Westbank First Nation
First Nations band in British Columbia, Canada
The Westbank First Nation (Okanagan: tqłəníw̓t/tqaʔtkʷɬniwt) is a self-governing First Nations band in the Okanagan region of British Columbia, Canada, and is one of eight bands that comprise the Okanagan Nation Alliance of Syilx people. Westbank First Nation (WFN) is governed by one chief (Chief Robert Louie) and four councillors, elected every three years by WFN membership (the current term is 2023-2025). As of April 2019, WFN's membership totaled 914 members, and employs more than 200 people.
Government
Westbank reserves were once part of the Okanagan Indian Band until they separated and became an independent band in 1963. 27 years later, in 1990, a framework agreement was entered into which allowed community-based self-government to be negotiated. On May 6, 2004, the Westbank First Nation Self-Government Act received royal assent and became law. WFN self-government officially came into force April 1, 2005.
Indigenous self-government in Canada is an agreement between an Indigenous community and provincial and federal government. It allows the community to make all decisions regarding their people, laws, land, and resources.
Following the enactment of self-government, WFN members developed the Westbank First Nation constitution, which sets out how the community is governed and how it exercises its jurisdiction.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Westbank First Nation” as first Nations band in British Columbia, Canada. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as first Nations band in British Columbia, Canada. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7987112. VIAF identifies the subject as 154587228. The Library of Congress control number is nb2004314311. Authority coordinates are 49.840, -119.605. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 2025, 2019 and 1963.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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This entry incorporates text from “Westbank First Nation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.