A group of First Nations families has reactivated a court challenge against Ottawa over ongoing gender discrimination in the Indian Act because a bill created to address the issue is stalled in Parliament.

Bill C-38 aims to restore Indian status to thousands of First Nations people who lost it because a male family member gave it up under a process known as enfranchisement.

In Salmaniw's case, her great-grandfather Wilfred Laurier Bennett gave up his status in 1944 to avoid being forced to send his children to residential school.

Since enfranchisement by a First Nations man automatically enfranchised his wife and descendants, Salmaniw and her daughter Sage are not eligible for status despite having Haida citizenship.