The Royal Proclamation, The Indian Act, and Reconciliation

Wait, what? The Royal Proclamation and the Indian Act are directly connected to Truth and Reconciliation? 

I do not remember learning about the Royal Proclamation in History class back when I was in grade 7 and 8. I also have no memory of learning about The Indian Act. I had a mental block back in those days for anything that I couldn’t make relevant in my mind, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t learn much about Indigenous peoples back in the 80s. 

What is sad is that I have taught some intermediate (grade 7 and 8) History since I started my teaching journey in 2010, and I don’t remember making sense of these two very important pieces of law for my students. At best, I think I just glazed over them without realizing that they were such important pieces of Canada’s history.  

They are still legally binding today. (Read that again.) And they are essential bits of understanding in the context of Truth and Reconciliation.   

Lean in and listen for a couple of minutes and I’ll give it to you in plain English so it’s easy to understand. 

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III and in no uncertain terms sets the expectation for the cordial relationship between settlers and Indigenous groups living in what is now Canada. It states that Indigenous groups are to be respected and that settlers are to see Indigenous groups as owners of the land they inhabit. It even goes as far as saying that if, at the time the proclamation was issued, anyone had already claimed Indigenous land as their own that they were to move on. This directive was followed for a time, but the once cooperative relationship between settlers and Indigenous peoples eventually became strained. 

Enter the Indian Act …     

The Indian Act (1876) needs much more space than a blog post allows for to explain its contents, but in a nutshell this piece of law attempted to satisfy the Canadian government’s need to control Indigenous groups (excluding the Inuit) in all the ways they could think of, with the goal of assimilation of Indigenous people into the settler way of life. This includes controlling who could call themselves an Indian, how Indigenous people were to be educated and by whom (hello, residential schools), who Indigenous people could conduct business with, and so much more.

There have been some updates to the act along the way to give Indigenous people the right to vote and to revamp the rules around who gets to claim Indian status, but it still exists and it is still offensive. 

To spell it out, The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was meant to put Canada on the right track toward a harmonious relationship between settlers and non-settlers. This was eventually disregarded in favour of taking steps to assimilate Indigenous people into the settler way of life because apparently they needed to be saved from themselves. 

There is so much more to this piece of history than I have covered here, but I hope this helps you to see the connection to Truth and Reconciliation. In future posts, I plan to discuss some related topics, including: 

• The doctrine of discovery

• Restoring self-governance, self-determination, and self-reliance  

Here are two of my go-to reads on the history of Indigenous Peoples in Canada: