Landlocked: Algonquins at odds over land settlement

Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs in Ontario and Quebec are denouncing as “fraudulent and illegal” a land agreement recently reached between the federal and Ontario governments and a group called the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO).

The tentative treaty concerns approximately 36,000 square kilometres of land reaching from Ottawa to North Bay, including 117,500 acres of provincial crown land that would be transferred over to 10 Algonquin communities, and a $300 million settlement. Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett signed the agreement with the AOO and Ontario representatives October 18.  

Four Algonquin chiefs in Quebec and the Iroquois caucus representing seven Iroquois communities in Ontario and Quebec are openly opposed to the deal, arguing that their territorial rights are being ignored and that the majority of AOO members’ claims to Algonquin ancestry are tenuous at best.

“The Algonquins of Ontario do not have the moral or legal obligation to negotiate away all the rights of the Algonquin people,” said Lance Haymond, Chief of the Kebaowek First Nation north of Témiscaming.

According to Haymond, the AOO “are not Algonquin at all,” they are simply claiming a loose connection to an Algonquin “root ancestor.” In an interview with CBC, Haymond said that many of the AOO who are eligible to vote on the land claim have not had any intermarriage with Algonquins for more than 200 years.

Kahnawake Grand Chief Joe Norton did not mince words, calling the deal “fraudulent” and “illegal” at a recent news conference.

“An illegal deal has been made,” he said, “to bring in people who are not Algonquins, who are not in any way attached to the land, who have not strived and struggled for centuries to try and maintain the integrity of the lands within Ontario.”

Norton also noted that while the claim includes land traditionally occupied by the Iroquois, they have “more or less been pushed aside for people who have no right to any of this territory.”

Left: Minister of Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett Right: Map outlining the land in question

When discussions surrounding the land settlement were initially launched in 2013, the Quebec First Nations of Wolf Lake, Eagle Village and Timiskaming all said they would protest the deal with a land claim of their own. Jean Guy Whiteduck from Kitigan Zibi is also on record stating that the Algonquin Nations of Quebec must be involved in the settlement for it to be valid.

Robert Potts, the principal negotiator for the AOO, stated that non-status Algonquin descendants were included in the settlement in order to address the historic injustice of bands not recognized under the Indian Act. He assured that strict criteria are in place to determine Algonquin ancestry, verified by a genealogist, a ratification committee and a retired judge.

While the recent signing is only the first step in a process that will take several years to negotiate, if the AOO land settlement is successful it would be Ontario’s first constitutionally protected treaty.