A. Membership in Treaties

In the 1870s, both the government of Canada and the First Nations of the Canadian Prairies sought to make treaties that would define their relationship and establish rights to land and other resources. Such agreements were intended to extinguish Native rights to the land and provide compensation to the First Nations and a new means of livelihood.

In order to formulate the treaties, a legal and political definition for "Indian" was needed. This established who was entitled to reserve lands and to the other compensations provided for in the agreements. The Native definition of Indian was based primarily on lifestyle rather than bloodline. For most Natives, simply living a traditional aboriginal lifestyle made one an Indian, eligible for treaty terms. For example, if a man of mixed race married a Native woman, went to live with her people and adopted their ways, he was considered an Indian. For the most part, the government was more interested in bloodlines, but it was willing to accept the Native definition of the term Indian. Thus, people of mixed race, or the Metis, were eligible to be treated as half-breeds or as full Indians. Once a decision had been made, however, an individual's status could not change. The one exception to this practice occurred if a Native woman married a white man and moved off her reserve. In that case, she forfeited her legal status as an Indian and was not eligible for any treaty rights. However, a Native man who married a non-Native woman was still eligible for treatment as a legal Indian. The primary stipulation that the government placed on the legal definition of Indian was their requirement that every Indian be registered on a band list. Any Natives who did not register within a certain period forfeited their claim to treaty rights and became non-status Indians.

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