Control of many elements of the reserve, including land, resources, and finance, were passed into the hands of the Department of Indian Affairs as Indigenous Peoples were considered unsophisticated and incapable of managing their own affairs. The chiefs were granted little in the way of bylaw powers, and those limited powers were not at all reflective of their former self-governing powers, which further emasculated them and their role in leading their nation. Their role was (and is) to administer the Indian Act.
