Aamjiwnaang First Nation is poised for expansion in the next couple of decades.
The community was gifted 70 acres of land from Shell Canada at a special ceremony on Thursday afternoon.
It's located near the company's Corunna site on LaSalle Line.
Chief Chris Plain said the land belonged to the First Nation until around the 1920's and he's thrilled to be getting it back.
He said it'll be put to good use as the community continues to expand and members look to return home.
"There's the opportunity for maybe 50 to 60 houses, maybe commercial buildings or parks, who knows?," said Plain. "Nonetheless, what's important to us is that because it's been farmed over the last number of years there is no trees and the environmental footprint for us to develop will be really small. We won't have to be clear cutting or anything of that nature."
The land has been leased out by Shell as farming land over the years.
Sarnia Refinery General Manager Guy Hackwell said Shell bought the land from the government back in the 1960's.
He said returning it to Aamjiwnaang is a sign of their developing relationship.
"Shell has been a longstanding member of the community here and I think it's a reflection of the fact that we want to enable the Aamjiwnaang First Nation to continue to grow."
The land is ready for development pending gaining reserve status from the federal government.
Chief Plain said in the past, development opportunities have been limited because a lot of land at Aamjiwnaang is owned by private businesses.
He said they rely on the City of Sarnia for a lot of infrastructure needs, and it will be nice to develop some of their own.
