Collective Rights Vocabulary List

Affirm: To validate and express commitment to

something.

Collective identity: The shared identity of a group of

people, especially because of a common language and

culture.

Collective Rights: Rights guaranteed to specific groups in

Canadian society for historical and constitutional reasons.

First Nations: the umbrella name for the diverse

Aboriginal peoples who have collective rights that are

recognized and protected in Canada’s constitution. The

constitution refers to First Nations as “Indians” in keeping

with the name used at the time of negotiating the

Treaties.

Indian: Europeans used the word Indian to describe

Indigenous people although these peoples were diverse

and had names for themselves.

Sovereignty: Independence as a people, with a right to

self-government.

Annuity: an annual payment. Under the Numbered

Treaties, annuities are mostly symbolic today. For

example, members of Treaty 8 receive 5$ per year.

Reserve: land for the exclusive use of First Nations.

Entrenching: fixing firmly within.

Patriate: To bring to a country something that belongs to

the country.

Assimilate: become part of a different culture.

Ethnocentrism: the belief that one’s culture is superior to

all other cultures.

Indian Act: federal legislation related to the rights and

status of “First Nations People” (status Indians), first

passed in 1876 and amended several times.

Anglophone: A person whose first language is English.

Francophone: A person whose first language is French.

Official Language community: One of the groups in

Canadian society whose members speak an official

language of Canada.

Officially Language minority: A group that speaks one of

Canada’s official languages and that does not make up

the majority population of a province or territory.

Publicly funded: Paid for by taxes and provided by

government.

Inherent Rights: Rights with origins in fundamental

justice.

Scrip: In Metis history, a document that could be

exchanged for land that was offered to Metis at the time

the Numbered Treaties were negotiated.

Autonomy: Authority to make decisions.