|
 In 1951, a re-written Indian Act contains two sections
that deny many First Nations people their status on the basis of ancestral
illegitimacy, or the sale of scrip by their forebears. The result will be
the expulsion of these individuals from reserves across Canada.
When the two sections of the Act are tested in Alberta
over an event as mundane as an argument over a stolen horse, a lawyer from
Calgary named Ruth Gorman—later given the name Queen Mother Morning Star by
the people she represents—fights to have the affected 122 people kept on the
register of the Hobbema reserve.
 Over the course of a trial and two appeals from 1952-57,
and amid much high-profile politicking through the news media, church
groups, teachers, and civic governments, among many other interest groups,
Gorman wins her case. In the long run, thousands of First Nations people
from coast to coast are not denied their rights, and the ruling government
of the day is brought down in the 1957 federal election.
|
 |
 |
Heritage Community Foundation Presents
;)
;)
