at Natuashish, where the population of Davis Inlet was up and moved to in 2002, attests. In short, every remedy we’ve attempted for our most deeply distressed reserves has proved impotent. So why wouldn’t we at least try something different?

Manitoba Métis activist Jean Allard has been promoting one untried remedy for years: The Big Bear approach. It would take funding out of the hands of those chiefs and band councils with a track record of misspending and financial misconduct — or the many more who leverage their control over the funds to perpetuate patronage and favouritism — and instead put it directly in the hands of the people who need it so they can decide for themselves whether to stay put or not.

Maybe it just so happens that nobody has the right solutions for Attawapiskat’s people except, perhaps, the people of Attawapiskat themselves

Allard’s approach is named for the Cree-Ojibway chief, Big Bear, who signed Treaty Six with the Crown in 1882, granting it authority over native land in exchange for an annual cash payment to each Indian (he was the last chief to agree to the treaty-based reserve system). Allard argues, convincingly, that Ottawa has a deal with individual First Nations people, not power-grabbing chiefs and councils. So, adjusting the treaty’s $5-per-head for inflation, Ottawa should be offering roughly $6,000 per person in 2016 — or $24,000 per year for a family of four. Combined with even low pay from an entry-level job, it could be life-changing help.