Indian Act / Bill C-31 - Part I

The following pages are an adaptation of a series of booklets published by the then Native Council of Canada to assist constituents who were planning to repatriate or register as Indians underthe Bill C-31 changes to the Indian Act in 1985.

What is the Indian Act?

The Indian Act (the Act) is federal legislation which dates from 1876. There have been over twenty major changes made to the original Act since then, the last time being in 1951.

The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development is responsible for administering the Indian Actand the implementation of Bill C-31. The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) is the federal department which carries out the day-to-da administration of the Act. The Registrar is an official of DIAND who is by law responsible for maintaining the list of registered Indians (the Indian Register).

The Indian Act basically does two things affecting all Indian people in Canada:

1. It says how Reserves and Bands can operate:
   
   The Act sets out rules for governing Indian reserves, defines how Bands can be created and spells out the powers of "Band Councils". Bands do not have to have reserve lands to operate under the Act.

2. It defines who is and who is not recognized as an "Indian":
   
   Before Bill C-31 was passed in 1985, the Act generally defined status Indians in two ways: First, an Indian was any person who was a member of a "Band" recognized for the purposes of the Act (whether or not the Band had reservelands).
   
   Second, the Act defined a number of types of Indian people who were denied recognition as "registered" or "status" Indians, and who were therefore denied membership in Bands.

At various times over the years Indian people who have been denied recognition have included:

1. Indian women who married men who were not recognized as Indians;

2. Indians who took "Half-breed Scrip" or were descended from someone who took scrip;

3. Indians who were "enfranchised" (stripped of status under the Indian Act) for any reason, including wanting to vote, to drink, to own property, to live in another country, to become a lawyer or clergyman, etc., along with their wives and children;

4. Indian children who lost status because of illegitimacy or whose mother's and father's mother were not entitled to be registered other than through their marriages, and;

5. Indians who were omitted from Band Lists or the Indian Register who otherwise should have been registered or Indians whose community was never recognized as Bands.

What is Bill C-31?

On June 28,1985 Parliament passed Bill C-31, "An Act to Amend the Indian Act". Because of a presumed Constitutional requirement, the Bill took affect as of April 17, 1985. The Bill has amended the lndian Act in a number of important ways.

1. It ends many of the discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act, especially those which discriminated against women;

2. It changes the meaning of "status" and for the first time allows for limited reinstatement of Indians who were denied or lost status and/or Band membership in the past, and;

3. It allows bands to define their own membership rules.

How will Bill C-31 affect you?

If you are a person of Canadian Indian descent (even if you are not a Canadian Citizen), you are probably affected by the changes to the Indian Act in one of three ways:

1. If you do not have registered Indian status, you may be entitled to be registered under the new Act. This Booklet will help you decide if the Act applies to you and, if so, how to go about applying for registered status.

2. If you are or will become a registered Indian then you can no longer have your status taken away for any reason, even if you choose to marry a non-lndian.

3. Your rights to be a member of an Indian Band are changed by Bill C-31.

Native organizations, and especially those representing non-status Indians, will be funded to deliver assistance to Indians seeking to apply for status. In addition to helping applicants, the NCC and its provincial and territorial affiliates will be monitoring the implementation of Bill C-31, and advising the Minister of problems as they arise in the implementation process.

A Note about being Indian

It is important to remember that whether or not you are defined as a "status" or "registered" Indian for the purposes of the Indian Act, if you are of Aboriginal descent and identify as an Indian person you are an Indian for the purposes of the Constitution Act 1982 - the basic law that determines what the federal and provincial governments can legally do. Whatever the Indian Act says now or in the future, if you were born of Indian descent and identify yourself as an Indian, you are an Indian. No federal or provincial law can legitimately deny your identity as an Aboriginal person, whether you are an Indian, a Metis, or an Inuk.