1918
Frederick Ogilvie Loft founds the League of Indians, to advocate for voting rights and to help Aboriginal veterans of WWI. He is largely ignored by the government. / 1920
School attendance is compulsory for all First Nations children in Canada. Students are removed from their families, forced to speak English and punished for speaking their own languages and practising their culture. / 1939-1945
More than 3000 Aboriginal people served in WWII, including a number of “code talkers” who used Cree as a “secret code” so that enemies could not intercept messages. / 1931
There are 80 residential schools in Canada, the peak of the system. Tuberculosis is reported to be widespread in the schools and there is an estimated 50% mortality rate.
1960
Aboriginal people get the right to vote in Canada / 1969
The government tables a “White Paper” which would repeal the Indian Act. The National Indian Brotherhood campaigns against it and the White Paper is removed. / 1973
The Calder case at the Supreme Court, establishes that Aboriginal people have title to the land they have occupied since time immemorial. Canada implements an aboriginal land claims policy. / 1975
The Cree of James Bay sign a compensation agreement for the flooding of their lands to build a hydro dam. The Cree were not consulted at the start of the project .
1990
Mohawk warriors set up barricades to protect their land from a golf course expansion near Oka, Que. The land is a Mohawk burial ground. Violence erupts between Mohawk and provincial police. The army is called in. The golf course is never built. / 1996
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples reports that Canadians must recognize Aboriginal peoples as nations in partnership with Canada. / 1999
Creation of Nunavut, a new territory with a majority Inuit population and Inuktitut and English as its official languages. / 2003
The supreme court recognized and affirmed the existence of the Métis as a distinct Aboriginal people with existing rights
2008
Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologizes to Aboriginal peoples for Canada's role in the Indian Residential Schools system. He states “this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language” / 2008
Shannen Koostachin, a 14-year old girl from Attawapiskat, ON meets with Indian Affairs minister to demand a new “safe and comfy” school for her community. She is turned down. The school is scheduled to be finished for the 2013-14 school year. / 2010
Canada endorses the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which it had opposed since its adoption in 2007. / 2012
The Idle No More movement uses social media to stage protests such as circle dances and rail blockades across the country. They call on “all people to honour Indigenous sovereignty, and to protect the land and water.”