 As we have learned in this chapter, Aboriginal peoples have been in North America since the earliest of times. Before the European’s arrival in North America, the Aboriginal people were self-governed. Over the centuries, their government has been weakened through policies of control and assimilation. European Arrival Assimilation: The process by which a group of people acquire the social and cultural characteristics of a new group.

 The Indian Acts encouraged Aboriginal peoples to give up their culture and adopt “white ways”. The original Indian act of 1876 ensures:  Aboriginal peoples are placed in a different legal category than other Canadians  The Canadian government has the right to govern all aspects of Native live including the denial of the right to vote in an election  The right to legislate “lands reserved for Indians”.  The government can determine “who is an Indian”. The Indian Act – 1876/1895

 According to the Indian Act, the legal definition of an Indian is: Define: Indian An Indian is: “…such persons were those whose ancestors were defined as Indians at the time of the first Federal Act of Also known as “aboriginals”…defined as dwelling in any country before the arrival of the later European colonists.” -Indian Act 1876 (Amended in 1951)

 In 1920 the Enfranchisement Amendment was added to the Indian Act. This amendment stated that a man, or an entire band (by a simple majority vote) could surrender their status as Indians in return for the federal vote and becoming Canadian citizens. This was often done in the form of “Good Ol’ Boy Coercion”. This means that the Indian Agent would come calling on the family with liquor; he would sit with his “Indian friend”, get him drunk and have him sign on the dotted line. The man and his family would be kicked off the reservation within days. Enfranchisement Amendment

 The Canadian Indian Act remains in place today. There have been many amendments made to the act over the year which add or deny particular rights to Aboriginal peoples, but the act itself still stands. Indian Act Today

 The Indian Act allows the Canadian government to regulate the use of native lands. The act states: Indian Reservations 18. (2) "The Minister may authorize the use of lands in a reserve for the purpose of Indian schools, the administration of Indian affairs, Indian burial grounds, Indian health projects or, with the consent of the council of the band, for any other purpose for the general welfare of the band, and may take any lands in a reserve required for those purposes, but where an individual Indian, immediately prior to the taking, was entitled to the possession of those lands, compensation for that use shall be paid to the Indian, in such amount as may be agreed between the Indian and the Minister, or, failing agreement, as may be determined in such manner as the Minister may direct." —R.S., c. I-6, s. 18., Indian Act Indian Act

 At face value, the reservations may seem like a safe and happy environment for Aboriginal peoples to live on their reclaimed land. Sadly, the conditions on the reservations are often very poor.  Graduation rate is much less for Aboriginal people vs. other Canadians  Water quality is not regulated as closely  Almost 50% of the homes on Canadian reserves require repair  Aboriginal children are 8 times more likely to be removed from their home than other Canadians  Progress on all of these issues?? Nothing, as of Indian Reservations

 When will Canadians, led by the country’s one million Aboriginal People, face the inescapable? Reserves are incubators of misery. The entire moribund, ramshackle edifice supported by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development needs to be demolished. It is rotten at its core. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whom you might expect would be ideologically predisposed to scrapping the 1876 Indian Act – an explicitly racist tract whose continued existence in our law is a national disgrace – has until now been unwilling to go there. A year ago, at the last aboriginal conference in Ottawa, Harper steered clear of scrapping the Act outright, instead lauding “practical, incremental and real change.” Yet incremental change, we have seen, barely makes a dent – if it makes it past the gate at all. MICHAEL DEN TANDT, POSTMEDIA NEWS (2013)

 Idle No More

 Canadian Indian residential schools were a network of “residential” (boarding) schools for Aboriginal peoples of Canada, funded by the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The Indian Act of 1876 made attendance at these schools mandatory for First Nations children. Residential Schools

 As with life on the reservations, residential schools had extremely poor conditions:  Removing children from their families  Depriving them of their native languages  Physical and sexual abuse at the hands of staff and students  Brutal punishments  Forcing Canadian and Christian ways on students Residential Schools

 Stephen Harper Apologizes (Look at Youtube comments)