Indian Act (1876)

Passed by Alexander Mackenzie’s Liberal government in 1876, the Indian Act was the first comprehensive legislation dealing with Indigenous people in Canada. In 1878 the Conservatives of Sir John A. Macdonald returned to power, and over the next decade and a half they amended the act, but many elements, including funding for residential schools, remained. Macdonald’s approach was shared by many politicians: they held that Indigenous people should be assimilated first by treaties, and then through property ownership and enfranchisement. Eventually, it was thought, the result would be the end of “Indian status.” The federal government and provincial administrations used coercive methods to bring Indigenous people onto reserves, particularly those who lived along the planned route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and to place children in residential schools that were often distant from their homes. These boarding schools were maintained by successive Canadian governments despite the trauma experienced by many students.