Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 4, 2007 20:42:46 GMT -5
Canadian 'lost tribe' hoping to collect U.S. government payout Randy
Boswell, CanWest News Service
Nearly 175 years after their
ancestors were forced to abandon tribal lands in the U.S. and flee to
Canada, the scattered remnants of the Pottawatomi First Nation -- their
ancient language and culture now struggling to survive -- have launched
a new bid for compensation in the U.S. Congress.
With help from Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, a native rights advocate
who has introduced a bill to "provide relief" of $1.8 million US for the
tribe's Canadian exiles, the Pottawatomi are hoping for the payout to
finally settle the 19th-century debt owed to their forebears and to fund
a resurgence of tribal heritage in modern-day Ontario.
"I can trace my family back to the States in the late 1830s," says
Pottawatomi Chief Ed Williams, leader of Moose Deer Point First Nation
near Parry Sound, Ont. "My forefathers chose not to move to reserves in
Oklahoma and Kansas. We were Great Lakes people."
Driven from their traditional territories in Michigan, Wisconsin,
Illinois and Indiana, most Pottawatomi - pressured to relocate at
gunpoint by the U.S. army under the infamous "Indian Removal" policies
of president Andrew Jackson - resettled west of the Mississippi River.
But some bands escaped eastward, settling in remote woodlands closer to
the Canadian border, or even crossing into what was then Upper Canada.
Most of the Pottawatomi refugees ended up blending in to other related
First Nations such as the Ojibway and Ottawa, but one group received
land on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay and formed the Moose Deer
Point community.
As early as the late 1800s, petitions were made by the Pottawatomi heirs
in Canada to collect payments promised by the U.S. government at the
time of the removals.
A 1908 report to Congress concluded that if the claims from Canada were
judged "solely on the basis of descent, then it would seem that these
Canadian Indians would be entitled to the same share in any fund arising
from the claim" as U.S. Pottawatomi.
But American officials repeatedly balked at issuing payments to natives
beyond the U.S. border. Although Pottawatomi descendants in the U.S.
have received recognition and compensation for the displacement of their
ancestors, their Canadian cousins have so far received nothing.
In the early 1990s, the bid for Canadian compensation was revived with
support from the Native American Rights Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based
aboriginal advocacy group. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the
Pottawatomi Nation of Canada, which led to an agreement with the U.S.
Department of Justice to seek a "fair, equitable and just settlement"
with the Ontario natives.
But any deal would require approval from Congress and, ultimately, the
signature of the U.S. president. The campaign gained a key ally when
Inouye pledged to sponsor a bill in the U.S. Senate urging immediate
payment of compensation to the Pottawatomi's "lost tribe" in Canada.
"He's a fantastic guy," Williams told CanWest News Service on Friday.
"He's a real champion for aboriginal people."
But progress toward redress has been painfully slow, says NARF lawyer
Richard Guest, who is handling the Canadian case. Inouye's bill has been
introduced in several congressional sessions but has never passed.
Last month it was introduced again by Inouye - "he sees the historic
injustice, he gets it," says Guest - and NARF is "cautiously optimistic"
that the Canadian Pottawatomi will soon receive what they were first
owed under terms of the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.
If the U.S. legislators do finally come through, Williams says "we're
all set" to manage the payment through a trust that has been established
to disburse funds for education, cultural heritage and economic
development among the estimated 6,000 Pottawatomi descendants living
today in some 30 Ontario communities.
But Williams has doubts that the U.S. will ever part with money owed to
"foreign nationals," even if the government's own officials admit the
debt should be paid.
"It's a story," he says, "that has been going on for a long time."
Boswell, CanWest News Service
Nearly 175 years after their
ancestors were forced to abandon tribal lands in the U.S. and flee to
Canada, the scattered remnants of the Pottawatomi First Nation -- their
ancient language and culture now struggling to survive -- have launched
a new bid for compensation in the U.S. Congress.
With help from Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, a native rights advocate
who has introduced a bill to "provide relief" of $1.8 million US for the
tribe's Canadian exiles, the Pottawatomi are hoping for the payout to
finally settle the 19th-century debt owed to their forebears and to fund
a resurgence of tribal heritage in modern-day Ontario.
"I can trace my family back to the States in the late 1830s," says
Pottawatomi Chief Ed Williams, leader of Moose Deer Point First Nation
near Parry Sound, Ont. "My forefathers chose not to move to reserves in
Oklahoma and Kansas. We were Great Lakes people."
Driven from their traditional territories in Michigan, Wisconsin,
Illinois and Indiana, most Pottawatomi - pressured to relocate at
gunpoint by the U.S. army under the infamous "Indian Removal" policies
of president Andrew Jackson - resettled west of the Mississippi River.
But some bands escaped eastward, settling in remote woodlands closer to
the Canadian border, or even crossing into what was then Upper Canada.
Most of the Pottawatomi refugees ended up blending in to other related
First Nations such as the Ojibway and Ottawa, but one group received
land on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay and formed the Moose Deer
Point community.
As early as the late 1800s, petitions were made by the Pottawatomi heirs
in Canada to collect payments promised by the U.S. government at the
time of the removals.
A 1908 report to Congress concluded that if the claims from Canada were
judged "solely on the basis of descent, then it would seem that these
Canadian Indians would be entitled to the same share in any fund arising
from the claim" as U.S. Pottawatomi.
But American officials repeatedly balked at issuing payments to natives
beyond the U.S. border. Although Pottawatomi descendants in the U.S.
have received recognition and compensation for the displacement of their
ancestors, their Canadian cousins have so far received nothing.
In the early 1990s, the bid for Canadian compensation was revived with
support from the Native American Rights Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based
aboriginal advocacy group. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the
Pottawatomi Nation of Canada, which led to an agreement with the U.S.
Department of Justice to seek a "fair, equitable and just settlement"
with the Ontario natives.
But any deal would require approval from Congress and, ultimately, the
signature of the U.S. president. The campaign gained a key ally when
Inouye pledged to sponsor a bill in the U.S. Senate urging immediate
payment of compensation to the Pottawatomi's "lost tribe" in Canada.
"He's a fantastic guy," Williams told CanWest News Service on Friday.
"He's a real champion for aboriginal people."
But progress toward redress has been painfully slow, says NARF lawyer
Richard Guest, who is handling the Canadian case. Inouye's bill has been
introduced in several congressional sessions but has never passed.
Last month it was introduced again by Inouye - "he sees the historic
injustice, he gets it," says Guest - and NARF is "cautiously optimistic"
that the Canadian Pottawatomi will soon receive what they were first
owed under terms of the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.
If the U.S. legislators do finally come through, Williams says "we're
all set" to manage the payment through a trust that has been established
to disburse funds for education, cultural heritage and economic
development among the estimated 6,000 Pottawatomi descendants living
today in some 30 Ontario communities.
But Williams has doubts that the U.S. will ever part with money owed to
"foreign nationals," even if the government's own officials admit the
debt should be paid.
"It's a story," he says, "that has been going on for a long time."