Dominion Lands Act (1872)

The federal government passed the Dominion Lands Act in 1872 to encourage European colonization and settlement of the prairies. The act detailed regulations concerning land use, including Indigenous land claims, grants, homesteading provisions, systems of survey and registration, timber and grazing leases, and resource development. Some of the regulations also led to the dispossession or dispersal of First Nations and Métis people who had strong moral but not clearly defined legal entitlements to specific plots of land.