Roseau River votes on $80.6-million deal for forced land ‘surrender’

By ROSS ROMANIUK, Winnipeg Sun

In a hot and packed downtown Winnipeg hotel conference room on Saturday, members of a First Nation discussed land claim matters involving cold, hard cash.

An estimated 200 members of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation crowded into the basement room to have a say into a possible $80.6-million payout from Ottawa to the southern Manitoba reserve.

Most of those on hand voted yes or no — and were paid $50 to do so — to the tentative settlement, which would compensate Roseau River for nearly 8,000 acres of land that the band had been pressured to make available to farmers and settlers in 1903. That so-called “surrender” occurred despite an 1871 treaty in which the property had supposedly been secured for the reserve just north of the U.S. border.

“It’s not taxpayer money we’re talking about here. It’s compound interest on the land that we should have had,” Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson told the Winnipeg Sun of the $80.6 million that could come from the federal government. “This is money that we would have generated ourselves.”

Among the rewards for the more than 1,400 members, should the settlement be accepted by a majority, is a one-time $5,000 payment to each of them.

Nelson is advocating the settlement — which would provide the band with $10,064 per acre — as a way to gain compensation for what he said was an injustice.

“If we can get the process moving fast enough,” he said, “we may be able to have the money in the bank by the end of March — maybe.”

A second ballot might become necessary if fewer than half the reserve’s members, about 720, fail to vote in the first round by Feb. 8.

Band member Ashley Mathison, 21, insisted that the settlement money, if approved, be used in part to expand a reserve school to allow students to attend through Grade 12 — rather than only to its current Grade 9 limit. She also said a reserve clinic must be given funds to allow it to remain open throughout weekends.

“There are so many resources that this money could go toward in benefiting the people,” Mathison said, also slamming the money paid just for casting a ballot.

“People should be more about the people, instead of about themselves.”

Most of the settlement funds — about $60 million — would be held in trust. Nelson said the interest off the money in trust would be spent on improvements in housing, education and other areas.