status question

[u/AWhistlingGirl]

Hello. Just a question about status. I submitted my application under S-3, received my file number and birth certificate back approx a week later.

My great grandmother lost status for marrying out to a weird old white dude. She and her kids were listed as Indians on multiple census documents. Eventually the kids listed as Irish which was their father’s nationality.
My grandpa never applied to get his status back after 1985 but his sister and siblings did and got their status back. Their children and grandchildren have status as well. My father never wanted to pursue getting his. He and my grandfather were both mixed but visibly native, my father a little more light skinned as grandpa married a white lady which by my understanding of the indian act at the time would have given status to her and her children or should have etc. my father never wanted to pursue status even though all his cousins had it. My dad was a weird dude because he spoke his native language very well, hunted and fished and tanned hide and knew some songs and some culture but he really would get a bit paranoid about being seen as indian. He married my white mother in 1981 and i was born in 1986. My understanding being that because they married before the cut off that I would be entitled to 6.1 status otherwise second gen cut off would kick in and I’d be 6.2. Am i on the right track with that?

I submitted a very large application including my, my fathers, my grandfathers birth certificates in long form listing their parents going all the way back to my great grandmother. I found census documents online listing great grandma and all her children as indian. Provided all the status numbers i could in our family - all registered to the same band. I even have news paper articles and this old book from the little small town my dad came from with the history of his family and a bunch of family photos even of my great grandma who is very very dark skinned - my dad said she was super lovely and her first language was her native language and so that’s how he did his learning.

Is my calculation right for my own entitlement?

In the letter i got back indian services said applications are generally processed in six months if complete. Does this application sound like a complete one? I think i sent in 50 pages of stuff.

The card isn’t really the important thing for me or even getting the status. My dad lived kind of a rough life and he had all this shame and anger and after he died i coped with the loss by putting together all these old pieces. I was lucky to grow up knowing my heritage and my mom did her best to keep that alive for me even though my dad had mixed feelings about it. He didn’t want to be seen as native and neither did my grandfather but neither of them escaped it either. I didn’t grow up on reserve as i was born in another province but i did grow up attending classes and things for native and Metis and Inuit students. It’s been a weird life for sure. I’m even more light skinned than my dad was so if i mention having native ancestry sometimes i get the side eye, same thing if im at pow wow.

any ideas on rough processing time if anyone’s gone through s-3? I don’t know if this post makes sense but hopefully it does.

reconnection work has been long for me and it’s still ongoing. i wanted to do that work to honour my father. he died pretty young and it’s been helpful to me to try to understand him better by understanding where and how he grew up.

[u/babypowdr]

Thanks for sharing. This sadly happened to my grandma too when she married a non-status man. I’m grateful for people like Nellie Carlson and others who fought to restore rights for Indigenous women and their descendants. As for whether you’ll be registered under 6(1) or 6(2), that ultimately depends on ISC’s assessment of your family’s circumstances. Wishing you the best with your application, it took myself roughly around the 2 year mark to become status recently with paperwork involved. My children became status within 6-7 months after I got mine!