Dominion Lands Act

In 1871, the Canadian government entered into Treaties 1 and 2 to obtain the consent of the indigenous nations from the territories set out respectively in each Treaty. The Treaties provided for the taking up of lands "for immigration and settlement". The Dominion Lands Act (short title for An Act Respecting the Public Lands of the Dominion) was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of the Canadian Prairies, and to help prevent the area being claimed by the United States. The Act was closely based on the United States Homestead Act, setting conditions in which the western lands could be settled and their natural resources developed. In order to settle the area, Canada invited mass emigration by European and American pioneers, and by settlers from eastern Canada. It echoed the American homestead system by offering ownership of 160 acres of land free (except for a small registration fee) to any man over 18 or any woman heading a household. They did not need to be British subjects, but had to live on the plot and improve it.

The Act is controversial because the Canadian Government—established by Confederation only five years earlier—was extremely short on funds and never provided compensation to the indigenous nations for the use of the lands which the Government had decided to give away for free.

Unlike in eastern Canada, the federal government had assumed control over public lands and natural resources in most of western Canada. Its jurisdiction to do so is controversial with First Nations, who assert they were not only not compensated for their lands, but that only the lands taken up for immigration and settlement were covered in the Numbered Treaties, and that other lands and natural resources were not covered.

The Act was applied to the province of Manitoba and to the Northwest Territories. Upon the creation of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta from the Northwest Territories, the Act continued to apply to them. It was also extended to the Peace River Block of British Columbia. In 1930, the federal government agreed to transfer control over the public lands and natural resource to the prairie provinces by means of the Natural Resources Acts. From that point onwards, the Dominion Lands Act only applied in the North-West Territories.

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