Registered or Treaty Indian status of person

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on May 12, 2026.

Definition

Registered or Treaty Indian status refers to whether or not a person is a Registered or Treaty Indian. Registered Indians are persons who are registered under the Indian Act. Treaty Indians are persons who belong to a First Nation or Indian band that signed a treaty with the Crown. Registered or Treaty Indians are sometimes also called Status Indians.

The term "Indian" is used in this definition as a legal term within current legislation.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

There are no relevant internationally recognized standards as this variable relates to a law that is specific to Canada, the Indian Act.

Classifications

Relation to previous version

  • Registered or Treaty Indian status of person May 12, 2026 to current

    The definition of "Registered or Treaty Indian status" has been reworded, but the meaning is unchanged.

  • Registered or Treaty Indian status of person June 15, 2015 to May 11, 2026

    April 1, 2021 - The definitions in the classification have been modified.

    June 15, 2015 - This is an update to 'Registered or Treaty Indian status of person'. The definition has been reworded but the meaning is unchanged.

  • Registered or Treaty Indian status of person April 20, 2009 to June 14, 2015

    This standard replaces the standard for 'Aboriginal, Registered or Treaty Indian'. The definition has been changed, removing the requirement that to be a Treaty Indian a person must not only be registered under the Indian Act but also prove descent from an Indian band that signed a Treaty. This change does not affect the actual content of the property since to be a Treaty Indian one must be a Registered Indian. Reference to Bill C-31 has been removed.

  • Aboriginal, registered or treaty Indian July 15, 1998 to April 19, 2009

    This was the departmental standard from July 15, 1998 to April 19, 2009.

Date modified: