In October 1966, a twelve-year-old Anishinaabe boy named Chanie Wenjack ran away from the Cecilia Jeffrey residential school in Kenora, Ontario, trying to walk hundreds of kilometres home to his family at Ogoki Post. He died of exposure beside a railway track. His story reached the whole country through a magazine article in 1967, yet residential schools kept operating for decades more. Chanie's death captures the contradiction of this period: Canada was building a welfare state and talking about equal rights, while First Nations, Métis and Inuit still lived under policies designed to control and assimilate them. It was also a period when Indigenous peoples organized nationally, went to court and changed the constitution itself.
Policy changes, and what stayed the same
| Policy | What changed | What stayed the same |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Act revisions (1951) | After hearings by a Special Joint Committee (1946–1948), the bans on the potlatch, the Sun Dance and other ceremonies were dropped, as was the ban on raising money to pursue land claims; women gained the vote in band elections | Indian agents kept wide powers; enfranchisement continued; a new section 12(1)(b) took status from First Nations women who married men without status, but not from men who married non-status women; a new section made provincial laws apply on reserves |
| The vote | Inuit gained the federal vote in 1950; status First Nations people gained it without losing status in 1960 and first voted in the 1962 federal election | Several provinces took longer; Quebec was the last province to extend its vote to First Nations, in 1969 |
| Inuit identity discs | Project Surname (1968–1971) replaced numbered discs with surnames | Officials often recorded names inaccurately, and the disc system had lasted about 30 years |
| Residential schools | In 1969 the federal government took over the schools from the churches; some closed and some became residences for students going to public schools | Dozens of schools and residences were still operating in 1970; the last federally run school closed in 1996 |
Relocations, the North and child welfare
- The High Arctic relocation (1953 and 1955): the federal government moved Inuit families from Inukjuak in northern Quebec and from Pond Inlet to Craig Harbour (later Grise Fiord) and Resolute Bay, more than 90 people in all. Officials said there would be better hunting; many historians and the families point to the government's wish to assert Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic. The families faced months of darkness, unfamiliar land and hunger, and a promise that they could return was not kept. The federal government apologized in August 2010.
- Other forced moves: many First Nations communities were moved for dams, mines or administrative convenience. In 1956, for example, the Sayisi Dene were moved to the outskirts of Churchill, Manitoba, where many people died in poverty in the following years.
- Sled-dog killings: between the 1950s and the 1970s, RCMP officers and other officials killed many Inuit sled dogs, often under rules about loose dogs. Without dogs, families could not hunt or travel and were tied to the new settlements. The Qikiqtani Truth Commission documented these events, and the federal government apologized in 2019.
- The Sixties Scoop: after a 1951 change made provincial laws apply on reserves, provincial child-welfare agencies removed large numbers of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children from their families, especially from the 1960s to the 1980s. More than 20,000 children (estimates vary) were adopted or fostered into mostly non-Indigenous homes in Canada, the United States and overseas, often losing their language, culture and identity. A federal settlement was reached in 2017.
The 1969 White Paper and the Red Paper
On June 25, 1969, Prime Minister Trudeau's government, through Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien, released a White Paper proposing to abolish the Indian Act, the Department of Indian Affairs and Indian status, transfer services to the provinces and treat treaties as historical documents with limited future meaning. The government presented this as equality: First Nations would become citizens like all others. First Nations leaders saw it as assimilation that would erase their nations, their land base and their treaty rights. Cree leader Harold Cardinal attacked it in his 1969 book The Unjust Society, and on June 4, 1970, the Indian Association of Alberta presented its reply, Citizens Plus, known as the Red Paper. It argued that First Nations should have all the rights of other citizens plus the rights guaranteed by treaties and their status as the first peoples. Facing united opposition, the government formally withdrew the White Paper in March 1971.
Organizing nationally
The fight against the White Paper built lasting national organizations: the National Indian Brotherhood (1968), led from 1970 by George Manuel and later re-formed as the Assembly of First Nations (1982); the Native Council of Canada for Métis and non-status people (1971); and Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (1971, today Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami). Inuit also helped found the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (1977) linking Inuit in Canada, Alaska and Greenland.
Land, courts and the constitution
| Event | Date | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Calder decision | January 31, 1973 | The Nisga'a Nation, led by Frank Calder (who in 1949 became the first First Nations person elected to the British Columbia legislature), asked the Supreme Court to recognize its title to its lands. The Nisga'a lost on a technicality, and the six judges who ruled on title split 3–3 on whether it still existed, but all six agreed that Aboriginal title had existed in Canadian law. Ottawa responded later that year by creating a policy to negotiate comprehensive land claims |
| James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement | November 11, 1975 | Quebec began a huge hydroelectric project in 1971 without consulting the Cree and Inuit. Led by leaders such as Grand Chief Billy Diamond, they went to court and won a brief injunction (1973). The resulting agreement, often called the first modern treaty, gave money, land rights and self-government powers in exchange for allowing the project |
| Berger Inquiry | 1974–1977 | Justice Thomas Berger heard testimony in Dene, Métis and Inuvialuit communities about a proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline and recommended a ten-year delay to settle land claims first |
| Section 35, Constitution Act, 1982 | Proclaimed April 17, 1982 | Recognized and affirmed the "existing aboriginal and treaty rights" of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, defined as the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples. The section was dropped in the November 1981 federal–provincial deal and restored after Indigenous protests, with the word "existing" added |
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First Nations women fight for equality
Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act meant that a First Nations woman who married a man without status lost her own status and her right to live in her community, while a man who married a non-status woman passed status on to her. Mary Two-Axe Earley of Kahnawà:ke campaigned against the rule from the 1960s. Jeannette Corbiere Lavell challenged it but lost at the Supreme Court in 1973, and in 1981 the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in favour of Sandra Lovelace of Tobique First Nation. Their efforts led to Bill C-31 in 1985 (see Unit 5).
Historical perspective: equality means different things
The White Paper debate turned on two meanings of equality. The government meant treating everyone identically under the same laws. First Nations leaders meant equal rights as citizens plus recognition as distinct nations with treaty rights. When you analyse a policy, ask whose definition of a key word it uses.