The new owners of 39 acres of Norfolk County farmland could soon be introduced to the complicated world of Indigenous land claims.

The property at 1594 Concession 2 Townsend sold for $410,800 at a tax sale in Simcoe on Wednesday.

The land at the southern border of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve was assessed at $338,000. Its owners, the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), owed $73,657 in property taxes.

The sale is not yet final. The winning bidder has two weeks to pay in full. If they walk away, they lose their 20 per cent deposit and the property is offered to the next-highest bidder, who in this case made an offer of just over $314,000.

Aaron Detlor, a spokesperson for HDI, says the group has no intention of leaving their land, which sits near the intersection of

See Full Page