“We are gathered today to repair an injustice of the past,” the Canadian Prime Minister said on Thursday in a ceremony in Alberta (west) on Thursday on the lands of the Siksikas, which is part of More than 600 Amerindian peoples of Canada.
Le Monde with AFP
Canada will pay $ 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (960 million euros) to an indigenous community in the west of the country in repair of the flight of their land at the beginning of the 20th century, the One of the most important territorial compensations ever concluded. The announcement occurred Thursday, June 2.
In 1910, the Canadian government had seized almost half of their land to sell them to the colonists despite the signature of a treaty thirty years earlier. According to Justin Trudeau, Canada acted in “unworthy” with this expropriation, depriving the community of its “productive lands in agriculture and rich in minerals”.
“Although these regulations do not compensate for the past, we hope that it leads to a better and radiant future for this generation and those that come,” added Mark Miller, the Minister of Relations with Aboriginal people.
“Go forward”
“Our lifestyle has changed. It will never be as before, nothing can replace what was there,” said Ouray Crowfoot, head of the Siksika nation, who wore a traditional feathered headdress, adding that the community now wanted to “move forward”. For him, his people, however, attended a revival of their culture, of their traditions, but also of its Blackfoot language which is now used on local traffic signs, for example.
“We are a resilient people. We are not just surviving, we are moving towards an era of prosperity,” he added. This agreement concludes a request from the Siksika nation which dates back to the 1960s. In November 2021, the negotiators of the two parties had reached an agreement, validated by a vote of the community last December.
Although relations between Ottawa and First Nations are defined by the “Indian Act”, a text from 1876, all the territorial demands of the Aboriginal people have not been settled in Canada.