Report on Legislation on Indian Education.

The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of legislation, federal and provincial, affecting Indian education in Canada. Throughout the paper the following developments are noted: under the British North America (BNA) Act, education was put under the jurisdictional control of the provinces while Indians were the responsibility of the Federal Government; the Indian Act now requires the Minister responsible to enter into agreements with the provinces with regard to education; the number of Indian children attending provincial schools has increased considerably over the last 20 years (98.5% of Ontario Indian children attending secondary school are in provincial schools); the dropout rate at the secondary school level is alarmingly high and indications are that Indian-run schools provide a marked improvement in the retention rate of Indian children at the secondary level. Two key problems summarized concerning law, education and the Indian are, first, the law over the years has been applied differently and unfavorably to Indians in regard to education; secondly, legislation affecting Indian education has been written by white men from their point of view, ignoring the cultural perspective of the Indian people. (ERB)