Ojibway bands stake claim in north Superior property

While the Hemlo gold find in northern Ontario has been big news for a few years now, it may soon find itself indirectly involved in another controversial issue, this one dealing with an Indian land claim.

An advertisement in The Northern Miner (N.M., Mar 30/87) serves notice that a number of Ojibway bands who live along the northern shore of Lake Superior continue to pursue a land claim initiated in 1984 against the federal and Ontario governments.

According to the Indians bands, they never surrendered their aboriginal title and rights to the area and, as stated in the advertisement, “claim an unregistered right, interest or equity in all of the outlined lands based upon aboriginal or Indian title.”

The area in question, according to the bands’ statement of claim of July, 1984, extends from the mouth of the Pukaskwa River on the east to the town of Dorion on the west, and from the international border running through Lake Superior in the south to the height of land which defines the Lake Superior watershed to the north.

“We never signed a treaty with Canada; we never surrendered this land,” Aime Bouchard, chief of the Pays Plat Band of Ojibways, said in a telephone interview.

While the formal statement of claim goes back to 1984, Mr Bouchard said discussion about the land between the Indians and the government goes back approximately 10 years.

Another chief, Helen Sabourin of the Pic Mobert Band, expressed a personal point of view, saying the Ojibway are seeking “the right to fish and hunt and have freedom to do what we want.”

The land north of Lake Superior is covered under the Robinson- Superior Treaty, which was signed by the Ojibway and the British Crown in 1850 and which originally involved three reserves. According to a provincial government spokesperson, the treaty, in addition to dealing with land title and establishment of the three reserves, also granted the Ojibway an annuity, a cash settlement, and hunting and fishing rights over unoccupied territory.

Federal and Ontario government representatives met with members of the Ojibway bands and their legal counsel last summer. According to a federal government worker in Ottawa, the claim remains under review. There are three producing gold mines at Hemlo: the Tech-Corona (Tech Corp-International Corona Resources) mine, the Lac Minerals mine and the Golden Giant mine operated by Hemlo Gold Mines, which is controlled by Noranda Inc.

Unrelated to the land claim is a lawsuit over ownership of the Lac mine. Corona challenged Lac to ownership of the property and won a court decision, which Lac appealed last November. The Ontario Court of Appeal has yet to release its ruling on the appeal.