Indian Agent is the title of a position in Canada mandated by the Indian Act of that country. An Indian Agent was the chief administrator for Indian affairs in their respective districts, although the title now is largely in disuse in preference to Government Agent. The powers of the Indian Agent held sway over the lives of all First Nations people in their jurisdictions. Both Indian Act and Government Agent duties were fused in the original colonial title of Gold Commissioner, which encompassed both agencies as well as the duties of magistrate, policeman, coroner and surveyor.
This title was also used in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries for individuals authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government; see Indian agent.
Famous quotes containing the words indian and/or agent:
“Sabra Cravat: I should think you’d be ashamed of yourself. Mooning around with an Indian hired girl.
Cim Cravat: Ruby isn’t an Indian hired girl. She’s the daughter of an Osage chief.
Sabra Cravat: Osage, fiddlesticks.
Cim Cravat: She’s just as important in the Osage nation as, well, as Alice Roosevelt is in Washington.”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)
“The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time. It pays off slowly, your agent will sneer at it, your publisher will misunderstand it, and it will take people you have never heard of to convince them by slow degrees that the writer who puts his individual mark on the way he writes will always pay off.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)