Indian reserve

In Canada, an Indian reserve (French: réserve indienne) or First Nations reserve (French: réserve des premières nations) is defined by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." Reserves are areas set aside for First Nations, one of the major groupings of Indigenous peoples in Canada, after a contract with the Canadian state ("the Crown"), and are not to be confused with Indigenous peoples' claims to ancestral lands under Aboriginal title.

Canada has designated 3,394 reserves for over 600 First Nations, as per the federal publication "Registered Indian Population by Sex and Residence, Indian Status is granted to members of a registered band who are eligible to live on these reserves. By 2020, reserves provided shelter for approximately half of these band members.

Many reserves have no resident population, such as the Kainai Nation (Blood) which has Blood 148 (population 4,572 at the 2021 census), and Blood 148A (population 0 at the 2021 census). Typically they are small, remote, non-contiguous pieces of land, a fact which has led many to be abandoned, or used only seasonally (as a trapping territory, for example). Statistics Canada counts only those reserves which are populated (or potentially populated) as "subdivisions" for the purpose of the national census.

At the 2021 Canadian census there were over 3,200 reserves across the country. Of these, 992 were census subdivisions, including 73 that had been added and 28 that had been removed since the 2016 census. Some reserves that were originally rural were gradually surrounded by urban development. Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary are examples of cities with urban Indian reserves.

Band governments may administer more than one reserve, such as the Beaver First Nation with two reserves, Boyer 164 and Child Lake 164A, or the Membertou First Nation, with Caribou Marsh 29, Sydney 28A, and Membertou 28B.

Some reserves are shared by multiple bands, whether as fishing camps or educational facilities such as Pekw'Xe:yles, a reserve on the Fraser River used by 21 bands. Another multi-band reserve of the Stó꞉lō peoples is Grass Indian Reserve No. 15, which is located in Chilliwack and is shared by nine bands.

After the Royal Proclamation of 1763 but before Confederation in 1867, the Upper Canada Treaties (1764–1862 Ontario) and the Douglas Treaties (1850–1854 British Columbia) were signed. "Some of these pre-confederation and post-confederation treaties addressed reserve lands, hunting, fishing, trapping rights, annuities and other benefits." Governor James Douglas of the Colony of British Columbia, which formally became a colony in 1858, also worked to establish many reserves on the mainland during his tenure, though most of these were overturned by successor colonial governments and later royal commissions once the province joined Confederation in 1871.

In 1867, legislative jurisdiction over "Indians and Lands reserved for the Indians" was assigned to the Parliament of Canada through the Constitution Act, 1867, a major part of Canada's Constitution (originally known as the British North America Act), which acknowledged that First Nations had special status. Separate powers covered "status and civil rights on the one hand and Indian lands on the other."