Self-sufficiency and land claims

Re: “From the Indian Act to economic independence” (Opinion, Sept. 13)

As First Nations communities take steps toward financial self-sufficiency, a few factors should be taken into consideration:

Canada has relegated Indigenous nations to small pieces of land considered useless, barren or isolated. Natural resources have been taken away, claimed by government or companies for their own financial gain. And let’s not even go to the subjugation of our language and culture, and acts of assimilation or genocide.

Any discussion about selftaxation must first address the long-standing claim the Mohawks of Kahnawake have on the Seigneury of Sault-StLouis, which includes a large part of the South Shore, from the outskirts of St-Rémi and part of Châteauguay and into La Prairie.

The federal government has allowed this dispute to go on for decades; in the meantime, lands that could have been restored to the Mohawk Nation have been further developed and inhabited.

If this matter can be settled once and for all, then perhaps those municipalities that are situated on our ancestral lands would start paying taxes to the rightful owners — the Mohawks of Kahnawake, thus helping them gain economic independence.

It’s important for the dominant society to put present-day debates about self-sufficiency of First Nations into the context of past injustices.

Arlene Teiohserahte Horne, Kahnawake