'Everybody's watching'

Six Nations residents blame all levels of government for not stepping forward and resolving land claims

By Wade Hemsworth
The Hamilton Spectator OHSWEKEN (Apr 21, 2006)

As anger, uncertainty and anxiety continue to ferment on both sides of the barricades at Caledonia, the residents of Six Nations are left wondering who will step up to deal with their claim over disputed lands near the Grand River.

Across Canada's most populous native reserve, emotions ran high throughout the day after Ontario Provincial Police detained native protesters occupying the construction site at Douglas Creek Estates at the southern edge of the developed area of town.

Though the police withdrew, few at Six Nations believed the trouble was over.

"Everybody's watching. Everybody's talking. Everybody's concerned," said Carrie Hill, manager of the busy Big Six Gas and Convenience on Fourth Line near Oneida Road, where customers shared news and rumours.

By early afternoon, Hill had heard everything, from talks continuing to talks breaking off to the police backing away to the police planning to return. She blamed the government of Canada and Ontario for the vacuum.

"Nobody's willing to come forward and take responsibility for anything," she said. At Sixth Line and Oneida Road, just west of the occupied subdivision, a small group led by a handful of young natives was slowing traffic and swearing at white people as burning tires spewed black smoke into the air.

Nearby, a 50-year-old man, who would identify himself only as Steve, was quieter but no less angry.

"That's what I've grown up with: anger. It's generational. It's not just me. My dad feels it. My ancestors felt it," he said.

Steve said he and other natives have simply grown tired of all levels of government trying to pass off responsibility for their unresolved land claims.

"It's their way of addressing the problem: wishing that we would go away. They want us to go away, but we won't. We can't. To us, it's black and white. We're not going to win in the white man's courts, because it's the white man's law."

At the occupation site, a native man, who goes by the traditional name Hadocsay, stepped forward to demand answers from Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer as she spoke to reporters.

"She's always evading the question," he said after she told him the response to the protest was a police matter beyond her jurisdiction. "The only people we want to see are federal officials who can come down here and deal with the problem."

The 77-year-old man said he had been pushed to the ground and briefly handcuffed by OPP officers earlier in the day.

After a long morning trying to restore calm at the barricades, Lesley Greene and her husband, Dennis, took a late lunch at Vinny's Down "B" Low Diner on Sixth Line near Cayuga Road.

The native couple, who live near the protest site, were representing the Apostolic Motorcycle Ministry of Jesus Christ, and had been urging protesters to remain calm in the face of growing tension.

"We just tell people we love them, we care about them. And if it looks like tension is getting heavier, we tell them, 'Come out. Come away from here'. If someone seems tired and needs rest, we try to pull them away and urge them to rest."

Greene said she was deeply saddened by the situation and the fear it has caused in Caledonia and on the reserve.

"It's not necessary, absolutely not, what the police have come in and done," she said. "That's where it hurts. If you think there's fear in Caledonia, how do you think we feel about our people out there on the front line? That's the greatest fear."

Greene said she had talked a young man into putting down a plastic baseball bat. The bat itself wouldn't have done much harm, but she worried it might have been too late for him before someone realized it.

"You need to put that down. That's not called for," she told the young man. "Don't brandish it. It looks like you want to fight. I know how you feel inside, but I want to see you at the end of this. When all of this is over, I want to know that you're alive."

Like so many on the reserve, she hopes it's not too late for a peaceful solution.

"I don't want to see anything bad come to the people ... not for Caledonia residents and not for Six Nations. Not at all."

W. Hemsworth
905-526-3254

THE PLAYERS:

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.

TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP:

The Haudenosaunee means "People building a longhouse," referring to native nationalities coming to live together in peace under one common law.

These leaders, chosen by the clan mothers, are the traditional chiefs who many on the reserve regard as the only legitimate authority for the Six Nations.

ELECTED BAND COUNCIL:

In 1924, under the Indian Act, the Canadian government established an elected government on the reserve after evicting the traditional chiefs from the band offices. The federal government listens only to the elected band council, today led by Dave General, which many on the reserve still refuse to recognize. The elected council is opposed to the protest, but has included the Plank Road Tract as one of 29 land claims registered with Ottawa.

The land in dispute near Caledonia 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, not including the Caledonia subdivision land. As of last month, they had agreed on the basic facts of each claim.

The protesters: The group says the land is part of Six Nations territory and was never to be sold to non-natives. They say the dispute has to be settled on a nation-to-nation basis with Ottawa or through some international court.

The developers: Don and John Henning, of Henco Industries, have invested about $6 million in the project and say they have a clear title to the land.

The clan mothers: The clan mothers are part of the Six Nations Confederacy governance system. Based on a matrilineal tradition, there is one clan mother in each clan, who chooses her successor among her descendants and picks the Confederacy chiefs.

Land at stake: A tract of open land west of Argyle Street and south of the town of Caledonia that is being developed as Douglas Creek Estates. There are 71 housing lots in the first phase of the subdivision. There are 10 houses in various stages of construction, including six that have been sold.

HISTORY OF THE CLAIM:

Protesters say that land, known as the Plank Road Tract, is part of the much larger Haldimand Deed, granted by the Crown to Six Nations in 1784 in recognition of their support of the British Crown during the American War of Independence. The deed included land stretching 10 kilometres on either side of the Grand River, from Lake Erie to Dundalk (midway between Owen Sound and Fergus), about 210 kilometres..

Haldimand Deed - Legal Document

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That initial 950,000 acres was later downgraded by Lieutenant-Governor John Simcoe in 1795 to 275,000 acres. The Haldimand Tract now ends near present-day Elora in Nicol Township.

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 18,818-hectare reserve. That's less than 5 per cent of the land originally granted to the Six Nations.

SIX NATIONS LAND CHRONOLOGY

Oct. 25, 1784: The Six Nations was 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 the Six Nations six miles (almost 10 kilometres) 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 problem.

1835: The 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 against 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: A 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.

The Hamilton Spectator

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April 2006 Reports

Last updated on April 21, 2006