# An Act to encourage the gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in this Province, and to amend the Laws respecting Indians

Source: Routing Used To Enslave The Sovereign Indigenous Peoples
20 Victoria, c. 26 (Province of Canada)
An Act to encourage the gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes in this Province, and to amend the Laws respecting Indians
[Assented to 10th June, 1857.]
Whereas 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 : Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, enacts as follows :
and such persons and much persons only Shall be deemed Indians within the meaning of any provision of the said Act or of any other Act or Law in force in any part of this Province by which any legal distinction is made between the rights and liabilities of Indians and those of Her Majesty's other Canadian Subjects.
II. The term "Indian" in the following enactments shall mean any person to whom under the foregoing provisions, the third section of the Act therein cited shall continue to apply ; and the term "enfranchised Indian" shall mean any person to whom the said section would have been applicable, but for the operation of the provisions hereinafter made in that behalf : and the "Tribe," shall include any Band or other recognized community of Indians.
then it shall be competent to the Governor to cause notice to be given in the Official Gazette of this Province, that such Indian is enfranchised under this Act ; and the provisions of the third section of the Act aforesaid, and all other enactments making any distinction between the legal rights and liabilities of Indians and those of Her Majesty's other subjects, shall cease to apply to any Indian so declared to be enfranchised, who shall no longer be deemed an Indian within the meaning thereof.
and if such report be approved by the Governor as to any Indian, he shall by virtue of such approval be in a state of probation during three years from the date of the report, and if at the end of that term the Commissioners shall again report in writing to the Governor that such Indian has during such term conducted himself to their satisfaction, then it shall be competent to the Governor to cause notice to be given in the Official Gazette that such Indian enfranchised under this Act, and he shall thereupon be so enfranchised.
V. Every Indian examined by the Commissioners under this Act, shall at the time of such examination declare to them the name and surname by which he wishes to be enfranchised and thereafter known, such name being his baptismal name if he have one, and such surname any one he may choose to adopt which shall be approved by the Commissioner; and the Commissioners shall enter the same in their Report ; and if such Indian be thereafter enfranchised under this Act the name and surname so reported shall be those by which he shall thereafter be legally designated and known.
and any Indian falsely representing himself as enfranchised under this Act when he is not so, shall be liable, on Conviction before any one Justice of the Peace, to imprisonment for any period not exceeding six months.
Provided always, that if such Tribe shall thereafter surrender to the crown other lands either to be sold for their benefit, or in consideration of an annuity, such enfranchised Indian, or his personal representatives, (if any) shall be entitled to his share of the proceeds of such lands or of the annuity for which they were surrendered, such share to be ascertained and paid by the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs for the time being, and to be the absolute property of such enfranchised Indian or his said representatives.
unless such widow or any such lineal descendant being a female, shall marry an Indian not enfranchised and a member of such tribe, in which case she shall again belong to it and shall no longer be held to be enfranchised under this Act.
IX. The wife and children of any Indian enfranchised under this Act shall be entitled to their respective shares of all annuities or annual sums payable to the tribe ; subject to the provisions hereinafter made as to such shares.
but if such Indian die without leaving any child or lineal descendant but leaving a widow, she shall, instead of Dower which she shall not be entitled, have the said land for life or until her re-marriage, but upon her death or re-marriage it shall escheat to the Crown : and if any child or lineal descendant of such Indian shall take such land or any part thereof and die leaving no lineal descendant and without having disposed of such land or part thereof by will or otherwise, it shall escheat to the Crown.
XI. If any Indian enfranchised under this Act shall die leaving any child under the age of twenty-one years, the Superintendent General of Indians shall become ipso facto the tutor of such child as to property and rights in Lower Canada, and the guardian of such child as to property and rights in Upper Canada, until it shall attain the age of twenty-one years ; and the widow of such Indian, being also the mother of any such child, shall receive its share of the proceeds of the estate of such Indian during the minority of the child, and shall be entitled to reside on the land left by such Indian, so long as in the opinion of the Superintendent General she shall live respectably.
XII. The capital of the annual share of the wife of any In- dian enfranchised under this Act in any annuity or annual sum payable to her Tribe, shall be held in trust by the Superintendent General of Indian affairs for the purposes of this section, and the interest thereof shall be paid to her yearly while she shall be the wife or widow of such and upon her death or re-marriage one half of such capital sum shall he divided equally among her children, and the other half shall revert to the Tribe to which she belonged ; but if she have no children, the whole shall revert to the said Tribe.
Provided always that if such child shall be put apprentice to any trade, the money so held in trust for him may be wholly or in part applied to the payment of his apprentice fee or other expenses attending such apprenticeship ; and if any such child shall die before attaining the age of twenty-one, one half the money then held in trust for him shall revert to his Tribe, and the other half shall go to the other child or children of such, Indian, and in equal shares if there be more than one, and if there be no other child, then the whole shall revert to the Tribe.
XIV. Lands allotted under this Act to an Indian enfranchised under it shall be liable to taxes and all other obligations and duties under the Municipal and School Laws of the section of this Province in which such land is situate, as he shall also be in respect of them and of his other property ; and his estate therein shall be liable for his boná fide debts, but he shall not. otherwise alienate or charge such land or his estate therein ; and if such land be legally conveyed to any person, such person or his assigns may reside thereon, whether he be or be not of Indian blood or intermarried with any Indian ; any thing in the Act first cited to the contrary notwithstanding.
XV. It shall be lawful for the Council of any Municipality in Upper Canada, or the School Commissioners of any School Municipality in Lower Canada, on application of the Superintendent General of Indian affairs, to attach the whole or any portion of any Indian Reserves in such Municipality to a neighboring School Section or District, or to neighboring School Sections or Districts, and such land shall thereupon become portion of the School Section or District to which it may be attached, to all intents and purposes.
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