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Canada amends the Indian Act.

1951

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This amendment makes it illegal for First Nations people to practice cultural or religious ceremonies, such as potlatch. Native people are "permitted" to gamble, enter pool halls, and consume alcohol. They are also "allowed" to appear off-reserve in ceremonial dress, to organize, and to hire legal counsel. Native women are "given" the right to vote in band councils. First Nations women who marry non-status men lose their Native status and their status is not passed along to their children.

The concept of a "mentally incompetent Indian" also appears in the act and describes this person as: “an Indian who, pursuant to the laws of the province in which he resides, has been found to be mentally defective or incompetent for the purposes of any laws of that province providing for the administration of estates of mentally defective or incompetent persons" (Lyster, 2015).