James Gladstone

James Gladstone, whose Blackfoot name was Akay-na-muka ('Many Guns'), was born in the Northwest Territories and raised on the Blood Reserve in Alberta, graduating from the Calgary Indian Industrial School. An exceptionally industrious farmer and rancher, he introduced modern tractors to his reserve and was elected president of the Indian Association of Alberta in 1948.

In January 1958, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed Gladstone to the Senate of Canada, making him the first Indigenous senator in Canadian history—at a time when First Nations people under the Indian Act were not even allowed to vote in federal elections. Gladstone used his national platform to successfully achieve universal voting rights for all Indigenous Canadians in 1960.