Is a previously unheard-of First Nation just Canada’s latest Pretendian case? – The Guardian

9 May 2024

Local chiefs claim Kawartha Lakes First Nation is part of a wave of cases in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity

The headquarters of the Kawartha Lakes First Nation sits off a single-lane highway 100 miles north-east of Toronto. Between signs advertising the sale of all-terrain vehicles, hand-scrawled messages on the three buildings decry government corruption.

At the centre of the lot, near signs for the “Redneck Church” and “Chief Willy’s Man Cave” stands a 26ft tipi. Alongside banners commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and the victims of Canada’s residential school system, Confederate flags flap gently in the wind.

To its 20 members, this is the heart of Canada’s newest First Nation. But seven local Indigenous chiefs claim it is the site of a brazen fraud that threatens to erode their hard-fought constitutional rights.

Read More: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/canada-first-nation-kawartha-lakes-validity