speak English or French. If a Committee deemed such a man to be "of sober and industrious habits", "sufficiently intelligent", and free of debt, he would be placed on a three-year probation. If he "conducted himself to [the Committee’s] satisfaction" during this probation, he could then be officially enfranchised. An enfranchised Indian would be required to choose a last name (to be approved by the commissioners) by which he would become legally known. The Superintendent General of Indian affairs would then allocate him up to 50 acres (20ha) of land from his band's reserve, as well as a lump sum payment "equal to the principal of his share of the annuities and other yearly revenues" received by the band. This land and money would become the man's individual property. However, he would no longer be considered a member of the band, and therefore forfeited any claim to its lands or revenues in the future. Gender discrimination Several of the Act's Sections established the rights of Indian women as different from men in regard to the process of enfranchisement. Women were not allowed to voluntarily apply. Instead, if a woman's husband became enfranchised, she would be automatically enfranchised alongside him. Her band membership could then only be regained through remarriage to a status Indian. An enfranchised woman would not receive any reserve land, and if her husband died she would only receive his land if he had no descendants. While enfranchised women were entitled to their share of band revenues, unlike men they would not receive this in lump sum. A woman's share would be "held in trust" by the Indian Department, which would then pay her yearly interest. Effects Impact on Indian rights The Royal Proclamation of 1763 had established Indian control over their own lands as a constitutional right - Indian tribes were treated as sovereign nations whose land could only be acquired through formal treaty agreements. However, the Gradual Civilization Act allowed the provision of reserve lands to enfranchised Indians by the Indian Department, without the consent of the relevant council. This superseded the constitutional principle of tribal self-governance that had existed since 1763. The Act furthered the trend, initiated in Lower Canadian legislature in 1850, of the colonial government deciding who qualified as an Indian. The Act’s legal definition of a ‘status Indian’ replaced the traditional “community-based and self-identification approach” of the Indian tribes. The Act also