Sayisi Dene First Nation Will Get Some Land Back After Forced Relocation – Huffington Post Canada
“A lot of children died. That kind of stuff never leaves you.”
WINNIPEG — A northern Manitoba Indigenous community that was forced to relocate 61 years ago will be getting some of its traditional land back.
The provincial government has signed an agreement to transfer 52 square kilometres of Crown land near Little Duck Lake to the federal government, so that it can be converted to a reserve for the Sayisi Dene First Nation.
The community’s 250 residents were forced to move to Churchill in 1956 after they were blamed for a steep decline in the caribou herd — an idea later proven untrue.
In their new location on Hudson Bay, food was scarce, housing was inadequate and many residents died prematurely.
