The Canadian government will pay compensation of 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (about 960 million euros) to the Siksika, an indigenous community in the country. The government is doing this because it expropriated large tracts of land from the Siksika at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is one of the largest claims for land expropriation in Canada ever.
“We have come together to right a wrong of the past,” Prime Minister Trudeau said at a signing ceremony. The Prime Minister and the head of the Siksika, Ouray Crowfoot, both signed the settlement during that ceremony.
When signing, Crowfoot said that while the compensation will not make up for past wrongs, it can make a difference in the lives of the people of the Siksika community.
In 1910, the government sold almost half of the community’s land, while the land was awarded to the Siksika in a treaty. The land was then sold to people who wanted to settle in the area. The expropriation case had been going on for decades. The Siksika community consists of about 8,000 members.
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