21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality – Bob Joseph

Thoughts: Having read this, I have a better sense of what the Canadian Indian Act is and how it has been changed over time. I came across a few facts I hadn’t expected (mostly about the Royal Proclamation), but there wasn’t much that really surprised me. Worth reading, but not a highlight.

(The notes below are not a summary of the book, but rather raw notes - whatever I thought, at the time, might be worth remembering.)

Joseph, Bob. 2018. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality. Indigenous Relations Press.

• 28-29: With the passing of the Gradual Civilization Act in the late 1800s, the Canadian government began granting citizenship and land to any first nations person who gave up their Indian status, in a process called enfranchisement. “Up until this Act was passed, relations between band councils and government representatives have been relatively cooperative[!] The nation-to-nation relationship as outlined in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was gone and in its place with a relationship of acrimony and deep distrust.”
• 46: oof! cites BF Skinner for a point on how the environment shapes our behavior - that’s rather unfortunate
• 83: King George III’s Royal Proclamation “[confirmed] the international convention of the day that colonizing countries should conduct government business with the inhabitants on a nation-to-nation basis and recognize the inhabitants as owners of the lands.” This nation-to-nation approach was abandoned around the time of / following Canada’s constitution in 1867.