How One Woman Fought the Indian Act

This is a story about how one strong Indian woman helped force the Canadian government to eliminate a sexist law, and how I benefited as a result. I’m going to use the term Indian because that was the term historically used. But, I understand that First Nation is the term that we should be using today.Long before European contact, Indians used kinship and community ties to determine their own citizenship. However, these traditional systems of governance were undermined and displaced by colonialism. When the Indian Act was enacted in 1876, its primary purpose was to forcibly control, civilize, and assimilate Indians into Canadian society.The colonizers introduced legislation that determined who could reside on reserves. The legislation stripped Indian status from any Indian woman who married a man who was not Indian. And it prevented their children and future descendants from being recognized as Indian. The legal definition of “Indian” was no longer based on community ties. It tore families apart, forcing them to move away.My mother grew up on the Millbrook Reserve in Nova Scotia. Both her parents were members of the Mi’kmaw Nation. Sadly, she and her sister moved to Boston as teenagers because the racism against Mi’kmaw people was intolerable at that time. They each married Irish men from Boston. As a result, they were no longer considered Indian.My sister, my cousins, and I were not recognized as Indian when we were born. Mary Two Axe Earley faced this same injustice when she married an American engineer and lost her status. In 1967, she helped found Indian Rights for Indian Women and began fiercely testifying and protesting. In 1973 the Supreme Court upheld the discriminatory law, but she kept fighting for decades. Finally, in 1985, Bill C 31 was passed. She became the first person to regain her status, which paved the way for thousands of women and their children. Because of this strong Indian woman, my mother and her sister, along with my sister, my cousins, and me, were legally considered Indians.Imagine a government telling you that you are not really Irish, Italian, or French, even though you can trace your family tree back through generations. The Indian Act remains a federal law today. While it has been amended, traces of its colonial past continue to discriminate against First Nations people in Canada.If you want to learn more about indigenous Canadians, join our growing Substack community. We are currently welcoming new members to our tribe. The link is in my bio. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit quietcanines.substack.com/subscribe