Although education in Canada was made the jurisdiction of the provincial governments by the "British North America Act", Indigenous peoples and their treaties were under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Residential schools were funded under the "Indian Act" by what was then the federal Department of the Interior. Adopted in 1876 as "An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians", it consolidated all previous laws placing Indigenous communities, land and finances under federal control. As explained by the TRC, the "Act" "made Indians wards of the state, unable to vote in provincial or federal elections or enter the professions if they did not surrender their status, and severely limited their freedom to participate in spiritual and cultural practices."