Cree sisters accuse childhood abuser of Indigenous identity fraud in court [Video]

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

In a Peterborough, Ont., courtroom last year, three Cree sisters unfolded the difficult stories of their childhoods. They recalled the beatings their aunt by marriage routinely meted out.

They alleged Katherine Cannon, the woman acting as their foster parent, had beat them with her fists, a belt and razor strap, and abused them with death threats and racist insults in the 1960s and ’70s.

The woman who called them “dirty Indians,” they testified, later became a self-styled “chief” of the Algonquins of Ontario organization. They alleged her Algonquin identity was “bogus” and was adopted for personal gain in the 1990s.

It took 10 years of civil litigation, but in November a judge ruled Sharon Cannon, Rosie Christie and Darlene Paddy-Cannon were telling the truth about the abuse.

“They were belittled, treated differently from others, hit with a belt and a …