Rio Tinto Alcan (NYSE:RIO) will hand back 11,000 acres of land expropriated from the Cheslatta Carrier Nation in B.C.’s Northern Interior in the early 1950s.
Under an agreement announced Monday, Rio Tinto Alcan will transfer 63 lots of land to the band, which lives in the Grassy Plains area midway between Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park to the south and Burns Lake to the north.
“Today, we get back what we lost 60 years ago,” said Cheslatta Chief Richard Peters. “Land is the backbone of any community, and this land is truly the foundation for our future.
“We are most grateful for the hard work and dedication of former Cheslatta leaders and we also thank Rio Tinto Alcan for being a progressive corporation that understands the significance of the land to the Cheslatta people. We are fully committed to continue working together.”
The land was expropriated by the Department of Indian Affairs, which relocated the Cheslatta Carrier people from their village on Cheslatta Lake. Their traditional land was flooded in 1952 to create the Kenny Dam on the Nechako River as part of a hydroelectric project to power the Alcan aluminum smelter in Kitimat.
“This important event is the culmination of over 10 years of discussions between us and the community to return these traditional lands to the Cheslatta Carrier Nation,” said Jean Simon, Rio Tinto Alcan primary metal CEO. “Today is an important milestone and represents how we can move forward co-operatively.”
It’s not yet known whether the land being returned will be occupied by the Cheslatta Carrier Nation or used for other purposes.
Nelson Bennett
@nbennett_biv