Building a home for Darlene Necan in Ontario, Canada. Photo from Facebook

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in Ontario, Canada, said it tried to negotiate with a Native woman who has been charged for building a home on land that belongs to the province.

With the help of volunteers, Darlene Necan started putting up the structure where her family's home once stood. The agency learned of the effort and offered to sell the land to her, a spokesperson said.

"She did not accept any of the offers that we had made to try to resolve the situation, and after numerous attempts ... after nine months of effort with the individual, a charge was laid," Todd Lane, the press secretary to Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Bill Mauro, told CBC News.

Necan is homeless so it's not clear whether she would have been able to come up with the money to buy the site. She now faces a fine of at least $10,000 for allegedly violating the Public Lands Act.

Necan is Ojibwe from the Saugeen First Nation. The site where she was building isn't part of the reserve but it served as her family's home when they were out hunting. She doesn't know how the government came to assume ownership of it.

Necan said she hasn't been able to find housing on the reserve.

Get the Story:
Ministry told Darlene Necan she could buy the land for her home (CBC 11/12)

Related Stories:
Native woman charged for building home on ancestral land (11/10)