Legal

After the establishment of the provisional government in March the Métis attempted to bolster their fighting force by appealing to First Nations peoples for support. This process manifested itself in using the threat of violence to force the community of the Whitecap First Nations to travel to Batoche and support the Métis cause. Some Dakota were enlisted to aid the Métis response, for example being employed as scouts. They asserted that they were forced to help the Métis against their will.

In an attempt to stop people from using passes to attend ceremonies on other reserves, Deputy Superintendent Graham issued a directive to Indian Agents to prosecute individuals that participated in any activities other than those specified on the pass they were issued. Graham further noted the Royal North-West Mounted Police had greatly cooperated with the wishes of the Indian Agents, and had not questioned the legality of preventing First Nations from participating in dances and other ceremonies on neighbouring reserves. The dances were perceived as a threat because it continued the transmission of traditions and customs, which counteracted colonial methods to eliminate Indigenous cultures across Canada. 

This amendment allowed the government to take possession of any ‘unused’ reserve land for patriotic purposes without surrender or consent of band members. This included issuing location tickets to Aboriginal veterans without band consent. The Superintendent-General was also given the right to issues leases for surface rights on reserve lands, as well as to distribute up to 50% of proceeds from timber and land resource sales on reserve. An amendment to section 149 also allowed for those participating in “give away” dances to be tried without reference to a higher court, in order to streamline the process of dealings with these offences, given the cost of hearings and the need to reduce wartime spending.

Duncan Campbell Scott, who had joined the Department of Indian Affairs in 1880, was appointed Deputy Superintendent of the department in 1913. He continued to serve in this position until his retirement in 1932. Upon his appointment as Deputy Superintendent, he issued a statement on October 15 to Indian Agents called “General Instructions to Indian Agents in Canada,” reminding them to uphold the section of the Indian Act that prohibited Indigenous rituals.

The near-extinction of the bison by 1879 due largely to settler over-hunting led to widespread famine in the subsequent years amongst Indigenous populations in the West. Treaty 6 included a clause stating the Canadian government would aid Indigenous signatories in times of famine - this clause was unique from the numbered treaties before, and was requested by Poundmaker. However, the Liberals and Conservatives in the government reneged on their legal obligation due to the cost of that aid. The Conservatives in power in the early 1880s provided rations to starving Indigenous communities, but this was strongly opposed by the Liberals in the House of Commons because they thought this relief would make the receiving population lazy and complacent.

Cree Chief Piapot was arrested and stripped of his chieftanship because of his participation in a Giveaway Dance. This was his second arrest for this offense, having been arrested in 1895 for performing a Sun Dance, at which point he refused to promise not to participate in the future.---------------------------- A Department of Indian Affairs memorandum written by the deputy superintendent general reveals that officials had hoped to strip him of his chieftainship in 1884: “It might also be well should Piapot, who has given the Department a great deal of trouble, again leave his Reserve with his Indians, that he should, as suggested by Mr. Dewdney, be deprived of the carts and horses that were given him in consideration of his remaining on the Reserve, and it would also in the opinion of the undersigned be advisable to deprive him, should he leave, of the Chiefship. This could be done on the ground of incompetency, as he is setting his Band a bad example instead of showing them the opposite by working on the Reserve and inducing his followers to be industrious...It is always found that where the Chief of an Indian Band behaves well, his Band is beneficially affected by such conduct, and on the other hand where the Chief is careless or idle, the Band will be tainted with a like spirit.” Chief Piapot and members of his band had an ongoing grievance with the government in desiring to change the location of their reserve land. In May of 1884 Hayter Reed wrote to the superintendent general of the department: “Piapots Indians before leaving his section of country in which their reserve lies set fire to the prairies and it was with difficulty the Farm property was saved...Although the fact of having sickness among them, and a desire to change their Reserve to a section of the country, where running water and fish may be found, may weight with them, I am strongly of the opinion that the real reason is a strong desire to get away from work on the Reserves and enjoy themselves in a Sun dance, now that they can travel about without a fear of starving or freezing.” Another letter from May of 1884 from Indian Agent MacDonald to the Indian Commissioner Dewdney encouraged the Commissioner to crush any political opposition arising from Piapot: "Piapot must be made to feel that his power in this Country is nothing. The sooner this is done the better for the Country. If allowed to go when he pleases with the following he now has, all the disaffected Indians will join him. To do this a strong force must be in readyness to seize him and principle Indians on the first act."

In the wake of an influx of Mormons to Canada, the government passed legislation making polygamy illegal. However, this law also had implications for Indigenous nations where polygamy was accepted practice. The Mormon immigration provided an opportunity for the government and churches, whom had actively discouraged polygamy amongst Indigenous groups since the 1880s, to make polygamy illegal. Indian Agents, however, had already assumed it was illegal. Thus, the introduction of the law, while officially extending the jurisdiction of the state over Indigenous couplings, did not in practice change the actions of Indian Affairs officials.

Incitement:

An 1884 amendment to the Indian Act criminalized the act of "inciting three or more [Indigenous people] against civil officials." 

"Whoever induces, incites or stirs up any three or more Indians, non-treaty Indians, or half-breeds apparently acting in concert,-

(a.) To make any request or demand of any agent or servant of the Government on a riotous, routous, disorderly or threatening manner, or in a manner calculated to cause a breach of the peace; or-.

(b.) To do an act calculated to cause a breach of the peace,-

Is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor.

*A PDF Copy of the Amendment is attached at the bottom of this entry.

Ceremonies

The superintendent general was also given the power to regulate and/or prohibit the sale of ammunition to Indigenous peoples. This amendment also legislated a prohibition on the Potlatch and Tamanawas (Indigenous ceremonies from the west-coast). In 1895, further practices including the Sun Dance and the Thirst Dance were banned, and in 1914 First Nations people in Western Canada were banned from participating in 'costumed' rituals without official permission.

"The potlatch (from the Chinook word Patshatl) is a ceremony integral to the governing structure, culture and spiritual traditions of various First Nations living on the Northwest Coast and in parts of the interior western subarctic. It primarily functions to redistribute wealth, confer status and rank upon individuals, kin groups and clans, and to establish claims to names, powers and rights to hunting and fishing territories." (Gadacz, René R.."Potlatch." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. October 24, 2019.)

Missionaries sent a petition and several correspondences to push for legislation that would outlaw the Potlatch and Tamanawas dances. Missionaries were of the opinion that these ceremonies were antithetical to Social Darwinist concepts of "progress" by preventing an intellectual and spiritual "elevation." In the eyes of Missionaries and Colonists, the Potlatch undermined European moral and social values. The Indian Reserve Commissioner, G. Sproat reported:

“The ‘Potlach’ [sic] is the parent of numerous vices which eat out the heart of the people. It produces indigence, thriftlessness, and a habit of roaming about which prevent home associations. It is inconsistent with all progress. A large amount of the prostitution common among some of the Coast Tribes is directly caused by the ‘Potlach.’ ” (LaViolette, Forrest. The Struggle for Survival: Indian Cultures and the Protestant Ethic in British Columbia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973. p. 38).

Needless to say, the erroneous claims of Christian Missionaries were unsubstantiated and portrayed Indigenous peoples negatively to further their own colonial conquests. Missionaries did not understand Indigenous customs or the culture of generosity characteristic in Pacific Northwest Cultures. Indian agents and missionaries believed that if they could successfully assimiliate Indigenous youth to the “white man’s ways” that it would be easier to stop the Potlatch from happening.

As an example, Methodist missionary Cornelius Bryant wrote in an 1882 letter on the Potlatch:

“I have pointed out to them over and over again, the evils attending it, which the younger members do not fail to recognize, and even appreciate its intended abolishment” and “The Indians are generally loyal, have great respect for ‘the Queen’s laws’ and would stop the Potlaches.” Unfortunately, the “white man’s ways” did not stick - though the people managed to build homes and barns and farmed the land, they eventually went back to their old Indian ways. For many years I entertained the hope that their heathenish practices would have disappeared as soon as the young people adopted the habits of the whites, and applied themselves to the pursuits of various industries, but now I am sorry to state that many of the young men who for years had improved their fertile lands, built houses and barns on them and made for themselves and their families an almost independent life, have abandoned their farms and become again the adepts of superstition and barbarism.” (Department of Indian Affairs Record Group 10, Western (Black) Series, Volume 3628, File 6244-1).

In the 1884 Amendment, John A. Macdonald stated that the Potlatch celebrated “debauchery of the worst kind.” Colonists refused to understand or accept different Indigenous customs and protocols which countered  European ideologies that prized capitalism, personal wealth and property, and individual liberty. The nature of reciprocity, redistribution of wealth, and collective community care characteristic in the Potlatch and other Indigneous customs challenged colonist's worldviews.     

Indian Agents

In 1884, another Indian Act amendment permitted Indian Agents, acting as justices of the peace, to conduct trials whenever they thought necessary, to “any other matter affecting Indians.” Within the same amendment, Indian Agents were granted judicial authority which gave them the ability to lodge a complaint with the police, AND direct the prosecution, while acting as the presiding judge. Indigenous peoples were thoroughly excluded, alienated, and targeted by the judicial process, Canadian Laws prevented them from seeking legal counsel, representation, or lodging complaints. Indian Agents wielded authoritarian power in Indigenous communities and laws prohibited Indigenous people from taking any form of recourse.   

Sale of Goods

On the proposed 1884 amendments to the Indian Act, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald stated that:

“The Government have found they can get along very well with the Indians, if the Indians are let alone; but we have had on several occasions much trouble in consequence of the acts of whiskey dealers, smugglers and other parties…”

MacDonald's concern over the Sale of Ammunition to First Nations and Métis in the West was because Canada's Dominion government feared an organized resistance to their colonial occupation of Indigenous lands and peoples. The North West Mounted Police were initially responsible for controlling the sale of ammunition, but the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought with it further access to firearms. 

Another politician expressed concern that it placed serious impediment to First Nations if they could not freely sell the fruits of their labour, and that they did not have the same liberty to sell as other persons in the communities. The Prime Minister replied that there was no clause for increased liberty in the proposed amendment, that First Nations maintained the right to sell under the consent of the local Indian agents, but that it was necessary that the Indian Agent maintain total control over the ability to buy and sell. 

Amendments to the Indian Act in 1881 and 1882 allowed Governor-in-Council to prohibit and/or regulate the sale and exchange of agricultural products produced by Indian bands. This regulation did not cover the sale or exchange of furs or game. The 1881 amendment also gave Indian agents the power to act as Justices of the Peace and extended the power of jurisdictional magistrates on to reserves.

Throughout the many days of talks surrounding Treaty 4, Lieutenant-Governor of the North West Territories--Alexander Morris—never definitively indicated the future status of the lands affected by the treaty. However, the final draft of the government's printed version of Treaty 4 was explicit, that the Cree and Saulteaux tribes, and all other Indians in the district ceded their land to the Dominion of Canada. Though the documents suggest that Indigenous people ceded their lands, this is false. Indigenous people did not cede, surrender, or release their lands in any way to the Canadian government. Alternatively, they agreed to share the land and in no way did they extinguish their rights to their lands. It is also important to note that Indigenous leaders requested access to services such as education, health, and food security during these negotiations.