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Message from The Chief’s Desk
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Aanii Kinaweya

As many of you are aware, Sagamok Anishnawbek, as a signatory Nation to Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850, has been party to the litigation and recent settlement for past compensation of the Robinson Huron Treaty annuities claim.

As Anishinaabek, we understand that our ancestors’ intent in signing the treaty was not for our Nations to be controlled and impoverished on our own lands, while settlers enjoyed freedom and prosperity on the lands and resources we were willing to share through our treaty relationship.

It’s been a long battle to fight for recognition of our treaty entitlements and accountability by settler governments ever since. For decades, through petitions and advocacy, the Anishinaabek Nations of the Robinson Huron Treaty have pursued implementation of the spirit and intent of that treaty relationship. More recently, over the past 20 years at least, the annuities claim has been in development for litigation and in court. As a result, the courts have recognized and acknowledged the failure of the Crown to live up to that relationship. The court judgements and the settlement agreement are victories for the RHT Anishinabek. This unprecedented ruling by Justice Hennessey in the Restoule case confirms Anishinaabek entitlement to resource revenue sharing, and the settlement agreement articles pave the way for us to continue the battle for a more just share through the Annuity Augmentation Promise going forward.

We understand the hard work and dedication it takes to battle colonial governments in their own systems. We are grateful to the many people over many years who have remained committed to this work, and we recognize that we must remain steadfast in continuing to advocate for our treaty rights going forward.

The battle is not over.

As mentioned, the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund and Chiefs meeting was held in Baawaating on April 22nd. At this meeting, the Chiefs and Trustees accepted and passed a motion to amend the Compensation Disbursement Agreement in two ways:

1. Reduce the 10% War Chest set aside to 5%, allowing the other 5% to be included as part of the community disbursements.

2. Change the annuitants 25% factor and include it in the population factor’s 25%, thereby increasing the population percentage from 25% to 50%. We recognize that the work of distinguishing annuitants from population for some communities could take 2-3 years, delaying the flow of priority 3 payment for at least that long. Our community members have been calling for the flow of funds to be expedited, and the acceptance of this amendment was intended to assist with that request from our members.

With these important decisions, we can now confidently share that the priority 2 payment can be expected to reach communities who are ready, by early August 2024. Our membership and finance offices have been working diligently to begin preparing for per capita disbursements as soon as Sagamok receives the funds. This gives us only a few months to confirm and finalize individual banking, establish Sagamok Anishnawbek’s trust indenture to hold the funds separate from administration, and have conversations with community on collective and individual disbursement ratios, and trust policy priority areas. We are confident that, together, we can ensure this is all complete prior to the beginning of August so that funds can reach our members.

Based on these decisions, we also know that we won’t have to wait years for annuitant numbers to be finalized, and because of that, are in a better position to estimate Sagamok’s potential settlement portion, based on population. Our best estimate, thus far, puts Sagamok Anishnawbek’s settlement portion at an estimated $585 Million, depending on final population numbers across the 21 communities. This is an unprecedented opportunity to make significant positive change for Sagamok Anishnawbek members, families, community, and future generations. We ask that you be mindful about sharing information with those who may not have the best intentions for some of our potentially vulnerable community members.

We plan to host a community information session and celebration on May 25th with a focus on understanding the various distribution scenarios, respecting the court ruling of collective monies, with member requests for an individual per capita amount. This session will provide an opportunity for us to look at the dollar figure amounts around individual per capita and collective trust ratio calculations. Once we can see what those scenarios look like, based on our best estimate dollar figures, we will be better positioned to determine the most suitable options for our community.

We also plan to poll our members in early June regarding age factor considerations and disbursement ratios. We know that our leadership and our membership have a shared responsibility in determining an appropriate way to balance the request from members to meet current individual needs, with the request to invest in community building for future generations. We will be in the best position if we collectively work toward shared understandings by making these decisions together.

Chi-miigwech,

Ogimaa Angus Toulouse
Aajijak Dodem

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