Indian Affairs Annual Reports, 1864-1990

T​his database includes annual reports from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and its predecessors from 1864 to 1990.

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  • Go to Collection Search and click on Advanced Search
  • Enter a keyword in All of these words, “This exact phrase”, or “Any of these words”.
    • Keywords correspond to any words appearing in the title of a publication or in the body of the text of each report.
  • In the Database box, select “Indian Affairs Annual Reports”
  • Optional: for Date enter a year or a range of years
  • Click the Search button.

Access the records

All of the reports in this database have been digitized, transcribed, and can be viewed online. The PDFs of the reports can be printed or downloaded to a computer.

To locate a specific keyword in a result use CTRL + F when viewing the PDF of a report.

About the records

This database contains 40,700 digitized pages and includes:

  • Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development annual reports from 1967 to 1990.
  • Annual reports for the Indian Affairs portfolio from 1864 to 1966. Before 1966, different departments were responsible for the portfolios of Indian Affairs and Northern Affairs.

The departments responsible for Indian Affairs to 1990:

  • Department of the Secretary of State of Canada (to 1869)
  • Department of the Secretary of State for the Provinces (1869-1873)
  • Department of the Interior (1873-1880)
  • Department of Indian Affairs (1880-1936)
  • Department of Mines and Resources (1936-1950)
  • Department of Citizenship and Immigration (1950-1965)
  • Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources (1966)
  • Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1966-2011)

The departments responsible for Northern Affairs to 1990:

  • Department of the Interior (1873-1936)
  • Department of Mines and Resources (1936-1950)
  • Department of Resources and Development (1950-1953)
  • Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources (1953-1966)
  • Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1966-2011)

These departments published yearly reports regarding Indian Affairs that contained information about:

  • Names and activities of Indian agents in various areas of the country
  • Extent of education and health of Indigenous populations
  • Amount and nature of monies spent
  • Some residential and day schools
  • Various statistics

Annual reports for the Northern Affairs portfolio before 1967 are not included in this database. To access a Northern Affairs annual report from before 1967, search for copies of the annual reports of the department responsible for Northern Affairs at that time in Aurora or at another library.

The Schedule of Indian Bands, Reserves and Settlements from 1982 to 1992 are also available in this database.

In 1991 the departmental annual report was integrated into the Estimates Part III which includes the Report on Plans and Priorities and the Performance Report and the Public Accounts, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Canadian Polar Commission (note that reports from 1991 to 1997 are available in print format only).

The content of the database entries reflects the original language used in the documents. This information was not translated.