| | LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Fonds | | No.: | PR2491 | | TITLE: | James Gladstone Fonds | | CREATOR: | James Basil Gladstone | | DATE RANGE: | [ca. 1960] | | EXTENT: | 0.01 m of textual records | | ADMINISTRATIVE | | HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | James Basil Gladstone was born on the Kainai Reserve near Mountain Hill, Alberta on May 21, 1887. Though he was considered Cree through his birth father, Gladstone's mother was Kainai and the Kainai Nation adopted Gladstone. He spent his childhood on the reserve and attended the Anglican Mission School until 1903; shortly after, he left the reserve to become an apprentice printer at the Indian Industrial School in Calgary. In 1905, Gladstone returned to the Kainai Reserve to work as an interpreter. During this time, he also worked as a cattle wrangler on several ranches in and around Fort MacLeod. Later, he worked as a scout and interpreter for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and as a postal carrier on the reserve. In 1911, he married Janie Healy (1893 - 1977), part of the Kainai community. They raised a family of two sons and four daughters: Lucy, Fred, Nora, Horace, Doreen and Pauline.
James Gladstone became involved in the Kainai in the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) in the 1940s. In 1946, the Kainai Nation formed two local IAA chapters and sent them to the annual IAA convention in Hobbema, Alberta.Gladstone became Director of the IAA.
On 31 January, 1958, then Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker, appointed Gladstone to the Canadian Senate. Gladstone accepted the appointment, and was sworn in as Canada's first First Nations Senator on 12 May, 1958.
As a senator he co-chaired the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs and lobbied for enfranchisement of First Nations Peoples.
Gladstone retired from the Senate on 3 March, 1971. On September 4 of that same year, James Gladstone died in Fernie, British Columbia, at the age of 84. He was honored posthumously with a sculpture unveiled at the Senate on 25 October, 2001.
| | CUSTODIAL HISTORY: | In 1965, John Hellson of the Provincial Museum of Alberta donated the material to the Provincial Archives of Alberta. John Hellson received the material from James Gladstone. | | SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The fonds consists of a envelope and letterhead of the Kainai Chieftainship dating from ca. 1960. | | ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: | Please see the James Gladstone Family fonds at the Glenbow Archives. | | GENERAL NOTE: | Information for the administrative history/biographical sketch sourced from:
Treaty Seven, http://www.albertasource.ca/treaty7/traditional/kainai_gladstone.html (Accessed March 12, 2008).
For more information on James Gladstone, please see The Gentle Persuader: A Biography of James Gladstone, Indian Senator / Hugh A. Dempsey. - Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1986.
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