Senator James Gladstone was born at Mountain Mill, Alberta. He was educated at St. Paul's Anglican Residential School on the Blood Reserve near Cardston, and the Calgary Industrial School. He was a founder of the Indian Association of Alberta, and served as president for seven years. In 1958 he was appointed to the Senate, at a time when as an Indigenous person he did not yet have the right to vote in Federal elections he became the first person with Indigenous heritage to become a senator.