BC Tribal Councils

Tribal Councils

Overview

There are dozens of tribal councils in BC, both official and unofficial. The “tribal council” entity is not as clearly defined in government records as bands. Some tribal councils appear to be recognized by the BC government, some others by the federal government, and others are independent. The best way to describe a “tribal council” is an entity of two or more bands allied together. The usual goal of tribal councils appears to be agglomerated land claims, and additional funding or other economic and governmental partnership between allied bands. These tribal councils somewhat resemble an analogue to regional district governments in size, population distribution and level of governmental.

Tribal Councils are alliances between bands based on ethnic ties, and thus tribal councils typically resemble historical nations more than individual bands. These Tribal Councils are essentially a level of governance legitimized by (recognized) territorial claims.

Not all tribal councils have open land claims. Some appear to be solely based on financial management. These include:

• Fraser Thompson Indian Services [BC Gov]: Essentially the same council as Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council, but without the land claim.
• Naut’sa Mawt Resources Group Inc. [NMRG]: Appears to be the corporate arm of the Naut’sa Mawt Tribal Council.

Some tribal councils have overlap:

• The Stó:lo Nation [BC gov] has 11 member bands. 6 of these bands have their own treaty process with the BC government, known as the Sto:lo Xwexwilmexw Treaty Association [BC gov]. There were originally 19 bands in the Stó:lo Nation, but 8 broke off and formed their own council known as the Stó:lo Tribal Council [BC gov].
• The Nlaka’pamux First Nations [BC Gov] has 15 member bands. The Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly [BC Gov] is a faction with 8 member bands. The Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council [BC Gov] is another faction with 5 members, and mirrors the Fraser Thompson Indian Services Society [BC Gov].

One other tribal council that is important to single out is the Alliance of BC Modern Treaty Nations [website]. This is a council of bands that have achieved self-government. This alliance acts like an actual nation, influencing political policy and promoting the treaty process for other bands. I only just discovered this while digging around on the official BC Treaty Commission website, and it appears to be what the BC Treaty process is trying to produce.

List

BC Tribal Councils, all I could find:

• Tribal Councils essentially being land claims made by 2 or more bands working as a council or alliance.
• SOI = Statement of Intent. This is a dataset of maps provided by the BC government. SOI maps also come with area measurements. SOI status appears to correlate with being involved with the BC Treaty Commission.
• Non-SOI maps were created with georeferencing methods, thus area measurements are not survey-accurate.
• 4-digit Council IDs are assigned by the federal government.
• 5-digit Council IDs are assigned by this project to give a unique key.
• Names linked to detailed articles when available.

Council ID	Name	Type	Treaty Process	Band Count	Area (KM2)	BC Region
1018	Alliance of BC Modern Treaty Nations		Post-Treaty	11
1017	Carrier-Chilcotin Tribal Council	Independent		4		South Central
1049	Carrier Sekani Tribal Council	SOI	4	7	75,429	North Central
10001	Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly	Independent		8		South Interior
10002	Coastal First Nations	Independent		7		Central – North Coast
10003	Cowichan Nation Alliance	Independent		5		Vancouver Island
1116	Gitksan Nation	SOI	4	4	30,401	North West
1039	Haida Nation	SOI	Tripartite Reconciliation	2	74,237	North Coast
10004	Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group	SOI	5	5	20,334	Vancouver Island
1088	Kaska Nation	SOI		4	100,339	North
1009	Ktunaxa Nation Council Society	SOI	5	4	67,348	South Interior
1005	Kwakiutl District Council	SOI		9	2041	Vancouver Island – South Coast
1046	Lillooet Tribal Council	Independent		5		South Interior
1150	Lower Stl’atl’imx Tribal Council	Independent		4		South Interior
8743	Maa-nulth First Nations		6	5		Vancouver Island West
1069	Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Tribal Council	Independent		3		Vancouver Island / South Coast
10006	Nanwakolas Council	Independent		5		Vancouver Island – South Coast
1024	Naut’sa Mawt Tribal Council	Independent		11		Lower Mainland – Vancouver Island – South Coast
10007	Nicola Watershed Governance Partnership	Independent		5		South Interior
9637	Nisga’a Lisms Government	Independent	Independent	4		North West
10009	Nlaka’pamux First Nations	Independent		15		South Interior – Fraser Canyon
9115	Nlaka’pamux Nation Tribal Council	Independent		5		South Interior – Fraser Canyon
1019	Northern Shuswap Tribal Council	SOI	5	4	49,883	South Interior
1071	Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council	SOI	4	14	14,408	Vancouver Island – Vancouver Island West
1016	Okanagan Nation Alliance	Independent		4	106,799	South Interior
1010	Scw’exmx Tribal Council	Independent		4		South Interior
10010	Samahquam and Skatin First Nations	SOI	5	2	4769	South Interior
1065	Shuswap Nation Tribal Council	Independent		9	142,193	South Interior
10011	St’át’imc Chiefs Council	Independent		9		South Interior
10012	Stk’emlupsemc Te Secwepemc Nation	Independent		2	12,559	South Interior
1126	Stó:lō Nation	Independent		11		Fraser Valley
1153	Stó:lō Tribal Council	Independent		8		Fraser Valley
10013	Sto:lo Xwexwilmexw Treaty Association	SOI	5	6	13,332	Fraser Valley
10014	Tahltan Central Government	Independent		2		North
10015	Te’mexw Treaty Association	SOI	5	5	5656	Vancouver Island
1072	Treaty 8 Tribal Association	Independent		8		North – North East – North Central
9097	Tsilhqot’in National Government	Independent		6		South Central
10016	Tsimshian First Nations Treaty Society	SOI	5	5	59,572	Central Coast – North Coast – North West
10017	Wei Wai Kum/Kwiakah Treaty Society	SOI	5	2	12,152	Vancouver Island – South Coast
1004	Wuikinuxv Kitasoo Nuxalk Tribal Council	SOI	5	3	9571	Central Coast

Citations

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Created February 21 2026