Utoo Radio with Other News Sources, May 8, 2024 - The Kawartha Lakes First Nation, located 100 miles north-east of Toronto, is the heart of Canada's newest First Nation.

However, seven local Indigenous chiefs claim it is the site of a brazen fraud that threatens to erode their hard-fought constitutional rights. In recent years, Canada has grappled with a wave of "Pretendian" cases in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity. The use of Indigenous symbols and slogans has also grown increasingly common among the country's far right.

Members of the Kawartha Lakes First Nation argue they are exempt from laws and taxes, echoing the rhetoric of the extremist sovereign citizens movement. The group's emergence has raised concerns over how groups might use Indigenous identity to lay claim to land or demand concessions from local and provincial governments.

About two months ago, William Denby, the self-proclaimed "chief" of the Kawartha group, began sending emails to local chiefs and municipal and provincial officials, often written in all caps and combining grievances and increasingly bold claims.

The chiefs of six other nations that are signatories to the 1923 Williams Treaties warned Denby and his group were "illegitimately asserting] rights" and had no ancestral Indigenous connection to any of the region.

Denby called the statement "lies" and told supporters he had sued the chiefs for "slander." The city of Kawartha Lakes also said Denby's group "lacks any connection to a historical Indigenous community" in the region, and his claims were a "disservice to legitimate rights holders.".

Denby has claimed both Ojibwe and Mohawk ancestry but also told supporters that anyone born in Canada is "native." The name "Kawartha" was created in the late 1800s as part of a tourism campaign to rebrand the Trent Valley.

Bill Denby, a Canadian far-right leader, was arrested and charged with criminal harassment in April. He accused city councillors of destroying farmland and threatened to kill or poison them if they did not stop. Denby has not entered a plea, and none of the charges have been proven in court.

Researchers have seen this strategy as a threat to legitimate Indigenous groups, who believe that if they can finagle a little land claim, they will get to create their own fiefdom with their own laws.

The use of a "potpourri of Indigenous iconography" has become a growing trend among far-right groups. For example, Romana Didulo, the Q-Anon figure who has proclaimed herself the "Queen" of Canada, uses the motto "Kiçhi Manitō Osākihin", a rough Cree language translation of "God Loves You.".

Canada's constitution outlines the rights of Indigenous peoples, the state's obligations to recognized groups, and the legitimacy of historical and contemporary treaties. However, many of the assumptions groups like the Kawartha Lakes First Nation make are based on a misunderstanding of those constitutional provisions and an antiquated view of Indigenous peoples.

As the federal government weighs self-governance legislation that would recognize new Indigenous nations, increasingly sophisticated groups could convince government officials they have a legitimate claim and even supplant the existing rights holders. The Métis Nation of Ontario received a C$1.33 million (US$1 million) grant to acquire 40 hectares of wetlands in a conservation effort, as well as to develop a "Métis culture and language camp" to focus on "land-based education."