introduced a mechanism for the government to reduce the number of Indians with this status: enfranchisement would mean the loss of ‘Indian status’ for the man that applied, his wife, and all his future descendants. The Act’s policies discriminated based on gender, providing Indian women with less rights than Indian men. Women were given no legal autonomy over the society and culture they belonged to - if their husband was enfranchised, a woman was automatically enfranchised and lost her ‘Indian status’. Kirkby claims this “reflected Victorian discourses of masculinity as a natural patriarchy”, with women being treated as “dependents” by the colonial government. Reception by tribal councils Prior to the Act, the tribal councils and colonial government had a “progressive and cooperative” diplomatic relationship. The councils worked with Indian Department officials and missionaries to improve the quality of life and “self-sufficiency” of Indian reserves, collaborating on the construction of infrastructure such as schools and roads. However, band councils had maintained full legal control over their reserves’ land and inhabitants, under the principles of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Following the Act’s enactment, many of the tribal councils announced their disapproval of its policies, recognising that enfranchisement and the individual allotment of reserve land violated their constitutional right to exclusive control over their lands and people. Tribal leaders stated that the Act was designed to “break [us] into pieces” and “separate our peoples”. Milloy claims that government officials came to be viewed as “aggressive and disruptive agents of assimilation”. The Confederacy Council of the Six Nations and various other councils launched petitions calling for the Act to be repealed, and declared that they would not sell any more Indian land through treaty agreements. In 1860, the Confederacy Council sent a representative to appeal to the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, who was on a tour of British Canada. The Council argued that it was a “loyal ally and… peer of the British Crown”, and any laws detracting from their legal autonomy broke this “sacred alliance”. Ultimately, none of the campaigns to repeal the Act were successful. Applicants for enfranchisement The strong resistance of tribal governments led to very few Indians pursuing the voluntary enfranchisement offered by the Act. In the Grand River Reserve of the Six Nations Confederacy, three Mohawk men applied within the first year of the Act’s passing. A committee consisting of an Indian Department superintendent, a missionary, and