Kahnawake - Historical Land Claim

Historical Land Claim

Kahnawake was located in what was known as the Seigneurie du Sault-Saint-Louis, a 40,320-acre (163.2 km2) territory which the French Crown granted in 1680 to the Jesuits to "protect" and "nurture" Mohawks newly converted to Catholicism. At the time of granting the seigneury, the government intended the territory to be closed to European settlement. Because the Jesuits assumed rights as seigneurs of the Sault, they permitted whites to settle there and collected their rents. The Jesuits managed the seigneury until April 1762, after the Seven Years War and the British assumption of rule in New France. The new governor Thomas Gage ordered the reserve to be entirely and exclusively vested in the Mohawks, under the Supervision of the Indian Department.

Despite repeated complaints by the Mohawk, many government agents continued land and rent mismanagement and allowed non-Native encroachment. Surveyors were found to have modified some old maps at the expense of the Kahnawake people. Moreover, the Mohawk were required to make numerous land cessions to railway, hydro-electric, and telephone companies for major industrial projects along the river from the late 1880s until the 1950s.

As a result, Kahnawake today has only 13,000 acres (53 km2). The Mohawk Nation is pursuing land claims to regain lost land. The modern claim touches the municipalities of Saint-Constant, Sainte-Catherine, Saint-Mathieu, Delson, Candiac and Saint-Philippe. Led by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and Kahnawake's Inter-governmental Relations Team, the community has filed claims with the government of Canada. It is seeking monetary compensation and symbolic recognition of its claim.

• Historic photo of Kahnawake, ca. 1860