James Gladstone
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James Gladstone ( bla, Akay-na-muka, script=Latn, italic=yes, lit=Many Guns; May 21, 1887 – September 4, 1971) was a Canadian politician who claimed to become the first
Treaty Indian In Canada, a treaty Indian is an Indian who belongs to a band that is party to one of the eleven Numbered Treaties signed by Canada with various First Nations between 1871 and 1922.http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/po ...
to be appointed to the
Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...
.


Early life

James Gladstone was of mixed racial ancestry. The future senator was not born First Nations and only became a status Indian at the age of 33, when in 1920 his wife's family petitioned the government for his inclusion on the Indian registry. His maternal grandfather, in fact, was a Scottish-Canadian, born in Montreal in 1832, who entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company at the age of sixteen. While in the North-West Territories, William Shanks Gladstone married Harriet Leblanc, a
Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
of Cree, Santee Sioux, and French Canadian heritage. One of their six children who survived to adulthood was Harriet (named after her mother), who was born at Rocky Mountain House in 1859. Harriet led a rough and unsteady life. After several years spent with a rough crowd of Métis and white frontiersmen, she formed a long-term relationship with a white lumber-mill foreman. Their union broke down, however, in the mid-1890s, and Harriet was left to raise skinny Jimmy, a boy with brown hair and blue eyes on her own. He was one of four children born to Harriet. He attended St. Paul's Indian Residential School, because his Grandfather and local Anglican minister felt he would be fed, clothed, educated and spiritually looked after. He attended an Anglican mission school on the Blood reserve until 1903, when he moved to an Indian Industrial school (St Dunstans) in
Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
and apprenticed as a printer, interning at ''
The Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...
''.


Career

After leaving school in 1905, Gladstone returned to the Blood reserve where he worked as an interpreter. He also found work on ranches wrangling cattle. In 1911, he found work with the
Royal North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territor ...
as a scout and interpreter and also worked as a mail carrier on the reserve. He is also reported as being a typesetter at one time at the Calgary Herald. He was married to Blood member Janie Healy. After his marriage he was registered a member of the Blood reserve. Eventually, Gladstone established himself as a farmer and successful rancher (with 720 acres under cultivation and a herd of 400 Hereford cattle in 1958) and worked with his sons to assemble the 400 head of cattle and introducing modern farming practices to the reserve, including first use of a tractor in 1920. In 1949, Gladstone was elected president of the
Indian Association of Alberta The Indian Association of Alberta is a province-wide First Nations rights organization. It was founded by John Callihoo and John Laurie in 1939, after splitting off from the League of Indians in Western Canada. Origins and expansion Before 1946 ...
though another source records his Presidency as 1945-1954, and was sent to
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three times to press for improvements to the
Indian Act The ''Indian Act'' (, long name ''An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians'') is a Canadian act of Parliament that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves. First passed in 1876 and still ...
. His acceptance by both Blackfoot and Cree assisted him in bringing the different groups together in one political organization.


Senate appointment

He was nominated to the Senate by Progressive Conservative
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...
in January 1958, at age 70, two years before status Indians gained the vote in federal elections, and he pressed for Aboriginals to be enfranchised. He sat as an "independent Conservative" "representing 160,000 Indians across the land." He advocated for integration into Canadian society. He was the chair of the Standing Committee on Indian Affairs. To meet the property qualifications for the Senate "he drove with his wife to nearby Cardston and paid cash for a five-room bungalow."


Retirement and death

Gladstone retired from the Senate in March 1971 and died of a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
on September 4, 1971 in
Fernie, British Columbia Fernie is a city in the Elk Valley area of the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located on BC Highway 3 on the western approaches to the Crowsnest Pass through the Rocky Mountains. Founded in 1898 and incorpora ...
.


Posthumous recognition

A biography of Senator Jim Gladstone, written by Alberta historian (and Gladstone’s son-in-law)
Hugh Dempsey Hugh Aylmer Dempsey, (November 7, 1929 - May 24, 2022) was a Canadian historian, an author and the Chief Curator Emeritus of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. Dempsey authored more than 20 books, focusing primarily on the history of people ...
, is entitled ''The Gentle Persuader''. In 2017, the
Bank of Canada The Bank of Canada (BoC; french: Banque du Canada) is a Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the ''Bank of Canada Act'', it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy,OECD. OECD Economic Surveys: Ca ...
unveiled a commemorative
Canadian ten-dollar note The Canadian ten-dollar note is one of the most common banknotes of the Canadian dollar. The current $10 note is purple, and the obverse features a portrait of Viola Desmond, a Black Nova Scotian businesswoman who challenged racial segregation at ...
in honour of
Canada 150 The 150th anniversary of Canada, also known as the 150th anniversary of Confederation and promoted by the Government of Canada, Canadian government as Canada 150, occurred in 2017 as Canada marked the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederati ...
, featuring Gladstone's portrait alongside Sir
John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
, Sir
George-Étienne Cartier Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, (pronounced ; September 6, 1814May 20, 1873) was a Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation. The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling—is explained ...
, and
Agnes Macphail Agnes Campbell MacPhail (March 24, 1890 – February 13, 1954) was a Canadian politician and the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons. She served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1921 to 1940; from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 ...
.


References


External links


Indian Association of Alberta
review of the IAA's history with attention to Gladstone's role in the organization.
''The Gentle Persuader'': A Biography of James Gladstone, Indian Senator by Hugh A. Dempsey (review)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gladstone, James 1887 births 1971 deaths Canadian senators from Alberta First Nations politicians Independent Canadian senators Cree people Blackfoot people Indigenous Canadian senators