Rupert's Land descendants may receive their just due

Page

A recent Statement of Claim by the four Hobbema Indian Bands with the Federal Court of Canada, regarding Rupert's Land, has far-reaching and long-standing implications.

The area in question encompassed almost half the land mass of present-day Canada.

Originally, Rupert's Land included most of what is today the three prairie provinces, the Northwest Territories (NWT), and the upper reaches of Ontario, Quebec and Labrador.

In 1670, a group of English noblemen and entrepreneurs formed the Company of Adventurers of England Trading who wished to acquire Rupert's Land. In that same year, King Charles II of England granted the group a charter over the land.

The charter, in effect, gave the group all the lands and resources contained in the Rupert's Land area at no cost to themselves. In simple terms, it was a gift.

The Company of Adventurers became the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC or "the Bay") which had absolute control and authority over the vast domains of Rupert's Land. It made the laws and enforced them with Sir George Simpson as the first appointed Governor-in-Chief (the Fort Chipewyan Simpsons are descendants of his).

Two hundred years after its birth, the HBC transferred title of its land, Rupert's Land, to the Dominion of Canada for 300,000 pounds in British currency. That was when Manitoba became a province.

With the foregoing in mind, a number of contentious issues and questions arise. First, the lands of Rupert's Land were never legitimately paid for. They were Aboriginal lands.

Secondly, portions of Rupert's Land in Manitoba's Red River district were occupied by Metis families who were never compensated for the loss of their lands when the HBC sold the region to Canada.

Thirdly, the HBC had a policy which provided lands to retired employees of the Bay. Many of those employees who were Native people never did receive their shares in the land.

How is it that Canada had to pay the HBC for the land area but the Bay got away without paying the Aboriginal population who possessed the lands long before their arrival?

I suppose most historians would say it belonged to the British through "Right of Discovery." What about Aboriginal rights? Do the original occupants not have any claim to the lands?

It will be interesting to see what develops from Hobbema's Statement of Claim. After all, their lands were a part of Rupert's Land. Besides, it seems that everybody but the Indians and Metis benefited from the sale and re-sales of Rupert's Land areas.

Just maybe, the descendants of the Aboriginal people of Canada who resided within the boundaries of Rupert's Land may come to receive their just due.