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Problems: Scrip for Land in Manitoba

Issuing scrip had many problems.

It took years for such confusions to be sorted out and there are remaining questions about fraud by the government.

If all went well a scrip certificate was issued later.

The scrip was a voucher of 160acres (64.75 hectare) of land. At first, the land had to be chosen from a designated area, but this was soon extended to allow for the choice of any government land that was not otherwise allocated. Also, in the beginning, these were issued with only a land value. Later, they were printed with either a land value or a monetary value.

Some had little problems with the scrip process. These were generally the more literate and English-speaking members of the society but even they could run afoul of the process.

Here is an example showing how Métis lost out when Section 32 was applied. Land title had been determined in a strange way according to Métis understanding.

"Even established river lots had not been secure: out of ninety-three Métis claims, eighty-four were rejected out of hand because of insufficient cultivation. Five claimants who had houses considered to be adequate and who had cultivated at least five acres received forty-acre grants; four who had cultivated ten acres received eighty acres."

Olive P. Dickason, Canada's First Nations: a History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times, ( Toronto: McClelland and Stewart), 1992, 296.

Five acres are 2.02 hectare, forty acres are 16.19 hectare, ten acres are 4.05 hectare, eighty acres are 32.37 hectare.


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