Brian Mulroney's complicated relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada

The late Brian Mulroney's legacy with Indigenous peoples in Canada is marked by its contradictions — failures remembered for their good intentions, successes accompanied by catastrophic disappointments. 

The former prime minister is praised by some Indigenous leaders for creating a Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples, for recognizing Métis people and for the successful negotiations that led to the creation of Nunavut. 

But for others, those achievements pale in comparison with his government's failure to deliver self-government during constitutional talks in the 1980s, and the 1990 Oka Crisis that bloodied Canada's reputation on the world stage.

"Don't underestimate how traumatic Oka was for Indigenous peoples," said Robert Falcon Ouellette, a former Liberal MP, now an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, who is from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.

"It was a disaster among Indigenous relations. It laid bare to Indigenous peoples the military and the structural biases and discrimination in the state that will be used against Indigenous peoples."

Not long after assuming office as Canada's 18th prime minister in September of 1984, Mulroney took his first steps in a multi-year effort to tackle the issue of Indigenous self government.

The 1982 Constitution Act, which repatriated the Constitution and enacted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, required that the prime minister and premiers meet in Ottawa to define the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada within a year of its passage.

Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau presided over the 1983 and 1984 talks, while Mulroney hosted the 1985 and 1987 talks. They ended without reaching a deal on Indigenous self-government.

David Crombie, who served as Mulroney's minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from September 17, 1984 until June 29, 1986, told CBC News that while Mulroney's proposals were rejected by some provinces, he tried his best. 

"He thought he was doing the right thing," Crombie said. "He wanted to do the right thing but as anybody knows who deals in the field, it's a complex field and … it didn't didn't pass muster for some people."

At the close of the 1987 conference, Métis leader Jim Sinclair told Mulroney and the gathered premiers that the conference had been a failure and questioned whether the goodwill required to reach a deal had been there in the first place.

"We have the right to self-government, to self-determination and land," he said. "This is not an end, it's only a beginning … Don't worry, prime minister and premiers of the provinces. I may be gone but my people will be back."

WATCH: The late Jim Sinclair addressing the First Ministers Conference in 1978:

The next round of constitutional talks centred on the Meech Lake Accord, Mulroney's effort to bring Quebec into the Constitution by strengthening provincial powers and declaring Quebec a distinct society.