Harry and Meghan ‘live on stolen land’
And they’re totem poles apart from neighbours
PRINCE Harry and Meghan’s Canadian bolthole is at the centre of a “stolen land” row which threatens all hopes of a peaceful start to their new life.
Furious native Americans say the €11million mansion on Vancouver Island, where the couple are staying with son Archie, is on territory once robbed by the Brits. And they want it back.
Chief of the local Tseycum tribe Tanya Jimmy urged the royal couple: “Don’t ignore us. The land the house is built on is stolen.”
She explained to the Sunday Mirror: “It was taken from us in treaties signed in the 1800s. Our people back then didn’t realise what they were doing.
“Land was taken for a few hundred dollars and our people would sign the treaty with an ‘X’ as they couldn’t read or write.”
Britain colonised Vancouver Island after Captain Cook arrived there in 1778. The first British settlement came in 1843.
Speaking about Harry and Meghan’s hideaway, Tanya said: “There will be ancestors buried there. We get no money from the land now, nothing.
POVERTY
“But for us it’s just not right houses like that are built there.” Harry flew out to be reunited with Meghan and Archie this week after the Queen refused to allow his proposals for the couple to become financially independent parttime royals.
The prince made it clear he was not happy with the outcome and is believed to be planning the couple’s future at the property owned by a mystery pal. While their mansion has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms, living conditions among their Tseycum neighbours can be a lot more cramped.
Tanya, 43, said: “I know one home where four generations live under one roof, several people in three bedrooms.”
She added: “Our bus service starts at 6am and ends at 3pm so people set their lives by that. It’s a world away from having drivers whenever you want.”
Tanya said her community was hit hard by her country’s historical “residential school system”.
She said: “It split families, took young people away from communities and destroyed them to make them ‘Western’.”
As a result she said her people struggle with issues close to the royal couple’s hearts.
She added: “Meghan would appreciate that women here are the ones holding our community together. We really are the glue.
“Mental health is the biggest issue in our community – an issue Prince Harry has talked about.
“It would be amazing to have Harry and Meghan’s support. If he came to us, we would break bread and talk just as our people have done for hundreds of years.”
patrick.hill@mirror.co.uk
If Prince Harry came to us we would break bread and talk
TANYA JIMMY TSEYCUM TRIBE CHIEF, VANCOUVER