Monarch Elizabeth II Name Ralph Steinhauer Premier Peter Lougheed | Preceded by Grant MacEwan Occupation farmer | |
 | ||
Governor General Jules Leger
Edward Schreyer Spouse(s) Isabel Florence Margaret Davidson Died September 19, 1987, Edmonton, Canada | ||
Succeeded by Frank C. Lynch-Staunton Political party Liberal Party of Canada | ||
Ralph Garvin Steinhauer, (June 8, 1905 – September 19, 1987) was the tenth Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and the first Aboriginal person to hold that post.
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Personal life
Born in Morley, Alberta, he was a Cree. His parents were Josiah Apow and Amelia Mildred Mumford. When his father died, his mother married James Arthur Steinhauer, a descendant of the Cree Methodist Missionary Henry Bird Steinhauer.
He married Isabel Florence Margaret Davidson on November 20, 1928 and had five children.
He died in Edmonton on September 19, 1987, following pulmonary problems.
Education
Because his father moved often for missionary work, he attended school infrequently. A voracious reader, he was 15 years old when he enrolled in Grade 4 at the Brandon Indian Residential school in Manitoba, and finished with a Grade 8 education. When Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau asked him to be the lieutenant-governor of Alberta, he responded, "I'm not schooled for a thing like this... You're plucking a person out of the farmyard and an Indian at that."
Career
In the 1920s, he became district president of the United Farmers of Alberta. He was a founder and the president of the Indian Association of Alberta.
He ran unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate for the Canadian House of Commons in the Alberta riding of Vegreville in the 1963 federal election. He placed third.
He was chief of the Saddle Lake Indian Band for three years.
Honours
In 1967, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1984, he was inducted into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame.