It's almost like their is a civil cold war going on within many first nations communities. On the one hand, you have those who are happy with the "municipal-republic" form of democracy (elected chiefs and councils) instilled both legally by the Indian Act and culturally by virtue of growing up and living in Canada, and on the other hand you have those who want to hold on to the old ways of a quasi monarchy in the form hereditary chiefs and councils of elders. The latter group want this (IMO) either because a. they think retaining ones culture should always have primacy over western/colonial ways of doing things, regardless of which way may actually be better, b. they really think their old ways are better than modern democratic ways, or, c. those in line to be hereditary chiefs, and their friends/families, stand to personally gain from this method. They need to sort themselves out, but it also doesn't help that there are over 600 different first nations in Canada, and they all have the potential to choose their own unique "traditional" way of governing themselves. Can you imagine if we got rid of the federal and provincial levels of government, and had every town/city over 5000 people on Canada choosing whatever form of government they felt was most culturally appropriate to the inhabitants of those towns/cities?
It's a damn mess, I tell you.