Canada Enters Indigenous Siksika Community 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (960 million euros) in compensation for taking parts of her land in Western Canada in the early twentieth century. The settlement is one of the largest ever compensations for land expropriation in Canada.
The government speaks of a “historic settlement” in tackling “abuses and lasting consequences of colonialism”. “We have come together today to right an injustice of the past,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a ceremony in Alberta on Siksika land on Thursday.
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$20,000
In 1910, the Canadian government confiscated nearly half of the land, more than 46,500 hectares, from the Siksika community and sold it to settlers. In doing so, Canada broke a treaty it had signed with the indigenous community thirty years earlier. According to Trudeau, Canada acted in “an undignified manner” and the government robbed the community of its “agriculturally productive and mineral-rich land.”
Siksika head Ouray Crowfoot said during the signing that the settlement does not make up for past mistakes, but the amount will make a difference in people’s lives and give them “opportunities they did not have before”. According to him, the case was already filed in 1960 by one of his predecessors. The Siksika Community consists of nearly 8,000 members. According to Crowfoot, they will all receive a one-time payment of around 20,000 Canadian dollars as part of the settlement Canadian media†