The Indian Act

 

What was YOUR prior knowledge of the Indian Act?  

Prior to the 1876 Indian Act, education was provided on reserves at day schools for the children to attend and begin their assimilation into settler society.  However, issues with low attendance impeded this plan. The education policy was revised after government officials studied how the American government managed education of native children. So in 1920, the Act was amended to combat the attendance concerns by making it compulsory for status Indian children to attend residential schools, with consequences to those who hid their children. If children were not readily handed over, the Indian Act gave power to the Indian agent to enter the family dwelling and seize the children, often with the help of the local constabulary or by the constabulary alone. Parents or guardians who tried to hide the children were liable to be arrested and or imprisoned. 


“The problem is the Indian Act is deeply interwoven into the fabric of First Nations over seven generations,” says Alexander. “It’s embedded in almost every aspect of life on a reserve, and has had a terrible effect on how First Nations people see themselves. (Beazley, 2017)
 
It’s not just about assimilation. It’s oppression.

So the question remains... what next?  These days, many people working in the field of Indigenous law argue that if the Indian Act can’t die, it must dwindle away – through a process of delivering its powers and responsibilities to Indigenous communities on a case-by-case basis. One of the Indian Act’s major sins was to treat all Indigenous communities as if they were cut from the same cloth, with the same cultures and pre-contact legal systems.

The key is its replacement can’t be another law that does the same thing.

How does the Indian Act inform my professional practice?  I have become more of an advocate and ally to indigenous women after learning that under the Indian Act, First Nations women were  banned from voting and running for Chief and Council elections. The oppression of First Nations women under the Indian Act resulted in long-term poverty, marginalization and violence, which they are still trying to overcome today. As a self identified Metis woman I learned that  both Inuit and Metis women were also discriminated against and prevented from: 

• serving in the Canadian armed forces

• getting a college or university degree

• leaving their communities for long periods (e.g., for employment)

• becoming an ordained minister

• becoming a professional (e.g., a doctor or lawyer)

 

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http://fb.historicacanada.ca/education/english/indigenous-perspectives/IndigenousPerspectives/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf 

Available Online at https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/the-indian-act-residential-schools-and-tuberculosis-cover-up 

Beazley, D. (2017) Decolonizing the Indian Act.  Available Online at https://www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articles/law/opinion/2017/decolonizing-the-indian-act