Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Canada, Aboriginal Women

Efforts to define and control its indigenous population have a long history in Canada, often with serious consequences for women in the Aboriginal community. For more than a century before the Indian Act was amended in 1985, women who were born Indian in Canada lost legal status as Indians when they married men who were not Indians. This includes Aboriginal men from Canada or other countries not registered under the Indian Act. The clauses that first discriminated against Indian women and their children in the 1869 Enfranchisement Act gradually became more restrictive, remaining in effect until Bill C-31, an Act to Amend the Indian Act, was passed in 1985. Despite the several legislative revisions, Aboriginal women and their descendants still argue that they are being treated inequitably. This entry reviews the history of Indian acts as they have affected women.

Legislative History

The Legislature of the Province of Canada enacted two Indian acts in 1850 ostensibly designed to protect Indians and the property they occupied in Upper Canada and Lower Canada. This early legislation included inclusive definitions of Indians. The Upper Canada legislation was designed to protect Indians and persons who married Indians, while the Lower Canada legislation identified specific groups of people as Indians. Indians included persons of Indian blood who belonged to a particular body or tribe of Indians and their descendants. Persons intermarried with and living with Indians and their descendants were also considered Indians, as were persons living with Indians whose parents on either side were Indians and persons adopted by the Indians as infants, and their descendants.

The Province of Canada amended both acts 1 year after implementation to include all women married to Indian men and their descendants and to exclude all non-Indian men married to Indian women. After confederation, Parliament further revised the legal definition of Indian in the Lands and Enfranchisement Acts of 1868–1869. The 1869 act included a one-quarter Indian blood quantum and stripped Indian women and their children of their status if the women married non-Indians. In addition, women who married Indians from other tribes or bands became members of their husbands' tribes or bands, as did any children of these marriages.

The Place of Women

When the 1869 legislation relegated Indian women to a status similar to that of European Canadian women, it did not reflect Indian customs. According to Jamieson, Aboriginal peoples such as the Iroquois and Maliseet were often matrilineal and matrilocal. In addition, Kirkness explains that since women are the first teachers, respect for Aboriginal women comes partially from this role, as illustrated by the absence of any distinction between male and female pronouns in many Aboriginal languages.

The 1869 legislation not only failed to reflect Indian customs but was also based on a seemingly misguided belief that White husbands were a greater threat to Aboriginal communities than were White wives. While concerns that aggressive White men might monopolize reserve lands were perhaps understandable in an agrarian economy, Weaver points out that White wives were frequently powerful forces behind their Aboriginal farmer husbands. In addition, White wives could be seen as a threat to the culture of Aboriginal communities because they could not provide cultural and linguistic links for their children, seldom being well-versed in local customs.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution