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B.C. Royal Commission on Indian Affairs is formed to investigate reserves in B.C.
The commissioners goal was to consult with every First Nations community in BC, ascertain the amount of land each group needed, and allocate ant additional reserves accordingly. As a commissioner, McKenna removed the question of Aboriginal title from the negotiating table, and settled the problems of reserve size and reversionary interest. -
Period: to
20th Century
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Allied Tribes of B.C. is created
The summary report that was released in 1916 recommended that each First Nation family recieve approximately 150acres of land; basing the recommendations on a registered Indian population of 24, 000. However, when the land was distributed, it was not done evenly. Eventually the government decided that too much land had been alloctaed for the Indian reserves. -
Federal government ammends Indian Act to make it an offence to collect funds for the purpose of advancing claims is repealed
First Nations people were not happy with the outcome of the joint committee, which had recommended an annual grant of $100,000 to provide for technical education, health care, promotion of agriculture, and irrigation projects. Eventually the government realized that the Indian Tribes had become quite powerful, and decided to make it a criminal act if First Nations people tried to achieve recognition of the Aboriginal title, or to fight for their Aboriginal rights. -
The 1927 Indian Act amendment barring the pursuit of land claims is repealed
Aboriginal soldiers fulfilled their military commitment even as they continued the fight for veterans' benefits that they had been denied at the end of WW2. After the war, Aboriginals of Canada gained a stronger voice in Canadian politics. -
Canada's Registered Indians are given federal voting rights
John Diefenbaker finally rescinded Section 14 of Canada Election Act which prevented First Nations people from voting in federal elections. The Act addressed the historical injustice that had allowed First Nations people to vote only if they gave up their treaty rights and Indian status through the process known as enfranchisement. -
Jean Chretien authors the government's White Paper on Indian Affairs
The major aim of the White Paper was to allow Aboriginal peoples to be free to develop their cultures in an environment of legal, social, and economic equality with other Canadians, and to repeal the Indian Act. With no warning of this paper, the First Nations believed that the White Paper was an act of forcing the assimilation of First Nations people into mainstream Canadian culture until they disapeared. The White Paper eliminated "Indian" peoples as having special status. -
The Calder Case reached the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court of Canada
It was based on two concepts: that their Aboriginal title to their ancestreal lands of the Nass River area had not been extinguished, and that English common law allowed for property rights to be established by continued use and occupation of lands. Nisga's argued that the Crown had never amde any legal claims to its land, and the Surpreme Court ruling caused the government of Pierre Trudeau to back away from ideas introduced in 1969 White Paper. -
Constituation Express
Pierre Trudeau proposed a model for repatriating the Canadian Constitution which would cause Aboriginals to lose all their rights. The Union of B.C. Indian Cheifs recognized this possibility and passed a resolution to take action to stop the repatriation of that model of the Constitution. This campagin resulted in the decision of the government to include Aboriginal rights in the Constitution as wel as renewed a sense of pride and dignity in Aboriginal people. -
The Constitution Act
This Act formally recognized and defined Canada's Aboriginal people and guaranteed specific rights in a constitutional document as opposed to a less-powerful statue. Originally when the Constitution and the Charter were drafted, there were no terms to protect womens rights or Aboriginal peoples, causing a national and international campaign for formal inclusion in Canada's new Constitution by the Aboriginal poeples of Canada. -
Charlottetown Accord
The Accord recognized: the inherent right to self-government, Aboriginal government as a third level of government, stipulated there would be Aboriginal representation in the senate, and defined self-government in relation to land, enviroment, language and culture. Even with these enhancements, the Accord failed to become law because it had failed a national referendum.