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The Indian Act



             To provide for band councils and the management and protection of .
             Indian lands and moneys, to define certain Indian rights, such as .
             exemption from taxation in certain circumstances, and to define.
             entitlement to band membership and to Indian status.
             (qtd., 1983).
             According to the Indian Act, in order to monitor and control issues relating to the reserve an Indian Agent was positioned at every reserve. The Indian Agent was the implementer, evaluator, and authority of imposed laws (Cassidy & Kavanagh, 1998). Within the reserve all land title was vested in the Crown. The Indian Act established band councils as the only form of officially recognized government and the Indian Agent was to organize band council meetings and prepare their agendas. In addition, it was stated that the Chief and band council were to be elected every two years despite their traditional patterns. During the 1880s and the 1890 the continued amendments to the Indian Act suggested the policy of assimilation. The Crown took a strong position in banning traditional social and religious institutions such as ceremonial prairie dancing and the Pacific Coast potlatch (Cassidy & Kavanagh, 1998). According to the Report on the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples, "In 1884, the potlatch ceremony, central to the cultures of west coast Aboriginal nations, was outlawed. In 1885, the sun dance, central to the cultures of prairie Aboriginal nations, was outlawed. Participation was a criminal offence," (1996). Several people thought that the Crown intended to make Aboriginal peoples conform to Euro-Canadian ways of organizing themselves politically as well as to their social activities and interactions. The Indian Act overtly stated the Minister of Indian Affairs has ultimate control over band government that denied political self-sufficiency to First Nations. The Canadian government minister responsible for Indian affairs had veto power over all band council enactments and other official decisions.


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