Gradual Civilization Act

Gradual Civilization Act
Parliament of the Province of Canada
Long title An Act to encourage the gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in this Province, and to amend the Laws relating to Indians
Enacted by	Parliament of the Province of Canada
Assented to	June 10, 1857

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The Act to Encourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribes in this Province, and to Amend the Laws Relating to Indians (commonly known as the Gradual Civilization Act) was a bill passed by the 5th Parliament of the Province of Canada in 1857. The act established a voluntary process through which any recognized male Indian (indigenous person) could apply to become "enfranchised", wherein they would lose their legal "Indian status" and become a regular British subject.^[1][2] Applications were open to those fluent in English or French, with approval subject to assessment by a committee of non-Indigenous reviewers.^[1] Enfranchised Indians would be granted an allotment of land and the ability to vote.^[1]

The statute built on a century of Imperial British legislation of American Indian rights, that had begun with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and its protection of defined Indian lands.^[3] Starting in the 1830s, the British had introduced policies promoting the "civilizing" of Indians living in Canada, placing them on protected reserves where they were taught European skills, values, and religion.^[4] The aim of the act of 1857 was to enable the "complete assimilation" of the Indians into broader settler society, through enfranchisement.^[3]

The act's policies of enfranchisement and individual allotment of land by the colonial government impeded on the Indian tribal councils' right to self-governance.^[3][5] In response, councils resisted the enfranchisement of their tribe's members and lobbied for the act to be repealed, although these campaigns were unsuccessful.^[3][5] Ultimately, only one Indian was enfranchised under the act.^[5][6]

The act was updated by the 1869 Gradual Enfranchisement Act of the post-Confederation Dominion of Canada.^[7] Policies from both of these acts were incorporated into the Indian Act of 1876,^[7] which still governs the legal relationship between the Canadian government and First Nations peoples, albeit with numerous amendments.^[8]