Quote:In North America the Native Indians in Canada and the U.S. have brought to court their legitimate "Land Claims" and they have won their cases in court on the basis that "they were here first"!
here's excerpts from an article on land claims in the online Canadian encyclopedia:
[CODE]On 8 August 1973 the federal government, wishing to clear the way for industrial development of the North and to improve the position of native peoples in Canada, announced a new policy for the settlement of native claims. The policy confirmed the responsibility of government to meet its lawful obligations through fulfilment of the terms of the treaties and to negotiate settlements with native groups in those areas of Canada where native rights based on traditional use and occupancy of the land had not been dealt with by treaty or superseded by law. The policy emphasized that the co-operation of provincial and territorial governments would be required.
In order to carry out the new policy, an Office of Native Claims was created in 1974 within the Department of INDIAN AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS CANADA (INAC). Under the leadership of an assistant deputy minister, negotiators, lawyers and researchers dealt with 2 main types of claim: specific and comprehensive. Specific claims are based on problems arising from the administration of Indian treaties, the INDIAN ACT, Indian funds and disposition of Indian land. Although negotiation is the preferred course of action to settle these claims, settlement may also be reached by administrative remedy or court action. Specific claims are usually made by Indian groups living in the provinces, as opposed to the territories, and most settlements consist of compensation and land (sometimes land only). Comprehensive claims are based on the traditional use and occupancy of land by Indians, Métis or Inuit who did not sign treaties and were not displaced from their lands by war or other means. These claims, which are settled by negotiation, involve the 2 territories and the northern parts of some provinces. The areas of land and the numbers of native people involved are usually greater than in the case of specific claims. Settlement of these claims comprises a variety of terms including money, land, forms of local government, rights to wildlife, rights protecting native language and culture and joint management of lands and resources.
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nothing in there about repatriating anyone back to Europe.
in a later section,
By March 1996, 746 specific claims, including those for treaty entitlement (mostly in the prairie provinces), had been received by government. Of those, 151 had been settled by negotiation, 40 settled by litigation and 95 were being negotiated. Two hundred and eighty-six were under review; files were closed on 98 and 76 were rejected.
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seems to me that ultimately the canadian government decides claims against it by people who "were here first," and the original inhabitants certainly don't win all the cases.