More than 50 years late, Canada on Thursday gave back to native Indians land that the government confiscated for use as a military base and where a violent Indian rights protest erupted three years ago.
The dispute over the prime beachfront land known as Camp Ipperwash some 155 miles northwest of Toronto has simmered for decades.The government in 1942 promised it would return the Lake Huron property to the Kettle and Stony Point Natives at the end of the Second World War but did not do so.
Frustration over the government inaction exploded in the summer of 1995, when dozens of armed Indian protesters occupied the camp and adjoining Ipperwash Provincial Park.
Ontario Provincial Police kept up a month-long siege that was marked by numerous gunfights, one of which ended in the death of an Indian protester and injuries to two others.
Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton said Thursday his ministry "applauds this step leading to the return of the former Camp Ipperwash lands."
Norm Shawnoo, chief-elect of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, said the agreement would "enable the community to start healing and to re-establish itself.