While settlers are perhaps aware they are on Indigenous lands, what happens when they find out they are literally on First Nations reserve land that was federally re-distributed as a Mennonite reserve? George Kingfisher, hereditary chief of the Young Chippewayan Band who has just passed title on to eldest son Marshall Williams, new HERITARY Chief of Young CHIPPIYAN RESERVE 107 also known as Stoney knoll reserve 107, joined with elected Chief Sylvia Weenie and four Mennonites to form a six-person panel responding to the documentary “Reserve 107” about a grassroots land claim process, on June 11th at Prairieland.

Related: Reserve 107: Reconciliation on the Prairies documentary

“To me, the way things are going, that’s how it should be. Settle things peacefully,” said Kingfisher, adding before his dad passed away, he wrote a letter saying, ‘Do not try to take that land away, that’s their home now. They’ve been there for over 100 years. You’ll look worse than the government if you try that.’

“So I followed his wishes, and that’s how we became friends,” noted Kingfisher, currently camping on a Mennonite farm by invitation, one of the only band members back on the land, and still hoping for some justice and compensation from the feds. “I hope this works soon. Maybe we have the right government now, we don’t know yet.”

L-R: Jason Johnson, Wilmer Froese, Ray Funk, George Kingfisher, Leonard Doell, Sylvia Weenie

Weenie noted her late husband and former elected Chief, Ben, worked for many years on the tedious claims process, trying to get the federal government to admit the wrongs they had done to the Young Chippewayan Band as well as the Mennonites.

“At the beginning, nobody wanted to touch the claim, even the lawyers,” noted Weenie. “I’m really glad we’re at this point where we’re actually meeting, but we need a recognized First Nation to sponsor the claim so we can take it to court.”

One of the words Ben used was “Ahtimaymook” - to persevere, to keep going, and Weenie has continued to follow his selfless example. He pointed out that the Mennonites and Lutherans were also the victims of the situation, so they all had to work together.

“Remember it’s not for us, it’s for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren coming up,” Weenie quoted of her late husband. She hopes one day the band will have some kind of home land base to return to.

The reserve land in the Laird area was granted to the band in the 1800‘s but their Chief fell ill and died, adding to the conditions of famine, and chaos around 1885, so it was eventually added to the Rosthern Mennonite Reserve by the federal government in 1897. The current Mennonite and Lutheran farmers gradually became aware of the injustice of the situation through efforts on both sides. The groups began to meet and discuss the situation, eventually signing a mutual document on Stoney Knoll in 2006.

“We were beneficiaries of an injustice,” noted Leonard Doell, asked four decades ago by the Mennonite Central Committee to investigate the history of Reserve 107. “We only had a very narrow picture of what actually happened, and now our story in the last 39 years has become more complete as we’ve filled it in with the Young Chippewayan people who’ve now become friends connected to us in a variety of ways.”

The MCC is collecting funds to help with the land claims process.