Mary Two-Axe Earley

Mary Two-Axe Earley was born on October 4, 1911, on a Mohawk reserve called “Kahnawake.”

Early Life and Marriage

At the age of 10, she moved to North Dakota with her mother.

After her mother’s death mary goes back to the reservation to live with her grandparents

At the age of 18, Mary settled in Brooklyn, New York, she lived in a community called “little Caughnawaga”

She met and married Edward Earley and had two children, Rosemary and Edward.

The thought of losing her status was not forefront in Mary’s mind. She would say, years later, quote:

“Who thought about status? We were in love.”

At the time Mary and Edward were married they were still legally regulated under a piece of Canadian legislation called “The Indian Act.”

By Marrying a non-status person, Mary lost her status

This meant she could not:

- own live or land on her reserve

- participate in band council life

- vote in elections

- be buried on the reserve

The Indian Act & Indian Status

The Indian Act was created by the Canadian Government in 1876 to control the First Nations peoples in Canada.

The act only applies to First Nations and excludes Métis and Inuit.

The government used the act to assimilate First Nations into Euro-Canadian society.

The Indian Act determined the identity, political structures, governance, cultural practices and education of First Nations.

It also determined who would have legal Indian Status.

Having Indian Status meant that you were granted certain rights, such as the right to live on a reserve and participate in band politics.

First nation women would lose their status as "Indian" if they married a "non-Indigenous" man.

Spent much of her life fighting against the injustices that the Indian Act created for Status Indian women.

Since First Nations women first inherited the status of their fathers and then of their husbands. if their husbands were also Status Indians, women wuld adapt to their status and live with their husbands "band"

Ultimately created social conditions of oppression both on and off reserves

Activism &

Contributions to Law

In 1966 a friend of Mary’s from the Kahnawake reserve died in her arms of a heart attack. Mary’s friend had been forced to move out of her home on the Kahnawake reserve as a result of the discriminatory Indian Act.

Mary was convinced that the stress from moving had caused her friend’s heart attack and death.

After her friend’s death Mary was inspired to change the laws of the Indian Act.

WHY?

HOW?

Mary organized a series of speaking and writing campaigns to raise the profile of abuses faced by women who had been denied status, treaty and property rights under the Indian Act

In 1967 She became involved with Indian Rights for Indian Women, an advocacy group dedicated to resisting gendered colonialis

With her allies continued to wage this human rights battle throughout the 1970s

She used events to highlight the racist and gendered discrimination she and other women faced in Canada at an international forum

On June 28, 1985, the Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-31 which amended the Indian Act. Bill C-31 ended the former gender discrimination and allowed those women and children who had lost their Indian status to have it reinstated.

Mary was the first woman to have her Indian status reinstated in Canada.

RESULT

“Now I’ll have legal rights again. After all these years, I’ll be legally entitled to live on the reserve, to own property, die and be buried with my own people.”

- Mary Two-Axe Earley