Department of Indian Affairs

Department of Indian Affairs
Type	Government agency

Department of Indian Affairs is a federal government department that administered First Nations people and funds.

In Anishinabek News

• June 2013: The department established the Indian Land Management Fund in the late 1850s to fund its own administration using First Nations trust funds. The department appointed a series of agents on Lake Superior who were later investigated for financial crimes and professional misconduct. Officials from the department terminated several agents, including J.P. Donnelly and Neil McDougall, following internal investigations into missing funds.
• September 2013: The Department of Indian Affairs unilaterally took money from certain First Nation accounts to establish the Indian Land Management Fund. To pay for its administration, the Department of Indian Affairs took a ten percent management fee from land surrenders and six percent from timber development fees. The Department of Indian Affairs encouraged resource developments and surrenders to generate the percentages needed to pay for its offices in Ottawa and in the field.
• November 2016: The department likely presented the Red Cross as a volunteering option and sent this message to reserves through Indian Agents. Annual reports from the department indicated that most Anishinabe kwe's efforts focused on the Soldier's Comforts program. The department recorded enlistment statistics for Anishinabe communities at the close of the Great War.
• June 2019: The department was complicit in the dispossession of Indigenous lands at Shoal Lake despite its legal obligation to protect those interests. It sold Shoal Lake 40 First Nation reserve lands without consultation by utilizing section 46 of the Indian Act.
• July 2019: Under the leadership of Duncan Scott, the department sought to solve the so-called Indian problem by eliminating Indigenous cultures. The department is described as having facilitated the subjugation and inferior treatment of Indigenous peoples.
• July 2020: In 1982, Nipissing First Nation informed this department of its intent to take control of its land jurisdiction. The department previously managed land through piecemeal regulations like standing gravel permits rather than active management.
• May 2021: The department was led by deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott from 1913 to 1932. In 1921, the department viewed Indigenous dancing as a practice that disorganized efforts to make First Nations people self-supporting.
• April 2022: Representatives from this department told Serpent River First Nation members in 1955 that they had nothing to worry about regarding a local acid plant.
• July 2022: The department managed both Indian Day Schools and Indian Residential Schools as part of an assimilation project. This agency partnered with various Christian churches to gain authority over Indigenous peoples starting in the 1870s.
• July 2025: This department provided minimal funding to the Mount Elgin Industrial School, making student labour necessary for the institution's operation. Officials from this department ignored complaints from parents and bands regarding the overwork and lack of education provided to children.
• April 2026: The department was granted power by the Indian Act to administer trust funds, annuity payments, interest payments, and soldiers' pensions. It administered First Nations people as wards of the state to guide them toward assimilation until the 1950s.