The Indian Act of 1876 was a statute enacted by the government of Canada that gave the government control over many aspects of First Nations life, whether it be their land, status as and Indian, education, and so on. The goal of the act was to help assimilate First Nations people into mainstream Canadian society, via controlling and subsequently eliminating may original aspects of their culture.

At a deeper and more fundamental level, the Indian Act sought to eliminate First Nations culture at its roots. Under the mantra of aggressive assimilation, the Indian Act implemented the use of residential schools, boarding schools for First Nations people designed to eliminate any education of their culture, while inundating them with Christian beliefs and forcing them to speak English or French. Indigenous traditions and language were discouraged and harsh punishment awaited those who participated in their use. Abusive and harsh conditions characterized residential schools, while the children were left with no escape, boarded there for at least ten months a year with little to no contact with their families.

The Indian Act has maintained two main goals throughout its existence that affect all First Nations people in Canada. It determines who is, or is not considered an Indian, via their Indian status. This was done through a variety of different mechanisms. First Nations people who obtained an education, or were married to someone who were not of First Nations background, would subsequently lose their status as an Indian. The second goal the Indian Act has achieved is determining the governance of Indian reserves and bands, leaving final say and ultimate control to the government as opposed to the bandleaders.

While there is no doubt the main goal of the Indian Act was to assimilate First Nations people through the elimination of their culture, several of its provisions were in place to protect the First Nations population. The most significant and noticeable of these is the appropriation of reserved lands, protected from the forces of colonization. Moreover, the Indian Act receives a mixed response from much of the First Nations population, as while they denounce its destruction of their culture, they are unwilling to let go of the benefits the Act provides them, such as tax exemptions.

The Indian Act does support Coleman’s findings… to some extent. The use of residential schools to erode First Nations culture via its replacement with Christian beliefs would support Coleman’s notion that colonials asserted their way of life, a “white civility” as he refers to it, as superior to that of First Nations people, and indoctrinated it upon them. But this is hardly a revelation. It could be argued that through use of tax exemptions and land reservations, a project of white civility was accomplished more subtly, as it was done under the guise that it would allow First Nations to keep their culture, though in an isolated manner. However, this is far from a reality, and as was discussed in my 2:3 blog, it has only served to further assert the dominance of white civility.

“The Indian Act.” The Indian Act. Indigenous Foundations: UBC, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.