To view the Indian Act legislation please follow the link below to the Government of Canada website:

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/

The following videos are useful for understanding the impact the Indian Act has had on First Nations:

This episode of NDN POV explores the complex history of the Indian Act, a colonial piece of legislation that has hampered the relationship between the federal government and First Nations.  It explains how the Indian Act was a way to amalgamate previous policies of assimilation towards Indigenous Peoples, as well as explaining various amendments to the Act and the impact those amendments had on First Nations.

This video is an interview that CBC New Manitoba did with Bob Joseph, author of '21 Things you Didn't Know About the Indian Act' and his newest book, '21 Things you Need to know about Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation about Dismantling the Indian Act'.  In the Interview Bob Joseph touches on topics like Bill C-31, Status vs. Non-Status, how First Nations people became 'wards of the Crown', residential schools, and the replacement of Hereditary Chiefs with Elected Chiefs.  He looks at what is would take to dismantle the Indian Act and move towards Indigenous Self-Government.

After watching these videos and looking at the Indian Act legislation, some class discussion prompts could be:

• How does the Indian Act align with the goal of "assimilating" First Nations people into Canadian colonial life?
• Why does the federal government, rather than First Nations themselves, hold the authority to define who is a "Status Indian"?
• What was the significance of the government outlawing traditional governing systems, such as the potlatch, and forcing the implementation of band council systems?
• How did the Indian Act, particularly through its rules on Status, break traditional matriarchal societal structures?
• In what ways did the Indian Act's gender-based rules (e.g., losing status upon marrying a non-Indigenous man) create a legacy of disconnection from land, culture, and community for women and their descendants?
• How did the Indian Act perpetuate violence against Indigenous women and girls?
• Why is the Indian Act still in place today, and what are the challenges in trying to repeal or replace it?
• How do the historical restrictions in the Act continue to affect the economic development of First Nations communities?
• What are the long-term, intergenerational impacts of the Indian Act on family structures and community identity?
• What is the difference between having legal "rights" and having self-determination as a nation?