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Gollin has owned the land for 15 years, and after two years of discussions with the local council, he said he plans to cede it to the council as an ecological gift. He also said he is considering selling another 150 hectares to the federal government to transfer to the community. Nearly half of the 150 hectares is adjacent to land owned by Kanesatake.

“I gotta give my hat off to Mr. Gollin for trying in his own way what is reconciliation,” said Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist and artist, but, she said, “there are strings attached for this socalled ecological gift.”

Two years ago, Gabriel was part of protests against a residential housing development spearheaded by Gollin, which allegedly encroached on sacred Kanesatake pine forest.

“We’ve lost more land in the last 29 years than gained,” said Gabriel.

According to the ecological gifts program website, owners who donate the property get tax benefits while recipients make sure the biodiversity and environmental heritage of the property are conserved in perpetuity. The program is subject to an assessment process.

“I was in position to have a dialogue with the Mohawks of Kanesatake and we accomplished an agreement,” Gollin said, adding it will now go to Kanesatake residents for consultation.

Gabriel noted the local Mohawk council hasn’t

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shared details of the land donation agreement with the community.

Calls to the Kanesatake Mohawk Council weren’t returned on Thursday.

Local newspaper The Eastern Door, which first reported on the offer several weeks ago, quoted Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon then as saying the matter would be brought to the community once details were finalized.

Today, the village of Oka is still struggling with poverty and bitterness.

A Mohawk Warrior flag flutters where the conflict began. Every July 11, a holiday in Oka, locals play lacrosse, a game invented by natives. But beyond that show of pride, this is now a vulgar strip of one-storey wood shacks selling tobacco products smuggled across the border from factories on a Mohawk reserve in New York.

Many non-natives have left, selling their houses to the federal government. But like the land by the original golf course, there has never been a formal transfer of the properties to the Mohawks.