How Did The Indian Act Affect Canada's Identity?

Identity is a key component in the makeup of a person, the qualities and beliefs that they possess is the fundamental aspect that differentiates them from other groups of people. Envision if that person’s identity was stripped away from them and they were forced to take on another person’s identity. This process was exactly what the first Nations had to undergo. First Nations have endured all the sad realities that have been thrown on them by the Canadian Government. Since the immigration of Europeans to what is now known as North America, the Native Identity has depleted and close to being successfully assimilated into a Western way of life. By means of beatings, slavery, horrible living standards and sexual exploitations which has caused

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was created in order to establish how the Europeans and First Nations would interact, presenting the natives with their rights, and to support the taking of their land by the Europeans. More procedures arrived half way through the 1800. They focused on assimilating the First Nations into a Western means of thinking and behaving. The Indian Act is a vital example which demonstrates the impact the Canadian Government had, and how they had a major influence on the First Nations identity. It was first brought to light in 1876 and the aim of it was to assimilate globalize the Natives, culturally, economically, politically and socially, they were able to do this by terminating all their beliefs in each aspect. The government did this by forcing them to learn and live the Canadian approach on life. The act was created to monitor the lives of those that recognized themselves as Aboriginals. The government had total control, they had control over the rights for the Natives to practice their culture and traditions, control of who has the status of an Indian and also had the ability to govern their land base. Though the Act has been amended many time to now accommodate and include the way aboriginals would like to live their live it was definitely not like that in past which impacted who they are as Canadian citizens

Residential schools were religious schools that were sponsored by the government in order to convert aboriginal children into the European – Canadian way of living.2 The government believed that if they were able to successfully assimilate the children, the Native culture would cease to exist, the children that would have participated in those schools would only be able to pass down the Euro-Canadian culture. Residential schools were ran in a methodical way, bells will ring waking up the children and motioning them to dress up then they were forced to attend a Christian church regardless of what they believed. After that breakfast would arrive then they would attend classes and do school work. There was a short period for the children to play, followed with dinner and then bedtime. Although there are some students that associate the school with happiness, there are certainly a greater amount that don’t, being the reason that many students were damagingly abused and will be scared for a long duration of their life. The meals that were provided by the school were in small quantity and disgusting, the clothes often did not provide the children with proper protection in the winter and were rarely well fitting. The sole languages that were spoken in school were English and French which majority of the children were unable to comprehend. In