The Gradual Civilization Act

Tansi Nîtôtemtik,

 

Photo retrieved from: <www.pinterest.ca/pin/384846730649538811/?lp=true>.

...it is desirable to encourage the progress of Civilization among the Indian Tribes in this Province, and the gradual removal of all legal distinctions between them and Her Majesty's other Canadian Subjects, and to facilitate the acquisition of property and of the rights accompanying it, by such Individual Members of the said Tribes as shall be found to desire such encouragement and to have deserved it…[1]

The year was 1857, and Canada’s 5th Parliament had recently gained the power from England to create legislation regarding Canada’s First Nations peoples. The statute that resulted was called “An Act for the Gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in Canada”, and is commonly known as the Gradual Civilization Act. This Act contemplated how Indigenous men could become, in Parliament’s view, contributing members of society, once they had proven themselves as having “deserved it.” [2] 

Essentially, the Act required Indigenous men to firstly, want to be members of the colonial society, and secondly, display that they had a number of characteristics that proved them worthy.  The purpose of the Act was to ensure the removal of all legal distinctions between First Nations peoples and others in Canadian society (i.e., white settlers and newcomers).

A look at the process below certainly indicates that successfully completing all the steps would effectively alienate the person from their community, culture, and traditions. The Act outlined the following process:

• Various “Commissioners” were appointed for the purpose of “examining Indians,” and Indigenous men that were interested could offer themselves to be examined for the purposes of the Act.
• To be considered for the granting of “civility” under the Act, Commissioners had to report in writing to the Governor that “any such Indian of the male sex, and not under twenty one years of age, is able to speak, read and write either the English or the French language readily and well, and is sufficiently advanced in the elementary branches of education and is of good moral character and free from debt.”  [3]
• If such a report were received, then the Governor would enfranchise that individual (allow them to vote, as discussed in yesterday's post).
• There was also a way to achieve enfranchisement through a 3-year “probationary” period if these requirements were not met. For this, the individual had to be: male, between 21-40 years of age, “speak readily either the English or the French language, [be] of sober and industrious habits, free from debt and sufficiently intelligent to be capable of managing his own affairs.” [4]
• By becoming civilized, as per the definitions of the Act, the person would be able to vote and would be granted a piece of farmland (note that the piece of farmland was cut from the land already reserved for the tribe and granted to the enfranchised person.)

This Act displays one systematic attempt to try to wash Indigenous culture from Indigenous peoples. The Act also states that “the wife, widow, and lineal descendants of an Indian enfranchised under this Act, shall be also enfranchised by the operation thereof, and shall not be deemed members of his former tribe…”. [5]

Therefore, if a man chose to undergo this process, both he and his family would be lost in No Man’s Land -- not a part of their Nation, and not truly integrated into white Canadian society, either.

 

Until next time,

Team ReconciliAction YEG

 

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[1] An Act to encourage the gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in this Province, and to amend the Laws respecting Indians, SC 1857, c 26, Preamble, online (pdf): <www.caid.ca/GraCivAct1857.pdf>.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid, para 3.

[4] Ibid, para 4.

[5] Ibid, para 8.

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