When a Tribe Whose Great Great Great Grandparents Once Fished There Now Owns Your Property. Abstract: This article explores the unsettling reality of property ownership disputes rooted in historical tribal claims. It examines how modern legal frameworks and government negotiations—often conducted without public transparency—can result in land title transfers from current taxpayers to tribal entities based on ancestral ties. Through a case study of land once used for fishing generations ago, the piece highlights the tension between historical justice and contemporary property rights, raising urgent questions about due process, governmental accountability, and the future of private land ownership. Think this can't happen to you? ### Commentary Governments are quietly reshaping land ownership through ancestral claims, often without public consent or transparency. In Canada, tribal entities have successfully reclaimed land based on historical use—such as fishing rights from generations past—resulting in title transfers from current taxpayers to Indigenous groups. While framed as justice for past wrongs, this process bypasses due process and undermines the social contract between citizens and the state. This isn’t a fluke—it’s a precedent. Once legal pathways are established, similar claims could spread rapidly, especially in the United States. Emotional guilt and political pressure are driving decisions that ignore long-term consequences. The result? A doom-loop of distrust: secretive deals erode public confidence, fuel backlash, and destabilize both current landowners and the recipients of transferred property. Rather than healing historical wounds, these opaque transfers risk killing the golden goose—property rights, economic stability, and civic trust. Justice must be pursued, but not at the expense of transparency, fairness, and the foundational principles of ownership.