Citation

Barker J. Am. Q. 2008; 60(2): 259-266.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Johns Hopkins University Press)

DOI

10.1353/aq.0.0002

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Contemporary Native women's struggles against social inequality and violence and for Native sovereignty and self-determination are mired in histories of sexist ideologies and practices. While these struggles and histories did not begin in the nineteenth century (sexism certainly existed before then), they were fortified in powerful ways by the Indian Act of 1868. The act consolidated under Canadian Parliament authority all previous colonial legislation addressing the status and rights of Native people in Canada. In 1876, the act was amended to establish patrilineality as the criterion for determining Indian status, including the rights of Indians to participate in band government, have access to band services and programs, and live on the reserves. 1 The amendment instanced and reified the sexist ideologies and practices of colonialism in which the act emerged and functioned, and it did so specifically by empowering status Indian men with all of the rights, privileges, and entitlements of status in band government and reserve life. Over time, this led status Indian men to an expectation of entitlement in band government and property rights over Indian women, irrespective of their status.