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

Dominion Lands Act (revisions), 1879

Document Summary:

Some important sections:

3 - 16: Set up a system of subdividing township land.

17 - 21: Reserve land for the Hudson's Bay Company.

22: Sets aside land for school use or "educational endowment."

23: Deals with the administration and disposal of school lands.

24 - 29: Set aside lands for military use.

30: Sets purchase price at $1 an acre for homestead grants.

32: The Minister of the Interior reserves the right to set apart land plots for the development of towns.

34: Describes who can apply for free homestead grants and the provisions these settlers have to follow to obtain deeds to the land.

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

123 - 124: Deal with land set aside by the government for Indian reservations and Métis scrip. Also allows the taking of land for the construction of railways in general.