Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was at Siksika First Nation east of Calgary to sign a historic land acquisition agreement, which the federal government says is one of the largest agreements of its kind in Canada.
Trudeau and Mark Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, attended the signing ceremony Thursday at the Siksika First Nation with leader Auray Crawfoot, the group’s council and community members.
“We have gathered today to correct a mistake from the past,” Trudeau said during the ceremony.
“We have come together to give ourselves a chance to start rebuilding trust between us, nation to nation.
The federal government said the settlement dates back more than a century, when Canada broke its promise under the Blackfoot Treaty and took nearly half of Siksika Nation’s reserve land, including some of its agricultural land, to sell to people who settled in the area.
The agreement provides $ 1.3 billion in compensation to the Siksika Nation for resolving outstanding land claims, which includes about 46,500 hectares of the Siksika Reserve and some mineral rights taken from Canada.
Sixika nation leader Urey Crowfoot, left, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, attend a historic signing ceremony for the first nation of Sixica land in southeastern Alberta on Thursday. (Jeff Mackintosh / Canadian Press)
“I see that we are becoming a prosperous nation.”
Crawfoot said the agreement does not compensate for past mistakes, but will change people’s lives.
“Canada must stop using the word reconciliation. You will never reconcile, you will never fix it,” he said.
“This request for land – $ 1.3 billion, that’s a lot of money – will never be done entirely from what it was before. But we must move forward. What is $ 1.3 [billion] what we can do is provide opportunities, opportunities we didn’t have before.
“I see the tide turning to Siksika… I see that we are becoming a prosperous nation.”
Siksika’s website says each member of the First Nation should receive $ 20,000 in July as part of the agreement.
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