Scow, Alfred John (1927-2013), was an Indigenous (native) legal pioneer in British Columbia, Canada. He was the first Indigenous person to graduate from a law school in British Columbia, Canada’s third largest province. Scow also was the first Indigenous person to be admitted to the bar (body of lawyers licensed to practice law) in the province and the first Indigenous judge appointed to the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Scow helped make it possible for generations of Indigenous students to pursue a career in law.
Scow was born on April 10, 1927, in the village of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. He was the son of Chief William and Alice Whonnock Scow. His father was a leader of the Kwikwasut’inuxw band of the Kwakwaka’wakw cultural group. The band is now part of the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation. Alfred Scow attended the St. Michael’s Indian Residential School and went to a public high school. St. Michael’s was part of a government-sponsored system in which Indigenous children were taken from their parents and forced to attend residential (boarding) schools in Canada. Reports of physical, emotional, and other abuses were widespread during the years the residential schools operated, from the late 1800’s to 1996.
Scow worked as a crewman on fishing boats to help pay for his college education. In 1961, at age 34, he became the first Indigenous person to graduate from the University of British Columbia law school. Until 1960, his Indigenous status would have prevented him, by law, from exercising certain rights, such as voting, and from being admitted to the legal profession. In 1962, Scow was the first Indigenous lawyer to be called to the bar in the province. In 1971, Scow became the first Indigenous judge on the provincial court. He served until he retired in 1992 and then served as an ad hoc (part time) judge from 1993 to 1994. Scow helped found the Scow Institute for Communicating Information on Aboriginal Issues in 2001.
In 1997, Scow received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of British Columbia. He also received numerous awards. In 2000, Scow was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors. In 2004, he was appointed to the Order of British Columbia, that province’s highest honor.
Scow co-wrote Secret of the Dance (2006), a children’s book based on a childhood memory of sneaking into a ceremony called a potlatch to watch his father dance. At that time, potlatches and some other Indigenous ceremonies had to be held in secret because they had been forbidden by the government. During his retirement years, Scow helped establish a number of organizations and scholarships to help Indigenous people across Canada. He died on Feb. 26, 2013.
