HistoricBlood Tribe land claim back in court

It’s a legal battle that’s run more than four decades — or back to 1877.

A Federal Court hearing this week in Calgary is reopening debate about the “Big Claim” launched by the Blood Tribe council back in the 1970s. Judges are considering submissions that the Blood Reserve lands should be larger, stretching south through Cardston to the U.S. border and west to the Waterton Lakes and river.

The federal government, disputing that claim, says a survey undertaken in 1882 should stand as the document defining the First Nations territory. But a 2007 report from the federally appointed Indian Claims Commission is cited in support of the claim.

And while these issues are debated in Calgary, a group of post-secondary education students is holding a “peace camp” at the edge of Cardston in hopes of hearing — if not resolving — grievances between some Blood Band members and town residents who may be living just across the street.

The social work students have set up camp near the site of a heated blockade in 1980, triggered then by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s refusal to reopen negotiations on the land issue. That demonstration disrupted business, led to a boycott of local stores — and a number of arrests.

Years later, an inquiry conducted by federally appointed commissioner Carl Rolf heard reports of police violence and brutality.

”The confrontation and violence fostered feelings of distrust, frustration and dismay among all groups,” Rolf pointed out.

But it also spurred action, initially. The Canadian government agreed to create a task force to consider the longstanding land claim. The group’s report called for further research into the history of the claim.

Again, the government failed to act.

More recently, a report from the Indian Claims Commission showed a larger tract of land, including the Belly Buttes area, had been recognized in the past as the physical and spiritual home of the Blood Tribe. But under rules in place at that time, it said the Blood Tribe’s population — decimated by a smallpox epidemic — was too small to warrant additional land.

But at the same time, the commission said the federal government failed in its fiduciary duty when it disregarded the official 1882 survey. The commission’s decisions are not binding on the federal government, however — and once again there was no follow-up.

But not so, from the Blood leadership. Chief and council launched a Federal Court challenge to the government’s inaction. That was in 1980 — and the case has now been reopened in response to the government’s inaction.

“It is now over 140 years since the time of that promise and the Blood Tribe has been forced to seek a remedy through the Federal Courts,” Chief Roy Fox said in a statement.

Hearings were held in Standoff several years ago, then adjourned to this months’s resumption in Calgary. What’s proposed, it appears, is a sizeable cash settlement in return for an end to the dispute.

While arguments on the case are expected to close in early July, the court normally takes several months to release a decision. If the Blood Tribe’s case succeeds, more time would be needed for a round of hearings on an appropriate level of compensation.

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