Did Canada pay ...? I sold my land, we signed all the papers, but the buyer never paid me! Now he's building on my land saying he has the 'papers' and claiming he owns it! Ridiculous! you say? Not in Canada! you say? Wait ... The settlement of any land claim involves establishing the validity of historical documents - proclamations, treaties, surrenders, sales, leases, etc. Sometimes, wandering around in these discussions and the fancy words in the documents, people lose sight of the big picture: What if the documents are all in order but Canada simply did not pay the costs associated with the agreements? What if ... for example ... our government agreed to compensate Six Nations for land flooded to build the Welland Canal ... and then Canada simply never paid? What if ... Canada agreed to administer sales/leases for surrendered land, and then Canada simply never paid them the money? Canada holds Indigenous land 'in trust'. Any transactions are to be recorded and the money deposited in Six Nations account. Six Nations has been asking for a complete accounting of the money in their account for many decades, and the feds have not complied: It appears the money is not there! So ... no matter how many 'surrenders' Canada has, they are not worth the paper they are written on if Canada did not keep its part of the agreement. If the terms of an agreement are not honoured by one of the parties, particularly payment, the property reverts to the original owner!