The Canadian government's initiatives to promote Christianity among Indian populations have been widely documented, but little is known about the way it has fulfilled its tutelary responsibilities towards the religious choices and needs of Christian Indians. An analysis of Indian Affairs' administrative records concerning the management of Christian places of worship on reserves during the first century of the Confederation regime reveals that state officials acted on behalf of Christian Indians in accordance with the principles of the secular regime then in force in the country. While adopting a position of neutrality towards Christian denominations and ensuring the autonomy of both churches and the state, Indian Affairs officials respected not only the religious choices of the Indians, but the equality of cults by protecting Christian minorities on reserves. As such, religion was one of the few areas where (Christian) Indians could benefit from treatment equal to that of the majority of other Canadians.

Claude Gélinas is an anthropologist and full-time professor at the Department of Philosophy and Applied Ethics at Sherbrooke University (Quebec, Canada). For the past twenty years, his research interests concerned the ethnohistory of Quebec First Nations, and especially the history of the Atikamekw people in Central Quebec. Among his publications, Les autochtones dans le Québec post-confédéral (1867-1960) won him the Jean-Charles Falardeau Prize for best Canadian French-written book in the field of social sciences (2007). He also acted as expert witness for both the Quebec government and First Nations in several trials related to land claims and ancestral rights.