Indian Act

The Indian Act is a Canadian federal statute, first enacted in 1876, that governs matters related to Indian status, band governance and reserve lands for Indigenous peoples who fall within its definition of Indian, a formal legal category the act uses that is distinct from Metis and Inuit peoples, who are not covered by it. It consolidated a number of earlier pre-Confederation and colonial statutes governing relations between the Canadian government and First Nations, and it gave the federal government broad authority over most aspects of life on reserves, including band council structures, land use and, historically, the legal definition of who could be registered under the act. The act has included, at various points in its history, explicitly assimilationist provisions, including a system of enfranchisement under which a registered person could lose status, and it provided the legal basis under which the government operated the residential school system for over a century. It has been amended many times since 1876, including significant amendments in 1951 and 1985 that altered its registration and enfranchisement rules, and although it remains in force today and continues to govern band governance and reserve land, it has been repeatedly criticized, including by the Canadian government itself, as a colonial-era instrument in need of eventual replacement.