But there is no silver bullet for overcoming the challenges facing First Nations communities.

As Roberts said, the Coast Opportunity Fund has been “transformational” for many individuals, but Smith said it could be years before substantial human well-being outcomes are reached across the board, like improved employment rates and education enrollment.

“There’s no textbook that says, ‘apply money and it works,’” he explained. “There are various policy barriers in place. You have to set up limited partnerships. You need directors to run those partnerships.

“With a First Nations community that has no capacity, you can’t just give them a $3-million business to run because they don’t know how.”

But there is light at the end of the tunnel, said Smith, who has been wrangling through the Great Bear Rainforest negotiations long enough to know that the progress made in First Nations governance will last forever.

A Nanwakolas Council drummer celebrates the Great Bear Rainforest agreement with a traditional dance on Mon. Feb. 1, 2016. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey.

“Before people just told us what to do, then they started telling us what they thought we wanted to hear. Now they’re asking us what to do.”

It’s shame that for the campaign to work, First Nations had to overcome racism and exclusion.

He still remembers the first stakeholder meeting he attended when an industry participant pointed to his chiefs coming through the doorway, and said he couldn’t believe someone “let those goddamn Indians into this process.”

But times have changed.

“It took us a while to realize the role we had as leaders and to do it properly,” he explained. “The concept of the Great Bear Rainforest has helped us gain momentum for what we’re trying to do in our part of the Great Bear Rainforest. We made it about more than just about the Kermode bear and the protected areas.”

Nanwakolas Council president Dallas Smith cracks a joke at the Great Bear Rainforest agreement announcement on Mon. Feb. 1, 2016. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey.

Since then, both the Nanwakolas Council and Coastal First Nations have been approached by Indigenous people in Nunavut, First Nations in the Boreal Forest, and aboriginal groups in Hawaii, the South Pacific, and South America. All sought advice on how to build relationships with governments and stakeholders in the fight to protect their title, lands, and cultural resources.

This steady rise to power has been humbling to watch, said Ross McMillan of Tides Canada, who worked alongside Indigenous communities in the Great Bear Rainforest to help raise conservation capital.

“I was really struck by their generosity of spirit and also the absolute depth of resolve in terms of their visions for their territories. In spite of years of government neglect and heavy-handed companies in the region, the First Nations were remarkably open to new ways and new forms of partnership with the environmental community and beyond.”

Jody Holmes, director of the Rainforest Solutions Project and a lead environmental negotiator, further credited Indigenous leaders with being the first at the table to take “the long view,” and envision rainforest protection as encompassing the people who live there.

“That’s a huge part of this story,” she said. “From a basic social justice perspective, that’s a complete game changer, a complete shift.”

At an event in Vancouver earlier this year, Smith saw a satellite photo of North America snapped from space at night. The twinkling yellow lights of development dominated the majority of the Americas, but the Amazon, the Canadian Arctic, and the Great Bear Rainforest were completely dark.

It was a striking and validating image, he said.

A view of North America from space at night. Image courtesy of NASA Worldview.

This article is part of a series produced in partnership by National Observer, Tides Canada, Teck, and Vancity to highlight the stories, people, and history behind the Great Bear Rainforest conservation agreements. Tides Canada is supporting this partnership to foster integrated solutions for conservation and human well-being. National Observer has full editorial control and responsibility to ensure stories meet its editorial standards.