His maternal grandfather, in fact, was a Scottish-Canadian, born in Montreal in 1832, who entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company at the age of sixteen.

While in the North-West Territories, William Shanks Gladstone[1] married Harriet Leblanc, a Métis of Cree, Santee Sioux, and French Canadian heritage.

Their union broke down, however, in the mid-1890s, and Harriet was left to raise skinny Jimmy, a boy with brown hair and blue eyes on her own.

He attended St. Paul's Indian Residential School, because his Grandfather and local Anglican minister felt he would be fed, clothed, educated and spiritually looked after.

He was nominated to the Senate by Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in January 1958, at age 70,[1] two years before status Indians gained the vote in federal elections, and he pressed for Aboriginals to be enfranchised.

To meet the property qualifications for the Senate "he drove with his wife to nearby Cardston and paid cash for a five-room bungalow.