Prairie Settlement: The First Major Wave (1870 - 1896)

Dominion Lands Act, 1872

Acte concernant les terres publiques de la Puissance, 1872

Document Summary:

Some important sections:

2: Sets up a Dominion Lands Office.

3 - 16: Set up a system of land surveying.

17 -21: Deal with lands reserved by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).

22: Sets aside land for school use.

23 - 28: Create warrants for lands used for military services.

29: Sets surveyed Dominion lands at a purchase price of $1 an acre.

30: Lands are to be paid for in cash, except for military land.

31 - 32: The Secretary of State may reserve land tracts for town or village plots.

33: Deals with homestead rights and free land grants.

42: None of the provisions in this act about the settlement of agricultural land, or the use of timber and mineral land, holds true on land held by Aboriginals, unless they have entered into treaties with the federal government to extinguish their land claims.

105: Deals with land set aside by the government for Indian reservations and Métis scrip.