History of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai Land Claim
By Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat
The Temagami Anishnabai assert that they hold aboriginal title to about four thousand square miles of territory which they call N'Daki Menan, their tribal motherland. It is located in the norteastern part of Ontario in and around the Lake Temagami area. The claim involves about 110 geographic townships in and around this area.
1877 The Chief of the Temagami people approached representatives of the Federal Department of Indian Affairs to ask for a reserve and Treaty in order to protect his people from lumbering interests, which were encroaching on their traditional lands.
1883 The Federal Government recognized the omission of the Temagami Indians from the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850 and commanded payment of annuities without obtaining any formal cession of rights to lands. The federal government also promised to survey a reserve.
1885 Pursuant to the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850, the federal government surveyed land known as the Austin Bay Tract, on the south-east side of Lake Temagami, as a potential reserve for Aboriginal people living in the area. The area surveyed comprised 65 square miles. However, the provincial government of the day did not agree to the creation of the proposed reserve, and the Austin Bay Tract remains provincially owned Crown land today.
1884 A reserve of approximately 100 square miles was surveyed for the Temagami Indians around Austin Bay on Lake Temagami. The Temagami Indians participated in its selection. The size of the reserve surveyed was comparable to reserves received by bands which signed the Robinson-Huron Treaty. Canada subsequently petitioned Ontario to provide Crown land to create the reserve.
1971 An official Reserve was established for the Temagami First Nation on Bear Island in Lake Temagami. The area of the reserve is one square mile. However, the Aboriginal people living in the area continue to claim a much larger area.
1973 In order to advance a claim to 4,000 square miles of land that they claimed as "n'Daki Menan", their traditional homeland, the Teme-Augama Anishnabai -- or TAA, which represents the Temagami First Nation and other Aboriginal people in the area -- filed formal land cautions with the Registrar of Titles on the 4,000 square-mile area, involving 110 geographic townships in and around the Temagami area. The land caution did not affect commercial forestry operations, but prevented the staking of new mining claims and new tourism-related economic development.
1991 The Supreme Court of Canada decided that the Temagami Indians do not have Aboriginal title to the land they claimed. However, the Court ruled that the Crown has outstanding obligations to the Temagami Aboriginal community, stemming from a failure to provide an adequate reserve and a failure to make annuity payments.
1993 Ontario and the Temagami Aboriginal community reached an Agreement-In-Principle to settle the claim. The Aboriginal community did not ratify the agreement. During the negotiations for the Agreement-in-Principle, two categories of land were proposed:
- land that would be under the sole jurisdiction and management of the Aboriginal people; and
- land that would be managed under joint stewardship of the Aboriginal people and the provincial government.
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