native land claims

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land claims, native (Canada) Claims by the native peoples of Canada for the repossession of lands and their self-government on them based on their rights as the original inhabitants of Canada, and on treaty obligations undertaken by the Canadian government from the 1870s to the 1920s. As a result of immigration, Canadian Indians or Inuit were often expelled from their original lands, while promises for land titles in compensation were not fulfilled. It became the central demand for the native peoples, and while after World War II they received much government assistance in maintaining their culture, improving education, and setting up businesses, the land claims remained conspicuously unresolved. Several attempts to address the issue in the 1960s failed.

The creation of government-sponsored native peoples' pressure groups created a much stronger and more effective negotiating partner for the government. Claims were made for lands equal to half the area of Canada. Settlement of the claims was complicated by the different, often mutually exclusive demands of the different peoples, overlapping claims, and different and often contrary goals of local, provincial, and federal governments. The slow pace of progress on the matter has led to growing violence, as some native peoples took the law into their hands and offered armed resistance to the government. In 1990, the army was used to break the armed resistance of hundreds of Mohawk Indians in Oka (near Montreal) to defend what they defined as their land against commercial development. This was followed by other stand-offs, the most notable of which were those at Ipperwash and Gustavson Lake. Of the several hundred claims made or in the process of being made, the first few land claims were granted in the late 1980s, starting with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1985 and leading to the settlement of the largest land claim to date, the creation of Nunavut. Following the settlement of Inuit land claims through the Nunavut Land Claims Act, the government in 2001 declared its aim to reach a settlement with the Canadian Indians. Their relationship with the Canadian state still dated back to the Indian Act of 1878, and was in urgent need of redefinition.

Waitangi Tribunal

native land claims, see land claims, native (Canada)