Whitesand receives land transfers

Whitesand First Nation recently celebrated the transfer of lands in their traditional territory along the northwestern shore of Lake Nipigon.
“All together, we have five additional parcels of land to be added to our reserve, but these are spread out throughout our territory,” said Clifford Tibishkogijig, a Whitesand band councillor.
“It allows us to have, what I call, small footprints throughout our territory. It signifies that we are not only living and occupying the land, but we are also continuing to utilize the land that we call our traditional territory.”
The land transfer celebration was held at the Old Whitesand community site on Lake Nipigon on May 25.
The Whitesand reserve was set up in its present location next to Armstrong, along the CN rail line, in the 1980s. The old community on the northwest shore of Lake Nipigon was flooded in 1942 by rising water, forcing community members to move to locations along the CN rail line.
“It was beautiful,” Tibishkogijig said about the old community site on Lake Nipigon.
“The way it was described in the archives that we researched, was it was beautiful, it was beautiful, low-laying terrain where children were playing and people were pitching up tents. But right now we’re sitting against a big cliff.”
Tibishkogijig said some graves were exposed over the years due to erosion and some graves were moved a few years ago, also due to erosion.
“I think it was a youth that was exposed through the eroding,” Tibishkogijig said. “That’s one thing about our First Nations people a long time ago; they buried their relatives or family right beside where they lived and they didn’t really mark it.”
The water levels on Lake Nipigon rose after two water diversions into Lake Nipigon were created, including the Ogoki River diversion in 1940, to provide more hydropower generation capacity for World War II production efforts.
Tibishkogijig said community members are already making plans to move back or have already moved back to their old community sites for the summer months.
“A lot of people have developed that old Whitesand reserve as their place of residence,” Tibishkogijig said. “So that’s the same thing that’s going to happen with Ferland and Mud River (along the CN rail line).”
The community of about 1,100 band members, of which about 50 per cent currently live on reserve, also settled a flood claim agreement with Ontario Power Generation about two years ago.
“As part of our settlement with OPG, they are going to do a shoreline restoration project,” Tibishkogijig said. “They’re going to try to put it back the way it was.”