26 Jul 1876 Jahr - Indian Act

Beschreibung:

The Indian Act pertains only to First Nations peoples, not to the Métis or Inuit. It controlled their status, resources, education, and governmental obligations. The Act left many mental scars and overstepped the basic human rights of First Nations people.

The primary purpose of the act was to assimilate Natives into Canada through control.
There was a policy that was heavily sexist against women; one example being the rule of, "A status Indian woman who married a man who was not a status Indian became non-status." If an Aboriginal woman had no legal status, she was denied of many traditional rights. Whereas for an Aboriginal man, none of these conditions applied.

Residential schools are one of the most infamous policies that come out of the Indian Act. The 1884 amendment made it mandatory for Indian children to learn to read and write English. However, these schools were often times traumatizing, with abusive teachers, punishments for speaking their native tongue, and forceful religious conversion.

There was also a ban on the Potlach ceremony and the Sun Dance. These ran traditional ceremonies of all kinds into a corner, forcing them to become hidden away.

The Act is a huge topic of controversy, but it is still in force today.