Historical Timeline
In what year was the Indian Act first passed?
What is 1876?
Indian Agents were given this powerful role to oversee First Nations communities.
What is the role of “enforcer” of the Indian Act?
This spiritual ceremony was banned under the Indian Act until 1951.
What is the Potlatch?
This government-determined number identifies a “status Indian.”
What is a registration number or status card number?
Many Canadians believe the Indian Act was created to protect Indigenous peoples. What was its real purpose?
What is to control, assimilate, and manage Indigenous peoples and lands?
This Act, passed before the Indian Act, started defining who was “Indian.”
What is the Gradual Civilization Act (1857)?
Indigenous people could not leave the reserve without this official document.
What is a pass (or pass system)?
This prairie Indigenous ceremony was also banned under the Act.
What is the Sun Dance?
This amendment allowed for some women and their children to regain status.
What is Bill C-31 (1985)?
True or False: The Indian Act applies equally to all Indigenous peoples in Canada.
What is False? (It primarily applies to First Nations, not Métis or Inuit.)
The Indian Act was a consolidation of these two previous laws.
What are the Gradual Civilization Act and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act?
The Indian Act forbade this form of legal help in land claims cases until 1951.
What is hiring a lawyer?
Traditional clothing and regalia were discouraged or banned through this measure.
What is the banning of ceremonial dress and gatherings?
This term refers to the legal process by which a person lost their Indian status.
What is enfranchisement?
A common myth is that all Indigenous people receive free education. Under the Indian Act, what is the actual reality?
What is that only some status First Nations students may qualify for funding, and it is limited, competitive, and not guaranteed?
In what decade were Indigenous people granted the right to vote federally without losing status?
What is the 1960s (specifically 1960)?
This practice removed status from Indigenous women who married non-status men.
What is enfranchisement?
Under the Act, these cultural professionals were outlawed.
What are Indigenous spiritual leaders (e.g., medicine people)?
Status under the Indian Act is not determined by culture but by this.
What is blood quantum and lineage (Indian Register)?
The myth that Indigenous people don’t pay taxes is widespread. Under the Indian Act, when do tax exemptions apply?
What is when income is earned on reserve or under specific conditions defined in Section 87 of the Indian Act?
This amendment to the Indian Act allowed bands to gain more control over their finances and governance in 1985.
What is Bill C-31?
These institutions, heavily supported by the Indian Act, were tools of assimilation.
What are residential schools?
The Indian Act prohibited First Nations people from participating in this cultural process unless they gave up their status.
What is higher education or university without enfranchisement?
The Indian Act defined identity in this restrictive, government-imposed way.
What is legal rather than cultural or self-determined identity?
Many believe the Indian Act is just outdated law. Why is it considered a living piece of colonial infrastructure today?
What is because it continues to shape governance, identity, land rights, and daily life for many First Nations people?