The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) has announced its intention to enter the online gambling business via a partnership with online gambling site Sports Interaction (SI).

Last week, the MCK announced an agreement in principle to “enter into the business of e-gaming” via a partnership with SI, which has operated under a Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission (KGC) license since 1999. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the MCK said the pact was the result of “many months of negotiations.”

MCK Grand Chief Michael Delisle Jr. said both chief and council had “deliberated long and hard on this matter” before council voted 9-3 in favor of the partnership. Delisle said the MCK had “conducted lengthy and comprehensive research” that ultimately concluded the deal offered the “unprecedented opportunity to partner with a successful company that has been a good corporate citizen in Kahnawà:ke.”

The MCK’s announcement comes just as Canada is wrestling with the devastating final report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC was formed in 2008 to investigate the country’s former residential schools system, which the report castigates as “nothing short of cultural genocide.”