Developers Flocking like Starlings to Six Nations Long House

Feb. 3, 2007

Mohawk Nation News

The Six Nations Confederacy Chiefs opened the meeting at the Onondaga long house around 11:00 am.  It started with a PowerPoint presentation of the “Pennie Principle” by “Bag of Wind” turbine developers.    

The company president, J.C. Pennie (Yes, that’s his name), was wearing a cheap dull toupee, which clued us in about his company.  “Greetings, Chiefs and clan mothers” (and people!).  “This is not consultation.  It’s dialogue, a process towards consultation”, we were told.  (Ha! Ha!)  He kept on referring to the “Haida Gwii” decision by the Supreme Court of Canada as confirming that Onkwehonwe have to be “consulted” but he didn’t define what kind of consultation.  Is it the “Hi and bye” consultation process?  He wanted permission from the Six Nations people to put more wind mills on the northern part of the Haldimand Tract we call “Kanehkota” (where all the waters come from).       

“My (Barbie Doll) wife just loves the ”Indians”.  She hires them all the time to dance for her and her students.  (We are not kidding you!)  The students think that the “Indians” are number one, second to guns!!  (These teenagers think “Indians” are “cooler than guns”!)  “Our idea is good for the environment.  We already have contracts from Ontario to buy our power” (which we haven’t made yet).  The landowners (squatters) have already leased their lands to us.  Your wind is the best.  We don’t need your land because we’re going to hang the windmills from the clouds so they’ll never touch the earth”.  Then he assured us he would hire a few of our people and maybe even give us a contract to put up the slabs and build the roads!

Yep!  These developers know we own the land and the wind.  They didn’t bring it here with them.  “Canadian Hydro Developers has already (illegally) put up 45 wind mills, with 88 more still in their boxes, just north of Grand Valley where we want to put ours,” said Pennie.   

“We want to save our planet”, said Pennie, as he pointed to a wind map with a little black pen that emitted a red dot.  This reminded us of the red dots the cops point at our forehead or our heart before they shoot us.  “We discounted putting windmills on platforms in the middle of the lakes or north towards Ottawa.  This was no good because of all that turbulence from Parliament Hill”, or words to that effect.                   

We want your “air rights” for 21 years for a small fee so you can help us save the environment” (that they wrecked by coming over here and so they we can make lots of money).  He put out some figures.  “$25 a month for 24 turbines for a total of $2,600 a month.  There would eventually be 1000 windmills.  Wow!  You’re looking at an income of $25,000 to $50,000 a month” (for blighting our landscape) but millions for him.  Then he put the old car salesman pressure on, “We need an answer right away because we have to order the turbines now so we can get them delivered in two to three years.  Then two years later we can sell them for a small profit to third world countries” (like Six Nations).

Pennie went on, “Six turbines would cost $10 million, 80% goes to the manufacturers.  Yes, environmentalist, David Suzuki, says this is the thing to do.  Wind energy doesn’t pollute”.  What does he call an invasion of cash-hungry corporate developers all over our land?  It’s the worst kind of pollution!  All that lovely land is going to have thousands of windmills on it.  Would any of these guys live among a forest of wind mills themselves? 

Are there some negatives?  They look like something dropped off by spaceships.  Some people don’t want to look at dozens of wind mills from their picture windows.  Could they make them prettier by hanging Warrior or Confederacy flags from them or their laundry, for that matter?  They could rotate slowly to nice soft music which could be piped in free to each home.  The birds and animals will suffer from noise and vibrations.  This is known to cause miscarriages.  The animals and other species may eventually disappear. 

The area was deforested 90 years ago.  He did not talk about reforestation because that would interfere with the wind.  “Kanehkota” is the head waters of the Grand River.   This needs to be cleaned before anything is done there. 

If he goes bankrupt, what happens to the air?  Do his creditors come and take away the air and suffocate us?  Is there going to be an air tax for every breath we take?  Where is it going to stop?  Will they give tickets for breathing in more than our share?  Will they take our land or our lungs for non-payment?  What is the plan, man? 

“We want to keep living on your land that we destroyed so we can keep oppressing you”, is the message we thought we heard.  He and his entourage were told to go into the cookhouse for coffee so we could continue our meeting.  They would not leave.  The people were too polite to tell them to “get outta here!”

Next was David, a representative from First Golf Shopping Mall.  A young guy wearing a T-shirt and jeans which he thought would help him fit in with us.  He’s a real estate developer from Brantford Ontario.  It was another crying session.  They need a huge box of Kleenex to sop up all those crocodile tears these developers have been shedding at the Longhouse for the last several months. 

David had already come in December 2006.  He was told by the powers that think they are that he must appear three times before the Confederacy Council and then he would have the okay to go ahead on his project.  Is this what they call consultation?  We can say “no” three times and they can go ahead?  Doesn’t he know that it’s actually “three times you’re out!”  He told us he’s ready to start digging in March 2007 and clean up the soil.  Right!  Remember to dig up the Indigenous bones and get them shipped out before anybody notices. 

“All our studies and plans are in place.  Ontario has given us permits.  This is part of the “Greenbelt” that the city of Toronto has designated.  It’s a 20 to 50 mile radius around Toronto called the “places to grow” legislation aimed at doubling the populations of Brantford, Kitchener and other cities on the Haldimand Tract.  They never talked to us about it.  Shouldn’t they do that first before issuing permits and making all these plans?  Plus they need a place to throw their garbage. 

David did a title search going back to 1850 and found out that the Crown purported to have granted the Johnston Settlement lands of the Six Nations to private owners without their knowledge.  They are not freehold, not leased, but fee simple to private developers.  What?  They can’t give fee simple.  They can’t give what they don’t have.  Six Nations title is not under British jurisdiction.

“We have agreed to do nothing on this site” (except start digging in March).  “This situation (of finding out it was all stolen Six Nations land and your title’s no good!) creates uncertainty among all developers”.  You bet it does!  “I really want to be an advocate of the Six Nations and the Confederacy (meaning I really want to make a lot of money off your backs).  But we can’t delay”, said David.  “I am meeting with [battle weary] Mayor Marie Trainor of Caledonia.  We all want to sit at the negotiating table (that is on between the Six Nations, Ontario and Canada).  Really!  How’s that? 

What is David telling us?  He was told by us that this was not consultation.  He responded, “Ontario and Brantford are not telling me to be here”.   He said he came on his own.  [Right!]  Fifteen developers have already come before the Confederacy Chiefs.  The chiefs wanted to know who is “pushing the buttons” for him to be here.  “I talked to Jane Stewart, Barbara McDougal, Mayor Trainor, Members of Parliament and the provincial legislature”.  The Chiefs told him, “Tell them that Six Nations owns the land and the Johnson Tract.  they have to deal with us".  Foreigners have no right to sell our land.

They want to avoid the legal nation-to-nation relationship.  This latest strategy is to bombard us and put pressure on our heart strings with all their wailing and crying.  The “negotiating table” is sending us every Tom, Dick and Harry to talk “business” instead of dealing with the land issue.  The “table on lands” is being sidetracked by all these business people.  They think that making us “part of the action” and offering us money is going divert us from dealing their responsibility for stealing our land.  They don’t want to settle.  They are scared to listen to the screaming of their own people because they know they are liable for misleading and defrauding them. 

We cannot recognize any permits, licenses or legislation claiming to give foreigners the right to operate on our land.  According to our own law, which is consistent with international law, our prior informed consent is required to make anything legal.  These developers and legislators would not accept it if we started issuing permits to send strangers to start digging up their homes and gardens.  Why do they think we should accept this behavior from them?

Other items covered at the meeting were the U.S.-Canada imaginary border issue; the bench warrant that has been issued for Katenies for the phony charge of “running the border” that was been put right in the middle of the Mohawk community of Akwesasne; the letter to the Governor General of Canada; the economic develop strategy; and a proposal to put on an exhibit of Six nations art in London England in 2010.

Kahentinetha Horn

MNN Mohawk Nation News