Indian Act Amendment: Reserve Residents to Work on Public Roads

The federal government ignored the ways in which First Nations had organized themselves, their labour, and their resources prior to colonial interference. By allocating any on-reserve labour towards road work that was not being used in agriculture, it both denied and controlled reserve populations from utilizing their labour in ways that benefited their communities. Mandatory reallocation of labour also prepared for the settlement of the West, which was reliant on the segregation of Indigenous peoples. To summarize, the amendment ultimately forced reserve labour into creating the conditions wherein settlement could occur while also redirecting the labour and time of First Nations that could be focused on their communities. This could have also been implemented in an attempt to prevent political/physical mobilization (similar to the North-West Resistance) and increase surveillance on First Nations populations. First Nations peoples were not compensated for their labour.

The further control over band spending was an attempt to deal with band resistance in regard to what Indian Affairs identified as unapproved 'spending.' The government was extending paternalistic control over Indigenous governance, wherein they assumed that the government was more knowledgeable about the needs of reserves rather than band councils and precolonial governing systems