The Indian Act: Social Engineering of Canada’s First Nations

• Main Author: Woolsey, Cora A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Anthropology Graduate Student Union, University of Toronto 2012
• Subjects: Canada; Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: https://vav.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/vav/article/view/15110

By enforcing patrilineal descent and property inheritance on First Nations cultures uniformly across Canada, regardless of the descent systems of individual groups, the Indian Act has had a detrimental effect on First Nations women, placing them in a class of extreme poverty below any other recognizable group in Canada. Enforced patriliny also eroded the mechanisms for the transfer of culture. The reasons for the introduction of the Act were, in part, a deliberate effort to mold the peoples of Canada into a population that was more receptive to a European-style economy and trading system, to which Aboriginal women’s influence was seen as a hindrance. The Indian Act was challenged a number of times on the grounds that it discriminated against First Nations women, but was only changed after Sandra Lovelace of Tobique, New Brunswick, took her case before the UN. The UN committee ruled unanimously that the Act was discriminatory, resulting in Bill C-31, which reckoned descent bilaterally.