Missanabie Cree First Nation completing land transfer with province
From the Osprey News Network - Timmins Daily Press ...
First Nation praises proposed land transfer
Shirley Mills - July 03, 2007
Missanabie Cree First Nation members might soon have a place to call their own.
Ontario has agreed that the First Nation is entitled to 15 sq. miles of Crown land the band argues it was entitled to, according to treaties signed more than a century ago
The land is, in part, in West and Stover townships and borders on the Chapleau Game Preserve.
Band officials says members have scattered far and wide, but expect residents to eventually return to their roots thanks to the agreement.
Four open houses were recently held to explain the proposed land transfer, which has a provision the land does not involve private property.
The claim involves Treaty 9, first entered into agreement in 1906 between the federal and provincial governments and the various Cree and Ojibway First Nations in the James Bay Coast watershed.
"Our community has been waiting more than 100 years for this and we're excited," Chief Glenn Nolan said.
"We look forward to working with the municipalities and other First Nations to strengthen economically."
In 1996, Canada accepted the claim. In 2000 Ontario also accepted and negotiations began.
Following an environmental assessment and the proposal being evaluated as a Category B project for Ministry of Natural Resources stewardship and facility development projects, it's expected a decision on the exact location and boundaries will be ironed out by the fall.
It's anticipated the land transfer will take place in the spring of 2009.
"Now I can come home," said Deputy Chief Audrey Bateson, who lives in Saskatchewan.
Dan Goodwin, negotiator for the Ontario Secretariat for Aboriginal Affairs, said the 15-square-mile land transfer reflected on 101 band residents in 1906.
But now, an additional 55 square miles of Crown land, which the First Nation contends it's entitled to, has been temporarily set aside. It will take a court process to sort it out, Goodwin said.
"Now that they know they have a place of their own, there will be community and economic development to become self-sufficient," Goodwin said. "Members of the MCFN have scattered, but this is providing the opportunity for our members to come back," Nolan said.