162 Acres of Land to be Returned to Kahnawà:ke

After 7 years of negotiations, the Federal Government is returning 162 acres of land to Kahnawà:ke. The land in question is spread across 2 lots in St. Remi and St. Isidore, and talks regarding these lots and the Seigneury of Sault St. Louis have been ongoing since 2018.

Ohén:ton Í:rate ne Ratitsénhaienhs Cody Diabo says the turning point in discussions came with a visit from Canada’s new Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations. “It happened when we had the new minister Rebecca Alty in the territory, and we did a tour of the seigneury to show all the development and the need to really move on this file now” Diabo said, emphasizing the “frustrations from the community seeing development after development”.

Diabo also says that the 162 acres are a fraction of what the community is due. “What’s owed, I’ll say, is about 24,000 acres” said Diabo. “Kahnawà:ke was about 40,000 and then- you know, from the Jesuits and different things- a lot of it got utilized without our consent. So yeah, there’s about 24,000 acres that are within the grievance itself”.

The returned lots are mostly farmland, but the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) says they have not yet determined what the land will be used for. That said, they plan on holding community engagement sessions in the new year to provide information and collect feedback from Kahnawa’kehró:non.