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You can bet on this: The Assembly of First Nations, under newly elected national chief Shawn Atleo, will be far more demanding, provocative, denunciatory, muscular and pre-emptive than it was under Phil Fontaine.

That theme recurred during the three days that brought 553 chiefs to Calgary from across Canada. Mr. Fontaine notoriously preferred negotiation to confrontation, and the chiefs recognized that he had made important gains for first nations people with his diplomatic ways.

But now, the mood of the chiefs requires a different approach. Expectations in recent years have soared, fuelled by the benevolent recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples - most of which have remained a dead letter.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly expanded the recognition of aboriginal title, treaty rights and human rights. The chiefs feel the Harper government hasn't followed up. Then there's the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada refuses to sign.

A telling moment occurred at Tuesday's all-candidates meeting when a Quebec chief, Gilbert Whiteduck, said: “We're telling each other what we already know. We're telling each other that we own the land. What we need is action. And I ask all of the candidates: Are you thinking about the poorest of the poor, of our men and our women and our children who are suffering? Is your message just wait and see, I have a vision for change, while they're suffering now, tomorrow, the day after? When will we rise?”

He was applauded. Mr. Atleo replied: “When will we rise? Now. That's why I believe so strongly, Chief, that it is our time.” Candidate John Beaucage suggested direct action might be required to resist a federal government diminishing aboriginal rights. “We have to do whatever we can, and maybe it's the day of action, only maybe it's the month of action, maybe it's the year of action, that we need to do, to get rid of these things that are hurting our people.”

The chiefs' vision for the future has become increasingly consensual. They agree on the need to rebuild and restore an authentic aboriginal identity, the spirituality, culture, values, symbols, ceremonies and languages that were so badly mauled and degraded by Canadians for a century and a half. The wounds cut deep still, and the distrust remains. It drives a second objective: to create the maximum insulation between themselves and the Canadian state by acquiring the greatest possible sovereignty for first nations communities.

The restoration of nationhood is perceived as essential to cure the many dysfunctions in the communities: suicide, substance abuse, poverty, school dropouts, domestic violence and criminal acts. In parallel, the chiefs see modern education as a first priority for the acquisition of pride and dignity and to combat poverty.

Economic development, through partnerships with industrial leaders and governments, is also part of the new canon. Likewise, it is accepted that first nations have been despoiled of the value of the resources extracted from the lands in which they claim an interest.

What this amounts to is that the chiefs and the leaders of the AFN have taken on themselves the task of nation-building - or rather rebuilding what had been systematically plundered. Few Canadians can appreciate the scope of the duty to reconstruct one's society from the ground up to the sun.

First nations leaders increasingly summarize their quests under one single concept - that of sovereignty. In March of 2005, a special committee of chiefs and advisers formulated their vision in great detail in a paper, “Our Nations, Our Governments: Choosing Our Own Paths.” One key paragraph declared: “All levels of government must recognize the full jurisdiction of First Nation Governments over all areas promoting the development of First Nations as peoples, especially with respect to lands, resources, culture, traditions and citizenship; federal and provincial governments must vacate jurisdiction over all matters required by First Nations to effectively exercise their full legal authority.”

That is jurisdiction on demand, and the right to sovereignty is presumed in each of the 633 reserve communities, some with fewer than 100 people. That is an octopus-like grasp of government powers, difficult for any federal government to negotiate.

Moreover, the royal commission proposed a quite different understanding of the issue of self-government: “The right of self-determination is vested in Aboriginal nations rather than small local communities. By Aboriginal nation we mean a sizable body of Aboriginal people with a shared sense of national identity that constitutes the predominant population in a certain territory or group of territories. Currently, there are between 60 and 80 historically based nations in Canada, compared with a thousand or so local Aboriginal communities.”

The follies of the past mean that Canada itself has to be reconstructed, and that can only be done when both sides of the divide meet with the intention to redeem the past and prepare the future.

William Johnson is an author and a former president of Alliance Quebec.