File 01 / A nation read against the grain

The Indian Act Criminalized the Potlatch and Turned Cultural Treasures into Evidence

      Indian Act Potlatch Prohibition
      1880s–1950s
      Crown, Treaties & Dispossession
      Archive: verified
      5/5 archive intensity
    

An 1884 amendment to the Indian Act outlawed the potlatch, a central legal, political, and ceremonial institution for many First Nations on the Northwest Coast. Police and Indian agents arrested participants and confiscated regalia and hereditary treasures, dispersing many objects into museums and private collections. The ban remained until 1951, disrupting governance, cultural transmission, and community life across generations.

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The Indian Act Criminalized the Potlatch and Turned Cultural Treasures into Evidence

Archive Record · 1880s–1950s

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12 stories in this selection.

Crown, Treaties & Dispossession1950s

Canada Relocated Inuit Families to the High Arctic, Then Broke Its Promises

High Arctic Relocation

In 1953 and 1955, the federal government relocated Inuit families from Inukjuak and Pond Inlet to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, more than 1,000 kilometres from home. Families were not properly informed about the distance or conditions, were divided between two communities, received inadequate shelter and supplies, and were denied the promised option to return. Canada apologized in 2010 and acknowledged both the suffering caused and the relocatees' contribution to a Canadian presence in the High Arctic.

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Borders, Internment & Exclusion1940s

Ottawa Interned and Dispossessed More Than 20,000 Japanese Canadians

Japanese Canadian Internment and Dispossession

After Canada entered the war against Japan, the federal government used emergency powers to remove Japanese Canadians from the Pacific coast despite security officials reporting no collective threat. Families were confined, dispersed to labour sites, and deprived of homes, businesses, fishing boats, and personal property that officials had promised to safeguard. The government sold those assets and restricted return to the coast until 1949; a federal apology and redress agreement followed in 1988.

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Borders, Internment & Exclusion1910s

The Komagata Maru Was Held Offshore for Two Months Under Canada's Exclusion Regime

Komagata Maru Incident

In 1914 the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver carrying 376 passengers, most of them Sikhs from British India. Canadian officials used the continuous-journey regulation and other exclusionary rules to prevent almost everyone aboard from landing, leaving passengers confined on the ship for roughly two months while supporters fought in court. The vessel was forced to depart under naval escort; Canada formally apologized in the House of Commons in 2016.

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Police, Intelligence & Surveillance1950s–1980s

PROFUNC Secretly Listed Thousands of Canadians for Emergency Internment

PROFUNC

During the Cold War, the RCMP maintained PROFUNC—Prominent Functionaries of the Communist Party—a secret program identifying suspected communists and sympathizers for surveillance and possible detention during a national emergency. Files extended beyond party officials to relatives and other people considered politically suspect. The program remained hidden from the public for decades and was discontinued in 1983 after operating under successive federal governments.

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Police, Intelligence & Surveillance1970s–1980s

RCMP Security Service Break-Ins and Arson Triggered a National Commission

McDonald Commission on RCMP Activities

Investigations into the RCMP Security Service uncovered warrantless entries, theft of political membership lists, unlawful mail opening, and the burning of a barn used by activists. The federal McDonald Commission examined both the operations and what governments knew about them, concluding that security intelligence needed clearer legal controls and civilian separation from ordinary policing. Its work helped lead to the creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in 1984.

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Institutions, Care & Coercion1870s–1990s

Canada's Residential School System Separated Generations of Children from Family and Culture

Indian Residential School System

For more than a century, the Canadian government funded and regulated a network of residential schools operated largely by churches to remove Indigenous children from their families, languages, and cultures. Survivors described hunger, forced labour, physical and sexual abuse, punishment for speaking their languages, and lasting family separation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the system and its legacy after gathering testimony and records from across the country.

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Showing 1–6 of 12

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The Indian Act Criminalized the Potlatch and Turned Cultural Treasures into Evidence

Not a list of villains.A map of systems.

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