Editing Assembly of First Nations (section)

===Shift toward representation for chiefs===
The NIB began to have its own tensions. Individual chiefs and regional groupings begin to chafe because their only access to the national scene was through their respective PTOs. The chiefs complained they were not being heard.

In 1978, in an effort to enable more opinions to be heard, NIB President Noel Starblanket organized an "All Chiefs Conference" on ''Indian Self-Government''. The Chiefs were delighted with the opportunity. At a second All Chief Conference, the Chiefs announced that the All Chief Conference would be "the one and only voice of Indian people in Canada."

That same year Prime Minister Trudeau announced that Canada would patriate its constitution; essentially take over its governance. NIB and other groups questioned what would happen to the Treaty and aboriginal rights that had been guaranteed by the Imperial Crown, if Canada took over its own governance. They believed that strong national leadership from the Chiefs was essential. The Chiefs formalized their governance structure, compromised by incorporating a "Confederacy" composed largely of the NIB leadership, and made the NIB, an incorporated body, its administrative secretariat. They used the United Nations General Assembly as a model in conceiving how the new Assembly of First Nations would be structured and operate.

The Chiefs held their first assembly as "the Assembly of First Nations" (AFN) in [[Penticton, British Columbia]], in April 1982. The new structure gave membership and voting rights directly to individual chiefs representing First Nations, rather than to representatives of their provincial/territorial organizations.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=May 1982|title=The New order of government|journal=Saskatchewan Indian|volume=12|issue=4|pages=30–32}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=First Nations Assembly |url=http://www.sicc.sk.ca/archive/saskindian/a82may26.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150809005213/http://www.sicc.sk.ca/archive/saskindian/a82may26.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-08-09 |access-date=28 November 2019 |work=Saskatchewan Indian |issue=v12 n04 p26 |date=May 1982}}</ref> This structure was adopted in July 1985, as part of the Charter of the Assembly of First Nations.