Talking about First Nations, I have to mention that First Nations is a term of ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Metis. First Nations are immigrants from middle Asia. They had been repressed by federal government since Canada was created in 1867.
In 1867, the amended Indian Act allowed the government to control most of those people’s life. In 1999, an agreement called the First Nations Land Management Act was signed by other Aboriginal. It allowed First Nations to reserve their own lands, while remaining other treaties unchanged in the Indian Act.
In 2008, Prime Minister Stephan Harper apologized for the policy about “kill the Indian in the child”. The government had a plan to assimilate Indian, and Aboriginal children were forced to forget their language and culture. In 2010, the Indian Act was abolished at the annual meeting of Assembly of First Nations.
Nowadays, “Eligible former Indian Residential Schools students who qualified for the Common Experience Payment under the IRS Settlement Agreement may now qualify for a one time IRS Personal Credit for educational programs and services.” This is a big change for First Nations. People can go to Indian Residential Schools with a large amount of subsidies provided by the government. Unlike now, people would lose their Indian status as long as they earned a university degree in the past.
The more people who receive high-level education, the quicker the growth of technology will be, and the faster the economy development will be as well. Years ago, the Aboriginal survived on hunting buffalo and cutting trees, and they only knew how to sew clothes by using raw material like leaves. If they can receive education from school, they may know how to trade with others using currency instead of products. To some extent, it can accelerate the circulation of money.
Reference:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988