The Kanien'kehá:ka say a vast swath of Montreal's South Shore is theirs. They want their claim settled
CBC
As development creeps closer to Kahnawà:ke's borders, Grand Chief Cody Diabo says the community near Montreal is fed up — watching homes and businesses get built on land they say has belonged to them for centuries, while a 345-year-old land grievance remains stalled in federal bureaucracy.
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) launched an information campaign and a new website in the hopes of breathing new life into the land claim, known as the Seigneury of Sault St. Louis (SSSL) Land Grievance.
The area in question, about 97 square kilometres, extends beyond Kahnawà:ke's current borders and contains several municipalities across the Montérégie region on the South Shore.
"We have to right the wrongs from the past," said Diabo, adding that he's not settling for less than what's owed.
"Not only is there the past use that we've been prohibited from benefiting from, but future as well. Because as long as the lands are still not returned to Kahnawà:ke and they're being developed for different uses to other people's benefits, it's a concern."
The federal government accepted the grievance in 2003.
But Diabo said talks have been slow moving in the decades since, revolving around negotiation protocols — or "negotiating how to negotiate," as he puts it.
Michael Coyle, a professor specializing in Indigenous rights and dispute resolution at Western University, said that when Canada accepts a claim, that means its lawyers have decided Canada continues to have an outstanding legal obligation toward the First Nation.
"It doesn't commit [Canada] to reaching a particular agreement or to include land in an agreement, but it does commit them to negotiate a claim that they have found to be a valid claim," he said.
Meanwhile, Diabo said he wants the government to issue a directive pausing development efforts on SSSL or at least include the band in those discussions.
The SSSL includes Sainte-Catherine, Delson, St-Constant, parts of Châteauguay and parts of other municipalities.
In 1680, French King Louis the XIV granted parcels of land, a seigneury, to the Jesuits to set up a mission and for the use and occupation of the Iroquois, or Kanien'kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke. The Kanienʼkehá꞉ka of Kahnawà:ke are part of the larger Iroquois Confederacy.
Historical documents show the grant stipulated that settlers would not be allowed on the land.
The Jesuits began granting part of the land to French settlers nonetheless. In 1762, a British general, Thomas Gage, ruled in favour of a complaint lodged by the Kanien'kehá:ka, reversing the concessions.
