21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality

by Bob Joseph

The Indian Act remains in effect today, with basically the same framework it had in 1876, despite the numerous amendments.

The Indian Act disrespected, ignored, and undermined the role of women in many ways. This dissolution of women’s stature, coupled with the abuses of the residential school system, has been a significant contributor to the vulnerability of Indigenous women.

reserve is a tract of land set aside under the Indian Act and treaty agreements for the exclusive use of an Indian band. At least that’s how a reserve is described on paper. In reality, reserves were created as a means of containing and controlling Indians while providing European settlers full access to the fish and game, water, timber, and mineral resources that had formerly sustained Indian life and culture.

Prior to 1951, the Indian Act defined a “person” as “an individual other than an Indian.” An Indigenous person’s only avenue to being recognized as a “person” was to give up their Indian status, which was known as voluntary enfranchisement.

The concept of establishing rank by one’s ability to share wealth rather than establish rank by holding on to wealth was alien to Europeans.

The goal of the schools was to “kill the Indian in the child,”12 but tragically it was the children themselves who died in overwhelming numbers at these schools.

if Canadians can stay committed to reconciliation, personally review the 94 recommendations drawn up by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and pursue the ones relevant to them, perhaps we could see the strengthening of the nation-to-nation relationship and create a better, more prosperous Canada that lives up to its fundamental ideology of recognition of human rights not just abroad but at home as well.