Supreme Court rules Ottawa acted dishonourably in reneging on 1877 land promise to Indigenous community

The Supreme Court has found the federal government to have acted dishonourably in reneging on an 1877 land promise to an Indigenous community in Alberta, and declared that it shortchanged that community, the Blood Tribe, by 162.5 square miles.

The court, faced with a 145-year-old broken promise – conceded by the federal government at the Supreme Court, after it denied the Blood Tribe’s claims for decades – found a middle ground. It made what is known as a “declaration” – a statement about rights without direct legal consequences. The expectation is that such a statement will send the federal government and the Blood Tribe to the negotiating table.

The ruling involves Treaty 7 in which the government pledged one square mile for every five people in the Blood Tribe. In 1980, the Blood Tribe sued, accusing Ottawa of acting dishonestly in the 1880s by “shrinking the reserve” in a new survey of lands, and by later saying the tribe had received more than promised, not less.

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