Was the land taken by trickery, intimidation, exploitation or legal transactions?
By Meredith Macleod
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 13, 2006)
Native protesters hold their ground
outside a housing subdivision in Caledonia
where construction has come to a halt
because of the dispute.
Photo by Sheryl Nadler, the Hamilton Spectator
There are 165 years of outrage, division, infighting and mistrust behind a six-week-long occupation of a newly begun Caledonia subdivision.
The core of the issue is disagreement over ownership of land given to Six Nations and then, piece by piece, taken back by the British Crown.
How that land was taken -- whether by trickery, intimidation, exploitation or entirely legal land transactions -- is the subject of both the current blockade and discussions between lawyers for Six Nations and the federal government about tens of thousands of acres of land surrounding the reserve.
Protesters blockading the Douglas Creek Estates back the view of the traditional hereditary chiefs, the Haudenosaunee, that 384,451 hectares running 9.6 kilometres deep on either side of the Grand River from Lake Erie 210 kilometres northwest near Dundalk was stolen by the Crown in 1841.
Local native protesters, bolstered by warrior factions and other activists from Ontario and the U.S., say they are "reclaiming" their land.
Negotiating the claim is complicated because many within Six Nations do not share the view the land was stolen. The elected band council acknowledges the hereditary chiefs signed over the land in question in Caledonia but believe there has never been fair compensation for other large land parcels.
The sharp split between the political role of the elected band council and the traditional chiefs has led to a complete breakdown in communication between the two, said Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, an aboriginal studies and history professor at the University of Toronto and Laurentian University.
"There is a power struggle. Traditional chiefs won't speak to (elected Chief Dave General) or shake his hand. It goes against our values of honour and respect, but it shows there is a very deep rift."
The federal and provincial governments recognize only the elected band council and that feeds the belief that no one is listening to what some argue are the authoritative First Nations voice.
There are 14 outstanding Six Nations land claims affecting about half of Haldimand and more than 4,000 hectares between Brantford and Onondaga, a nearby Brant County community. The Plank Road Tract in question was registered as a land claim in 1987. But that land claim did not affect third party interests.
A lawsuit launched in 1995 dragged on until the two parties agreed to sit down and explore a resolution, beginning with two of the claims. As of last month, they had agreed on the basic facts of each claim. This is not one of them.
"That's a huge step towards working out an agreement," said Jo-Anne Greene, director of Six Nations Lands and Resources.
This claim had been put aside while the sides worked on the other two.
The issue across the Haldimand tract is that in some cases, land was taken against the wishes of Six Nations. In others, land was never paid for. Six Nations also alleges there was fraud, misappropriation of funds and poor investments and that natural resources were extracted without any native compensation.
A current trust account held by the federal government holds less than $3 million.
Meanwhile, the federal and provincial governments point fingers at each other over who is responsible. Legal arguments have been made that the Canadian government can't be held accountable for actions of the British Crown before Canada was formed in 1867.
Hagersville real estate lawyer Ed McCarthy says the lands upon which the Douglas Creek subdivision is being built was clearly and legally sold by Six Nations in 1841. If the money was not properly cared for by the federal government, that is an accounting issue with the federal government, not a land claim against a private landowner, said McCarthy.
Meredith Macleod
905-526-3408
Six Nations land reward chronology
* Oct. 25, 1784: Six Nations rewarded with a tract of land for its loyalty to the British Crown during the American Revolution. It's referred to as the Haldimand Proclamation after Frederick Haldimand, general and commander of the British forces. It gave to Six Nations six miles on either side of the Grand River from Lake Erie to its source, about 385,000 hectares.
* 1792: Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe reduces the Six Nations grant to 111,000 hectares.
* 1796: Six Nations grants its chief, Joseph Brant, the power of attorney to sell off some of the land and invest proceeds. The Crown opposes the sales but eventually concedes to grant Brant the patents required.
* 1830-1840: Members of Six Nations dispose of land to white settlers without approval of chiefs or the Crown. Squatters become a major problem.
* 1835: Crown approaches Six Nations about development of Plank Road (now Highway 6) and lands around it. Six Nations agrees to lease half a mile of land on each side for road, but does not surrender land. Lieutenant-Governor John Colborne agrees to lease but his successor, Sir Francis Bond Head, does not. After 1845, despite protests of Six Nations, Plank Road and surrounding lands were sold to third parties.
* 1840: Government recommends a reserve of 8,000 hectares be established on the south side of the Grand River and the rest sold or leased.
* Jan. 18, 1841: Six Nations council agrees to surrender for sale all lands outside those set aside for a reserve. A faction of Six Nations petitioned the surrender, saying the chiefs had been deceived and intimidated.
* June 1843: A petition to the Crown said Six Nations needed a 22,000 hectare reserve and wanted to keep and lease a tier of lots on each side of Plank Road and several other tracts of land in the Haldimand area.
* Dec. 18, 1844: Document signed by 47 Six Nations chiefs appears to authorize sale of land to build Plank Road.
* May 15, 1848: Crown deed issued to George Marlot Ryckman for Lot B, west of Plank Road in Oneida Township, about 23 hectares. That land is now Douglas Creek Estates.
* 1850: Crown passes proclamation setting out extent of reserve lands, about 19,000 hectares agreed to by Six Nations chiefs.
* 1924: Under the Indian Act, the Canadian government establishes an elected government on the reserve.
Glossary
Six Nations: A confederacy of Iroquois tribes including originally the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca (the Five Nations). After 1722, they were joined by the Tuscarora to form the Six Nations Confederacy. The tribes were based in Ontario, Quebec, Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
Haudenosaunee: Used by those who reject the term Iroquois, which is said to be a derogatory French word meaning "black snakes."
Haudenosaunee means "People building a longhouse," referring to native nationalities coming to live together in peace under one common law.
Six Nations Reserve: Located west of Highway 6 between the Grand River to the north and Indian Line or Regional Road 20 that runs through Hagersville. Six Nations is the most populous reserve in Canada with a population of about 22,000. Roughly half live on the 46,500-acre reserve. That's less than 5 per cent of the land originally granted to the Six Nations.
Grand Council: The assembly of 50 chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy who represent all of the clans of the member nations. The Grand Council was once united at the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, N.Y.
But when nearly half of the Haudenosaunee moved north after the American Revolution, the Grand Council split. Onondaga is still regarded as the capital of the Confederacy and is home to the central fire.
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Last updated on April 13, 2006