James Gladstone

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James Gladstone, Sitting on a Combine (1958)

James Gladstone (or Akay-na-muka : "Many guns"; born May 21, 1887 in Mountain Hill, Northwest Territories , † September 4, 1971 in Fernie , British Columbia ) was a Canadian politician and farmer . He was the first representative of the First Nations (Indians) to be appointed senator .

biography

Gladstone was a Cree by birth, but was accepted by the Kainai on whose reservation he was born (the Kainai, also known as Blood, are Blackfoot ). Until 1903 he attended an Anglican missionary school, then he studied at the "Indian Industrial School" in Calgary the profession of printer . In 1905 he returned to his reservation, where he worked as a translator. He also found work as a drover on the surrounding ranches. In 1911 he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , for which he worked as a scout, translator and postman.

Gladstone later built a cattle farm with his sons. In the early 1920s, he introduced the first tractor to the reservation and convinced the Kainai to switch to modern forms of agriculture and ranching. In the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA), he mediated between divided groups and took a leading position as director. He was President of the IAA from 1950 to 1953 and from 1956 to 1957. Several times he stayed in the capital Ottawa to negotiate the revision of the Indian Act .

On January 31, 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker named Gladstone as the first Indian representative in the Senate , two years before all Indians and Inuit were given full suffrage. In parliament he campaigned as an independent conservative to improve the living conditions of the indigenous people. Gladstone resigned on March 31, 1971. He died six months later at the age of 84.

literature

  • Hugh A. Dempsey: The gentle persuader: A biography of James Gladstone, Indian Senator , Saskatoon 1986.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gladstone, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Akay-na-muka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician and farmer
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Mountain Hill, Northwest Territories
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 1971
Place of death Fernie (British Columbia)