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PROPOSED LEGISLATION TABLED BY PRIME MINISTER SIR JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF THE PARLIAMENT OF CANADA. Folio (13.25 inches). Bill 22. 2d Session, 5th Parliament, 47 Victoria, 1884. Received and read first time, Tuesday 29th January, 1884. Second reading, Friday, 1st February, 1884. Caption title, 5 pages + docket. Neat contemporary blue pencil notation at the head of first page stating "With Compts G. Stewart, Quebec." Untrimmed. Old folds. Blank section of docket panel partly stained with residual adhesive (likely from having been removed from a scrapbook or album). SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD'S INDIAN ADVANCEMENT BILL, 1884: SELF GOVERNMENT FOR FIRST NATIONS. In January 1884, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-1891) introduced a Bill to provide for the introduction of a system of self-management to certain First Nations communities. The measures were designed to promote municipal-style government for some of the more progressive First Nations communities in eastern Canada, which were thought to be more advanced in education and more self-confident with aspects of self-government. Macdonald's INDIAN ADVANCEMENT BILL, 1884 proposed that in certain First Nations communities, the Band members elect six councillors, and that those six councillors elect a chief councillor (similar to a reeve in white communities) who shall have the same powers as a Chief under the prevailing Indian Act legislation. Band Councils would also be given the power to levy taxes and extend their control over police, public health, and reserve improvement matters. Section 11 of the Bill stated that any member elected to council who was known to be a habitual drunkard, or was living in immorality, or was known to accept a bribe, or was guilty of dishonesty or malfeasance of office, could be disqualified. The Bill was debated in the House of Commons on 26 February 1884, approved on 4 March 1884 with virtually no alteration, and received the Royal Assent on 19 April 1884 as the Indian Advancement Act, 1884 (47 Victoria, Chapter 28, Statutes of Canada). In the end, rather than conferring more privileges for First Nations communities, the approved legislation acted to greatly enlarge the powers of the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs to direct all aspects of elections and Band Council meetings. Seller Inventory # 262
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