Status of status Indians to change

Here's an update on the story I posted in Indians Doomed to Die Out?

Ottawa to change discriminatory Indian Act rulesThe federal government will change rules on Indian status that discriminated against the descendants of native women who married non-native men.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said Tuesday the government will amend the Indian Act rather than challenge a judgment by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

The ruling in April stemmed from a longstanding dispute involving Sharon McIvor of Merritt, B.C., and her son Charles Grismer, who was barred from passing Indian status to his children.

McIvor, a member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band, lost her Indian status when she married a non-aboriginal man. After the Indian Act was amended in 1985, she applied for reinstatement for herself and her son, a process that took 20 years.Comment:  For more on the subject, see "Actual Indian" Defined.