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The Indian Act allowed the federal government to control aspects of the lives of First Nations Peoples without respecting their culture or identity.

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the federal government used the legal power enshrined in the Indian Act to create the reserve system - note that the arrow only goes one way!

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The Canadian Federal government created reserves by setting aside land for the use of First Nations Peoples. However, this land was often remote and undesirable for a variety of reasons including the land being outside of the traditional territory of the indigenous peoples who would be located there.

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Indigenous Awareness Canada Online Training

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A reserve is land set aside by our federal government for the use and occupancy of a First Nation group.

Reserves were created as part of the treaty making process with First Nations peoples. If a First Nation did not sign a treaty they were relocated to reserves anyway. Reserves are meant to be land set aside for the exclusive use of First Nations.

Reserves may or may not be within a treaty geographical boundary. In British Columbia, where most land was not officially surrendered through treaty, the federal government took the land anyway and moved First Nations peoples onto reserves without their consent.

In most cases our federal government located First Nations reserves in remote locations. Over 80% of the reserves in Canada are considered remote because of the extreme distances from service centres where basic goods can be obtained. Some are under water, some are vertical, and many are just swamplands or covered with sand dunes.

The Indian Act governs all reserves in Canada. The Act outlines that First Nations peoples cannot own title to land on reserve, and the Crown can use reserve land for any reason.

Our federal government has control over all reserves that exist today and actively enforce their legal authority.

Only registered status First Nation person who is an accepted member of that community can live on reserve.

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The words Aboriginal, Native and Indigenous refer to the same group of people. This is in the same context as Caucasian or White. The three groups of Indigenous people in Canada according to the Canadian Constitution Act 1982 are Indians, Métis and Inuit.

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The pass system functioned by:

restricting the movement of First Nations Peoples from their locations on reserves

giving power to the Indian Agent (a representative of the federal government interests from 1830-1960) to grant these 'passes'

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"No rebel Indians should be allowed off the Reserves without a pass signed by an I.D. official.The dangers of complications with white men will thus be lessened & by preserving a knowledge of individual movements any inclination to petty depredations may be checked by the facility of apprehending those who commit such offences." [1]

This article is another in our series on the restrictive policies of the Indian Act over the decades since its inception in 1876. We should note it was never actually a law or regulation in the Indian Act but rather the Indian Act gave power to the Indian Agent to pursue such polices.

Following the Red River Rebellion (1869-1870) and Northwest Rebellion (1885) immigration to Saskatchewan slowed down, which interrupted the plans of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald to develop the agricultural potential of the West. A means of controlling the movements of the "rebel Indians" was deemed necessary to ensure farmers they were safe, and to prevent future collaborations between reserves that might result in another uprising.

"In 1885, the Department of Indian Affairs instituted a pass system. No outsider could come onto a reserve to do business with an Aboriginal resident without permission from the Indian agent. In many places, the directives were interpreted to mean that no Aboriginal person could leave the reserve without permission from the Indian agent. Reserves were beginning to resemble prisons."[2]

The "pass system" was devised in which Indian agents were supplied with books of passes, or permits to leave. As you can see from the photo above of one of the passes, the time the individual is allowed to be off reserve is recorded, as is the purpose of the time away, and whether or not he is allowed to carry a gun. The "pass system" was initially applied to "rebel Indians" but later expanded for all First Nations.

In order to obtain a pass, individuals would often have to travel many days by foot to the Agent's house, not knowing if he would be there when they arrived. If the Agent were away, they would either camp and wait, or return home. If the need to leave the reserve was pressing, such as to sell market-ready produce, the delay resulted in produce that rotted. First Nation farmers also were required to have a permit to sell their produce.

The pass system was also a means of maintaining a separation between First Nations and the European farmers - which seems illogical in the context in that era of assimilation - it's hard to achieve assimilation if the target population is isolated on reserves. The pass system restricted access to local towns in order to prevent First Nations farmers from wasting their time when they should be tending their crops........crops they were restricted from selling. The pass system additionally enabled the government to attempt to quash potlatches, the Sun Dance and other cultural practices.

Parents required passes to visit their children interned at residential schools. Controlling parents' access to their children aided and abetted the government's policy of removing "the Indian from the child". Agents were encouraged to only provide a pass to visit children in school no more frequently than four times a year; if a child were ill, and that information shared with the parents, additional passes might be issued. [3]

The pass system was created in 1885, enforced into the 1940s, and repealed in 1951.

[1] Public Archives of Canada, RG 10, Vol. 37 10, file 19,550-3. Hayter Reed to Edgar Dewdney, 20 July 1885.

[2] Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

[3 ]B. Bennett ,"Study of Passess"

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"No rebel Indians should be allowed off the Reserves without a pass signed by an I.D. official.The dangers of complications with white men will thus be lessened & by preserving a knowledge of individual movements any inclination to petty depredations may be checked by the facility of apprehending those who commit such offences."

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A Canadian federal law enacted in 1876 and while it has been amended many times it still has the legal power to control many aspects of the lives of indigenous Canadians. Specifically:
Indian status, land, resources, wills, education, band administration and so on. Inuit and Métis are not governed by this law.

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