Resource library
Explore a topic, then find its readings, sources and learning activities together.
The Indian Act
Understand the difference between a federal law, First Nations identity, and treaty rights through six short chapters.
Sources & media (3)
Published documents, accounts and media. Check each item’s context, access and reuse terms.
- Indian Act, 1876: archived historical text
Indigenous Services Canada · Primary document · Text
- Indian Act: current consolidated legislation
Department of Justice Canada · Primary document · Text
- Hayter Reed memorandum on the future management of First Nations, 1885
Hayter Reed with Edgar Dewdney annotations; reprinted in Native Studies Review; University of Saskatchewan I-Portal · Archival record · Document / PDF
History
10 topics
Arctic histories & Inuit ancestors
Many generations of movement and adaptation
1 resource
Beringia
An ancient landscape of land, ice and changing seas
1 resource
Contact was not one moment
Regional encounters in an already connected continent
1 resource
Deep-time evidence
Bluefish Caves and White Sands ask different questions
1 resource
How do we know?
Read objects, oral histories, documents and images
1 resource
Red River, resistance & scrip
Métis political action and land records
28 related resources
Residential schools & the work of truth
Children, Survivors and continuing responsibilities
11 related resourcesThe 1969 White Paper
Follow a policy debate about equality, land, treaties, and who gets to make decisions.
2 related resourcesThe Indian Act
Understand the difference between a federal law, First Nations identity, and treaty rights through six short chapters.
4 related resourcesThe Red Paper
Explore the 1970 response to the White Paper and the continuing question of who decides a community's future.
2 related resourcesFor teachers
Review sources, local context and suggested curriculum connections before teaching.