The department's responsibilities are largely determined by numerous statutes, negotiated agreements and relevant legal decisions.

Most of the department's programs, representing a majority of its spending - are delivered through partnerships with Aboriginal communities and federal-provincial or federal-territorial agreements.

CIRNAC also works with urban Indigenous people, Métis and Non-Status Indians (many of whom live in rural areas).

The Governor General of Canada held control of Indian affairs, but usually delegated much of their responsibility to subordinate civil secretaries.

On October 1, 1966, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development was created as a result of the Government Organization Act, 1966.

Beginning in the early 20th century, the Government of Canada sponsored annual expeditions to the Canadian North.

These expeditions yielded extensive photographic documentation of the lives of northern indigenous peoples by participating explorers, engineers, scientists and medical staff.

Explorer, photographer, filmmaker, writer and lecturer Richard S. Finnie accompanied numerous expeditions to the North.

Zoologist Joseph Dewey Soper travelled to the Baffin Island (Qikiqtaaluk) region in the late 1920s in order to document the landscape, as well as the plant and bird life.

[13] The transition was not instantaneous, with Orders-in-Council initially separating the portfolios, and formal legislation constituting the new departments being passed in July 2019.

The new departments are consistent with the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples' recommendations to improve the delivery of services dramatically and fast-track self-government.

Northern Development is represented in only the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut (NU) regional offices and headquarters.