Indian Act
Canadian Indigenous statute
The Indian Act is Canadian federal legislation, first passed in 1876, that governs matters relating to Indigenous peoples registered as "Status Indians" and their reserve lands.
The Act has been repeatedly amended but remains in force, giving the federal government extensive control over First Nations governance, land, education, and identity.
It is widely criticized for its paternalistic framework and historical role in cultural suppression, including residential schools: The Indian Act determined who qualified for status.
The term appears frequently in discussions of Indigenous rights and reconciliation in Canada.
- band membershipBelonging to a musical group
- reserve landsLand held for indigenous peoples
- First NationsCanada's non-Inuit indigenous peoples
- MétisCanadian mixed-ancestry Indigenous nation
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
Inuit · assimilation policies · residential schools · indigenous sovereignty · dispossession · potlatch · status · paternalism · Treaty 7 · blood quantum · land · Ottawa · RCMP · systemic racism · intergenerational trauma · land rights · Indigenous · ceremony