Historical background of the Ipperwash land claims

The Kettle and Stony Point people are the original land owners of what is now referred to as Camp Ipperwash. The government eventually gave back the land to the natives in an agreement-in-principle signed in 1998. However, negotiations are still being conducted between the two parties. Ipperwash National Park is located next to the disputed land and was bought by the Province of Ontario in 1932 after being sold by the Stony Point band.

1700s

The ancestors of the Kettle and Stony Point people (Chippewa) date back prior to the British conquest in 1760. The Chippewa maintained residency in the area of Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair as early as 1740.

In 1763, the British made a Royal Proclamation that protected specific aboriginal land from being owned by non-natives. The Kettle and Stony Point land lay within the protected Indian area.

1800s

Following the War of 1812, the British approached the Chippewa asking for land because they wanted to settle European immigrants in Upper Canada. A land cession treaty was agreed upon after a nine year period from 1818 to 1827.

The final agreement, the Huron Tract Treaty of 1827, was reached when 18 Chippewa chiefs sold 2.1 million acres of their land. They received a continuous income of £1,000 or about $4,400 a year. With 440 Chippewas under the 18 chiefs, the deal equaled about $10 per person.

The chiefs maintained four areas of land for their people. Two of the four lands were the Stony Point and Kettle Point regions.

The government viewed all the communities under the 18 chiefs as one large group and gave them a shared interest in the annuity and revenue from the land and its resources. There was some shifting and separating within the Indian tribes and by the 1860s the remaining peoples under the Huron Tract groups were called the "Sarnia Band." This group had reserves at Sarnia, Kettle Point and Stony Point.

The people of Kettle and Stony Point felt overshadowed by the larger Sarnia group and starting in the 1880s they began to push for a separation.

1900s

It took almost 40 years before the Department of Indian Affairs finally divided the band in 1919. The Kettle and Stony Point Band split from the Sarnia Band but maintained their land, share of the annuity, and trust fund.

In the 1920s and 1930s various sections of the Kettle and Stony Point lands were sold. In 1928, the Stony Point Reserve surrendered their entire beach front for sale to private interests. In 1932, the Province of Ontario bought a portion of the beach front and established Ipperwash Provincial Park.

In 1937, park authorities were notified by the native chief and council that a sacred burial ground existed on the land. They asked officials to protect the site but no evidence suggests that they did.

During the Second World War, the Department of National Defence (DND) wanted to use the remaining 2,211 acres of the Stony Point Reserve as a military training camp. In 1942, a government representative asked the natives to surrender the land voluntarily but they refused. Using the War Measures Act, the DND took over the land and named it Camp Ipperwash. They paid $15 per acre for the land.

In July of 1942, 16 Stony Point families were moved to Kettle Point land.

After the war, returning native soldiers found their community destroyed and the cemetery at Camp Ipperwash damaged. After pressure from Indian Affairs and National Health and Welfare a fence was erected around the cemetery. (In 1990, the Stony Point peoples resumed burying members in the old cemetery.)

After World War II ended, DND agreed in writing to return the Stony Point Reserve to the natives. But the proposal was short-lived as the military decided to keep the camp to train cadets.

In the following decades, the natives continued to negotiate with the government for the return of their land. In 1972, the Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien, stated that the land claims were legitimate and he urged the government to act before the natives ran "out of patience."

Disputes between the Kettle and Stony Point peoples over who was rightfully entitled to the land interests also complicated the negotiations.

The dispute remained unresolved into the early 1990s as lawsuits were launched into land surrenders dating back to the 1920s and the governmental takeover of Camp Ipperwash.

Frustrated with negotiations, some Stony Point descendants occupied Camp Ipperwash in 1993. In September of 1995, without the entire support of the community, protesters moved into Ipperwash Provincial Park. Dudley George was one of the men leading the protest. He was shot and killed during a nighttime raid by the OPP on Sept. 6, 1995.

With files from Joan Holmes & Associates, Inc. as provided at the Ipperwash Inquiry