Let's Unpack the INDIAN ACT!!

Since we talked about sanctuary yesterday, I thought. And since I have to shoot so many videos because I'm so busy this week, I thought I'm going to show you around my house a little bit. I'm now sitting my dining room and Blue is checking out to see if there's any birds in the side of the house in the backyard. So we're just going to leave her there and we're going to talk about. This is the next in the series of missing facts videos. So this is part four, last part three. In part three, I mentioned the Indian act and how it had been enacted. You can't just say that without going into some detail. So that's what we're going to look at today and some things that happened in the late 1800s. We're going to start with 1876, the Indian act, and bring us up to the 1900s. So let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River first nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario. Oh, there goes Blue. And like I said, today we're going to look at the Indian act in a little more depth because there's Indigenous people out there that don't understand what the Indian act did to us and why there's such an outcry against it. And yep, a couple index cards on this one. So first off, why the Indian Act? Why was it created? Well, if you're thinking that it was for any nice reasons, remember we're talking around the time of the residential schools here. We're talking about blatant racism against Indigenous peoples. Just looking at my note here, the Indian act was created on the premise, get this, that economic, social and political regulation of First Nation people in lands would force assimilation. Just like the residential school. This was all about stopping us from being Indigenous, turning us into, into Canadians to white people. Forget our culture, forget our language, forget what makes sense to us, forget our own identity, which comes to think of it, a lot of identity politics and conflicts going on in modern day. It's not new. Ask an Indigenous person. So let's look at this economic regulation we're going to talk about in a few minutes how they restricted. You know, people love to come down on Indigenous people. Why don't you go get a job? Well, there's a history there. Remember how I said these are the seeds that are planted that resulted in the modern day regular relationship? That's one of them. Social regulation. Yeah, same thing. Political. Did you know that Indigenous chiefs and councils have an election every two years. Every two years. That means you're either brand new or campaigning that was intentional so that you could keep the First Nation in a state of chaos. They would never be able to organize and get anything together. So when you judge those communities, maybe do some research into the regulations that we're trying to operate under. Okay, back to the Indian act here. So a couple things the Indian act did. For one, it banned the hereditary chief. So now some people have a lot of issues with hereditary chiefs. They don't like the fact that one family is born to rule. Think of England, for that matter. But the counter side to that is if you were born with that responsibility, you start training on how to do a good job in that position. From the day you're born, you watch your father and your grandfather and how they would. So. And in more modern days, yes, the women as chiefs. So this is another culture telling us what was good and not good and not with any good intent. Let's get real here. Customary governance, in a lot of places, how they governed was totally eliminated. Now, nowadays I can think of several first nations that are banned custom, which means they have returned to their customary practices of governance. And yes, they had to get permission to do that. Another one that people don't realize is the Indian act expropriated land. And this is something Canada and Canadian entities have done since they got here. I can think of Fort William First Nation, which is just on the edge of the city of Thunder Bay, where I live, the Grand Trunk Railroad Road, expropriated a huge piece of land from the community, from the reserve because they wanted to build the railway through that they never built. And yes, the community just got that land claim, like in the last five years, 10 years. It's bad enough these things are happening, but it's incredible how long it takes to make them right. It's ridiculous. Another thing that the Indian act brought in was the requirement that you needed permission to leave the reserve. Right. That they were. There was an Indian agent, which was the. An employee of the Department of Indian affairs back there now. Indigenous Services isc. Indigenous Services Canada. Yes. And that was the person that registered best deaths, registered births, and gave you permission to leave or not. They pro. They banned ceremonies like the potlatch and Sundance. Those were deemed. They were non Christian. They were devil worship. And these ceremonies cannot happen again. One culture judging another. And they required attendance at residential schools. As I mentioned earlier, September 30th just passed. Those kids had no choice. And if the parents tried to hide them or stop the RCMP from taking the kids. So if you're wondering why indigenous have an issue with rcmp, that's a huge part of it. We now in the city of Thunder Bay that is known for its anti indigenous racism, we now have an ex RCMP as a police chief. Do you see any problems with that? I see problems with that. Another thing the Indian act did was establish that your status could be revoked. So your status Indian, you have the card that your status could be revoked if you were enfranchised. Now there were several ways you could be enfranchised. If an indigenous person enlisted and chose to fight in the army and fight for Canada. It's not Canada yet. But you know my point then, is it Canada at this point? Yeah, I think it is. To fight for Canada, you get your status and your benefits taken away. You still get all the restrictions, but so that's enfranchised. If you went to become educated, went for a higher education college, university, you're enfranchised. Yeah. And we're going to get into what happens to Indigenous women in a second. And then the one I loved. The Indian act required that Indigenous communities needed permission from the federal government to hire lawyers if they wanted to do a land claim. So if you wanted to fight the federal government in court, you needed the federal government's permission to hire a lawyer to do that. Do you see a problem with this? And then now it gets fun. 1880. I'm being so sarcastic here. This is what I was just alluding to. I have to read this because this is surreal. In 1880 there's an amendment to the Indian act and it declares that indigenous women cease to be Indian if they marry any other than an Indian or a non treaty man, meaning an indigenous person without status. We just stopped being Indian. What nationality are you? What culture are you? And if you get married, does it cease? You just stop. It's amazing how many ways Canada tried to eliminate us. Now I used to have the most amazing letter. I got lost through the years. I wish I still had it. I got married in 1984 and that's right when Bill's the C31 was coming in which stopped this practice of women losing their status. So I status. I was marrying a Frenchman, a non stand. Well as it turned out to be a non status indigenous person. That's another video. I'll link to that in the notes. He didn't know he was status. I definitely didn't know. But anyways, that would mean that I would lose my status under the old rules. But Indigenous affairs sent me Indian affairs back then sent me a letter that said under the Indian act section blah blah blah, you would lose or no, under one section you are a status Indian under the next section you lose your status if you marry a non indigenous person. But under bill C or 31 you would get it back. So just keep it. I thought it was the best letter ever. Only because of the way it was worded. 1883, we touched on this last time. John A. Macdonald authorizes the creation of the residential school. So the last one closed in 79. The first one opened in 1883. That's 96 years. So the next time someone says to you how long is it going to take to get over this? We are trying to overcome a century. And it stopped in 1979. I wish, wish, wish. Where's my calculator? Can you guys do this faster than me? Probably. So we're going to take 20, 24 minus 1979 equals 45 years. We it's only been 45 years since the last closed and we're trying to overcome a hundred years. And there's still such a lack of supports out there, a lack of counseling, a lack of education, helping indigenous people to heal, healing heal and non indigenous to understand. So it's gonna take a while. I hate to tell you this. And if the oppression stopped that would really help. And that definitely hasn't happened in 1860s to 1900. Let's go north. Now the Inuit are starving because the French ships are coming over and going after the whales, going after the seals. Their food source is being eliminated. All thanks to the settlers showing up. In 1885, the second the five month northwest resistance against the feds happens in what's now Saskatchewan and Manitoba. And Louis Riel once again sets up a provisional government. And by the way, for I mentioned I live in the city of Thunder Bay. And so which used to be the city of Port Arthur and the city of Fort William that amalgamated because they ran into each other. Port Arthur is the port where lakes. We sit right on Lake Superior and that's literally the port side of the city. Red River Road is one of the main city streets leading from the port. That's because of the Red River Resistance. The troops landed here in the port and began marching up Red River Road to get the to Manitoba to fight against the Northwest resistance. How's that for a history lesson? And then because indigenous people dared to stand up. How dare you. Bad, bad, bad. Little Indian. After the rebellion in 1885, the the government came out with the pass system. So now you need documentation, not just permission, documentation to leave the reserve. Their idea was this was going to prevent indigenous from gathering and maybe they wouldn't rebel again if they couldn't get together to plan these. Any time you left the reserve, you needed a written pass to go hunting, to feed your family. You needed a written pass to go to the residential schools to try to see your kids when they were in school. And there are many documented cases of mums traveling huge distances to set up tents outside the residential school grounds just in hopes of seeing their kid on the school ground. That's what Canada did. So these are the seeds that were planted. Next, I think we look at 1914. We're going to talk about the time of the World War I. We know that was happening in Europe, what was happening here? More on that next week. I love you. Take care. I have no idea where I'm going to shoot the next video. If it's not too loud, maybe I'm going to introduce you to my back, my backyard. I can't speak today, it's Sunday until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.