Book excerpt: Gathering Strength is an integrated government-wide plan to address the key challenges facing Canada's Aboriginal people. Following an initial section on reconciliation of historic grievances, this report describes initiatives in the four areas addressed by the action plan: (1) partnerships (all schools received public awareness materials; students and teachers participated in cross-cultural programs; Aboriginal language and culture programs were funded and conducted; federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of Aboriginal affairs and five national Aboriginal organizations met for the first time in 2 years; and national and regional partnership think tanks were conducted); (2) governance (legislation for the Nisga'a Final Agreement was passed; 86 land claims were settled or negotiated; and over 100 professional development projects were completed for Aboriginal administrators); (3) new fiscal relationships (93 percent of First Nations communities completed community accountability and management assessments; a national model was completed for the Canada/First Nations Funding Agreement; the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association awarded its first Certified Aboriginal Financial Manager designations; and Canada, Saskatchewan, and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations completed exploratory fiscal relations and governance discussions); and (4) community, people, and economies (132 Income Security Reform demonstration projects were conducted in 354 First Nations communities, and numerous First Nations communities participated in initiatives related to community-based housing, water and sewer systems, and policing agreements). A final section describes progress on the Northern Agenda, including creation of Canada's third territory, Nunavut, in 1999, and various agreements related to land claims, self-government, transfer of programs and services, and job creation. (TD)