Federal Governance

A council consisting of the Lieutenant Governor, Indian Commissioner, Commissioner of NWMP, and other officials came together to discuss the oncoming famine among Aboriginal people. The group passed resolutions after their first meeting that resulted in purchasing and distributing increased rations at various points throughout the territory. They also agreed to increase the number of NWMP officers at Battleford that winter.

400 Aboriginal people in the Qu'Appelle district forcibly took provisions from the agency storehouse after officials refused to provide them with rations.

The Department of Justice issued a report relating to the protection of the bison. It was referred to the North-West Territorial Council who researched and heard testimony, then submitted their findings to the federal government.

Cree groups living in the Cypress Hills were told by Indian Affairs officials that they were not going to be issued rations until they left the region and moved onto reserves in the Qu'Appelle, Battleford, and Fort Pitt areas. This was part of the 'Sheer Compulsion' strategy. They were issued rations at Fort Walsh to fuel their journey to Prince Albert, and received more rations for the final portion of their journey. Big Bear and a group of followers remained at their camp about twenty miles from Fort Walsh into 1882, and were some of the last to accept the move out of the Cypress Hills.

The Department of Indian Affairs became a branch of the Department of Mines and Resources by the Department of Mines and Resources Act of June 23, 1936. As it relates to changes of the structure of the Department of Indian Affairs, this Act created a division for welfare and training, reserves and trusts service, records service, medical service, and education. They also introduced a program to re-establish agricultural support for Aboriginal people, which had dwindled since the turn of the century. In 1939 the program was expanded to include a revolving loan fund, to provide financial support for farmers, as well as to encourage community farms.

After the 1901 census had identified approximately 10,000 people with mixed Indigenous ancestry living in the region that would become the province of Saskatchewan under the term "half-breed." The 1906 special western census dropped the category with no replacement to identify Metis and other peoples of mixed Indigenous ancestry, which ultimately erased their identity in the eyes of the government and any fiduciary or legal obligation.

The Depression caused increasing dependence on government aid, both for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The distribution of government aid was recognized by the Department of Indian Affairs in their end of year reports. In the DIA report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1937, it was estimated that one third of Aboriginal peoples needed financial relief assistance due to the economic Depression.

Beginning in the early 1950s there was a shift in the character of residential schools from educational institutions to "a sort of foster home which endeavour[ed] to cater to the social and emotional needs of the child." This shift was brought about by the development of admission regulations. Each child was to be assigned to one of six categories based on the social and economic background of the child. A census taken in 1953 by the Department of Indian Affairs revealed that out of the 10,112 children in residential schools, 4,313 fell into a category defining them as neglected or as being in homes that were unfit because of parental indifference or over-crowding. In 1966 out of the 9,778 children in school 75 per cent fell into this category and in 1975 the children estimated to be from "broken or immoral homes" had risen to 83 per cent in the Gordon Residential School, 64 per cent in the Muscowequan Residential School, and 80 per cent in the Cowessess Residential Schools. Despite these findings, the official view of the Department was that this "was not a product of economic circumstances but of parental moral shortcomings."

Hayter Reed attempted to use an order-in-council to force the Chakastapaysin reserve to revert to the crown, rather than negotiating a surrender. He planned instead to amalgamate the membership of that band with the James Smith and Cumberland House bands. The Justice Department ruled that this move was not legal. Instead, the Department succeeded in negotiating the surrender of the band's entire reserve, and their amalgamation with the other two bands in 1897. The surrender was signed by only 9 band members, though it is not certain how many were present to witness the negotiations.

Agreements were negotiated between the federal and provincial governments transferring control over land and natural resources to the provinces; prior jurisdiction had previously been held by the federal government. Reserve and Crown lands were not included in the transfer. However, some of the lands used by Indigenous peoples to hunt/trap/fish now fell under provincial jurisdiction and were subjected to conservation regulations.