Garry Horsnell - April 28, 2007
Some Six Nations people refer to the Nanfan Treaty of 1701, King George’s proclamation of 1763, the Haldimand proclamation of 1784 (which aboriginals call a treaty) and other agreements when making their case for land claims. The following history may help to show why it is so difficult to resolve the disputes.
The group of people we now call the Six Nations included only the Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga and Oneida Indians or only Five Nations until the Tuscarora joined them in the 1700s.
The Five Nations Iroquois originally inhabited the area south of Lake Ontario in what is now upper New York State, USA. They formed a Confederacy sometime between 1100 and 1500 AD. Some historians say they formed the Confederacy around 1459. Recent research suggests, however, they may have formed it as early as 1142.
During the 1600s, the Five Nations Iroquois tended to ally themselves with British colonists but fought against French colonists and their aboriginal allies, the Algonquin and the Huron. The Five Nations Iroquois also fought with and defeated the Mahican, the Susquehanna, the Erie, the Miami, the Illinois and other aboriginals to conquer a large area south of the Great Lakes as far west as what is now Chicago, Illinois. They also invaded what is now southwestern Ontario to kill, conquer and disperse the indigenous Neutral, Tionontati and Huron Indians.
However, in 1696, a united force of Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomis Indians drove the Five Nations Iroquois out of southwestern Ontario and various reports say they were definitely gone by 1700.
In 1701, against the wishes of the British, the Five Nations made peace with the French and their aboriginal allies. The pact was called the Montreal Treaty or Great Peace of Montreal.
That same year, in a surprise move possibly to appease the British, 20 Chiefs from the Five Nations signed the Nanfan Treaty, named after Sir John Nanfan who was then acting British Governor of New York. In the treaty, the Five Nations said “we…surrender, deliver up and forever quit claim” to a huge tract of land, which they said they had conquered, to “our great Lord and Master the King of England” on condition the British would allow Five Nations people to hunt on that land forever.
The parcel of land, which the Five Nations surrendered, was outside of their traditional homeland. The area was about 800 miles long running from the Niagara region to Chicago and was about 400 miles wide including what is now southwestern Ontario. It seems, however, the Five Nations neglected to tell the British that the Ojibwa and their allies had driven the Iroquois out of southwestern Ontario 5 years earlier.
Sometime between 1712 and 1722, the Tuscarora migrated from North Carolina to join the Five Nations in New York to form the Confederacy we now know as the Six Nations.
Between 1754 and 1763, the British and French fought what was called the French and Indian War in North America, which led to the Seven Years War in Europe. Though, the Iroquois had made peace with the French in 1701, they tended to side with the British in this war against the French and their aboriginal allies.
Eventually, British General Wolfe defeated French General Montcalm in 1759 on the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City. The British took Montreal in 1760 and the war finally ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. As a result, Britain got Florida, Quebec and all French territory east of the Mississippi River.
After the war, aboriginals complained to the Crown about land speculators, squatters and European expansion. To appease the aboriginals and maintain order, King George III issued a proclamation in 1763, which told British colonists to vacate Indian Territory and told aboriginals that, if they wanted to sell land, they should only sell it to the Crown. This, however, angered European settlers in North America because it hampered their ability to expand westward.
Worried about rebellion and to keep French colonists from siding with Americans, the British parliament passed the Quebec Act in 1774. Among other things, it extended the British Province of Quebec through what is now southern Ontario into the Ohio valley and revoked in Quebec the King’s proclamation of 1763. The Quebec Act, however, further angered American colonists who revolted a year later in 1775.
During the American War of Independence, some Six Nations warriors led by Joseph Brant helped the British fight against American revolutionaries. The Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga and Onondaga sided with the British. The Oneida and Tuscarora, however, sided with the Americans.
Nevertheless, in 1779, Major-General John Sullivan and his American militia took upper New York State and burned out all of the Six Nations villages they could find forcing many aboriginals to flee.
Eventually the Americans won their revolution and the war ended with another Treaty of Paris in 1783.
In 1784, the British purchased a huge section of what is now southwestern Ontario from the Mississaugas, an Ojibwa people who had moved into the area.
Later in 1784, Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor in Chief of Quebec and British North America, issued a proclamation, which granted the Six Nations part of the Mississauga purchase six miles wide on each side of the Grand River from mouth to source as a reward for helping the British during the American Revolution and to help compensate the Six Nations for the loss of their homeland in New York.
Haldimand’s proclamation was not a treaty. It was a unilateral proclamation from Haldimand, which only he signed. Furthermore, although it said the Six Nations were “to take possession” of the land, the Six Nations were never given formal title or a deed to the land.
Soon, European settlers began to squat and buy land on the Haldimand tract. This was easy because the Quebec Act of 1774 had revoked the King’s proclamation of 1763.
The Six Nations Council approached Crown representatives on numerous occasions to stop these encroachments and transactions. Finally, in 1793, Lord Simcoe, then Governor of Upper Canada, issued his Patent. This reduced the amount of land for the Six Nations of the Grand River to within the northern boundary of the Mississauga purchase, told European squatters to vacate land occupied by the Six Nations, told the Six Nations that the remaining land was for their “entire possession” and told them that, if they wanted to lease or sell that land, they should only lease or sell it to the Crown.
Although the land transaction conditions in the Simcoe Patent were similar to those in the Kings proclamation of 1763, Joseph Brant and the Six Nations Chiefs disagreed with the Simcoe Patent. First, it had significantly reduced the amount of land originally allotted to the Six Nations. Second, Brant and the Chiefs believed the Six Nations possessed (owned) the land so they thought the Six Nations Council should be in charge of selling or leasing the land whenever and to whomever it pleased.
Upset with the Simcoe patent, in need of money and to make its point, the Council authorized Joseph Brant, in 1796, to sell land from the Haldimand tract. Brant then sold huge sections of it to European settlers.
With all the disputes and bickering, the Crown was unable to enforce the Simcoe Patent, remove squatters effectively or stop Six Nations people from selling land so the Crown suggested it would be better if the Six Nations settled in a smaller area on a reserve where it would be easier to control the land.
Meanwhile, the Americans invaded Canada in 1812. During this war, Six Nations people, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and other aboriginals helped the British route the Americans.
In the 1840s, the Crown finally convinced the Six Nations to settle near the Grand River on the current reserve south of Brantford, Ontario. The Crown said it would manage whatever land the Six Nations relinquished outside of the reserve and put any money from the sale or lease of that land into a trust fund for the Six Nations.
Slowly but surely the land on the Haldimand tract has been whittled away from the Six Nations until now they occupy about 4.8% of the original Haldimand grant. As of May 31, 2004, the trust fund contained only $2.3 million, which is pittance considering the amount of land that must have been sold or leased, and many Six Nations people want to know where the money went.
The history reveals numerous incongruities and raises many questions.
For example, many Six Nations people claim they are indigenous to what is now southwestern Ontario but are they really indigenous if their traditional homeland is south of Lake Ontario in New York State and if they invaded southwestern Ontario to kill, conquer and disperse the Neutrals, Tionontati and Huron who were living there before the Five Nations Iroquois invaded?
Is the government bound to the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 if the Five Nations misrepresented the facts and neglected to tell the British that the Ojibwa and their allies had driven the Five Nations Iroquois from southwestern Ontario 5 years earlier in 1696?
Why did the British buy a huge section of southwestern Ontario from the Mississaugas if the British already had control of the area according to the Nanfan Treaty?
Why did Haldimand say the Six Nations were “to take possession” of the Haldimand tract but never provide them with formal title or a deed to the land? Why did Haldimand grant them land, which extended beyond the northern boundary of the land the Crown had purchased from the Mississaugas?
Why do Six Nations people continually tell us that Haldimand’s proclamation was a treaty or a deed when it was neither? It was simply a proclamation.
What was the true spirit and intention of Haldimand’s proclamation?
Why did Lord Simcoe say that the land along the Grand River, which he granted the Six Nations, was for their “entire possession” but never provide them with formal title or a deed to the land and then tell them they could only sell or lease that land to the Crown? How can you sell or lease land without formal title and conclusive proof of ownership?
If the British bought the land from the Mississaugas simply to allow Six Nations people to occupy Crown land, as some people suggest, why would the Crown need to buy back or lease back its own land?
Why do Six Nations people refer to King George’s Proclamation of 1763, which was revoked by the Quebec Act of 1774, but refuse to acknowledge the Simcoe Patent, which calls for similar actions with regard to squatters and land transactions?
The Six Nations often complain that some agreements and land sales are invalid because they don’t contain the signatures or marks of all 50 Chiefs as required by their tradition. If this is so, why do Six Nations people consider valid the Nanfan Treaty, which contains the signatures or marks of fewer than 50 Chiefs, while considering invalid other agreements, which contain the signatures or marks of fewer than 50 Chiefs?
Why do Six Nations people think that the federal government has not lived up to its financial obligations when each year the Six Nations receives funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada? Private auditor’s reports show that the Six Nations of the Grand River received, for example, $35.1 million in 2004 and $32.5 million in 2005 from INAC. The total has probably reached billions of dollars since the reserve began. Six Nations people also get free education through College and University and free health-care. Those who live and work on the reserve don’t pay federal income taxes and, with status cards, they don’t pay the GST or other federal taxes on items they buy so they get to keep more of their hard earned money. Why isn’t this considered the way the federal government handles and distributes the money it is supposed to keep in trust?
Why does the federal government say, on its Indian and North Affairs website, it is not responsible for handling disputes, which began before Confederation in 1867, when a Governor General was our link to Britain before Confederation and a Governor General remains our link to Britain today?
Six Nations people say the British did not conquer the Six Nations but rather made treaties and agreements with the Six Nations so they are simply allies and not British subjects or Canadian citizens. However, if rebel British colonists defeated, burned out and drove the Six Nations people from their traditional homeland in New York, why aren’t they simply considered refugees who fled to British controlled now Canadian territory? If they are not Canadian citizens, why do we give them the right to vote in Canadian elections?
The whole business is dog’s breakfast of invasions, wars, defeats, displacements of indigenous people, nebulous treaties, varied proclamations, broken promises, questionable land transactions, half-truths, misunderstandings, incongruities, claims and counter-claims. It also appears that the Six Nations and the Crown have been less than clear and forthright with each other.
Disputes over land along the Planck Road (now Hwy 6) near Caledonia, Ontario first began in the 1840s and the most recent protests and negotiations over this land have been going on for over a year.
On the one hand, the issues are difficult to resolve because of all of the ambiguities, incongruities, inconsistencies and questions associated with the history between the Six Nations and the Crown.
On the other hand, delays are increasing frustration, dividing people and costing everybody a fortune so people should press all governments to settle the issues as quickly as possible and not let them drag out like the Chippewa land claim near Ipperwash, Ontario, which, to my knowledge, still hasn’t been settled 12 years after the killing of Dudley George.
Garry Horsnell, Brantford, Ontario.