The Indian Act of 1876 gave the Department of Indian Affairs the power to intervene in band issues and make sweeping policy decisions, such as determining who was an Indian.
Under the Act, the Department would also manage Indian lands, resources and money; control access to intoxicants; and promote "civilization."
The Act was based on the premise that it was the Crown's responsibility to care for and protect the interests of First Nations by acting as a "guardian" until the First Nations could fully integrate into Canadian society.
The Act continued to push for the abandonment of traditional ways of life, including banning the potlatch and sun dance.
Non-native colonists and missionaries saw the sharing of wealth and food at potlatches as excessive and wasteful, as well as interrupting assimilation.
They wanted Indigenous people to shift from an economic system of redistribution to one of private property ownership
As very few First Nations members opted to become enfranchised (gaining citizen rights especially voting), the government amended the Act to enable automatic enfranchisement, removing all legal distinctions between indigenous people and Her Majesty's other Canadian Subjects.
Enfranchisement stripped Indigenous people and their family of Indigenous title, with the idea that they would become "less savage" and "more civilized", while remaining defined as non-citizens by Europeans
The Indian Act was full of gender discrimination. Until 1985, indigenous-status women who married someone without status lost their status rights.
Men, on the other hand, did not lose Indian status in the same way.
The Act continued to favour male lines of descent (requiring a child to have a status-indigenous father to also gain status) and prevented the reinstatement of women's status until Bill S-3 came into full effect on August 15, 2019.
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