The Sachem
(September 20, 2007)
It began as a peaceful native occupancy of a development in Caledonia. But after a weekend that saw a contractor taken to hospital, protests by angry Caledonians, seeming silence from politicians, and Stirling Woods construction suspended indefinately, to some it began to look like April 2006.
This time, however, the Six Nations Confederacy has washed their hands of the protesters, leaving a group of renegade protesters.
The Stirling Woods development straddles the end of Stirling Street. On the north side are 26 completed townhouses with people living in them.
On the south side is a new 49-unit development, where four houses are close to completion and the rest of the lots have been stripped to the dirt. On the west, Stirling Woods is bordered by the railroad tracks (where the Stirling St Bridge used to be), and on the south by McCrae Dr.
The occupancy started Thursday, September 13 when native protesters moved onto the development.
At that point tensions were low and after negotiations between developers and representatives from Six Nations, it was agreed that both sides would evacuate the land for three days to come to an agreement. In the early afternoon OPP Constable Paula Wright said “the occupancy was peaceful.”
So it was a surprise when violence errupted later in the day, leaving a Caledonia resident, sub-contractor Sam Gualtieri, in serious condition in hospital with potential brain-damage.
Gualtieri returned to the house he is building for his daughter around 4:00 pm with four men from his construction crew.
The five men went in over a backyard fence on McCrae street. Inside the house, according to Joe Gualtieri, Sam’s brother, they were met by three native men “in their-mid twenties” and “they could hear more (people) upstairs.” An altercation broke out; Sam was hit from behind with a section of oak railing and knocked unconscious. According to Joe, a native man continued to hit Sam while he was on the ground, until a member of Sam’s crew shouted “You’ve killed him,” and the natives left.
Kaiiatege, a young woman of the Cayuga nation, disputed that story. She said two young boys, aged 16 and 18 and weighing “150 pounds soaking wet,” followed the five men into the house to ensure no vandalism was done. Inside the boys were jumped, an altercation broke out, and the boys got the man down on the ground. “No club was used,” she said, adding that, to her, Gualtieri’s injuries looked like they came from “fisticuffs.”
Gualtieri was taken unconscious to Hagersville hospital by ambulance with head injuries and contusions across both sides of his face.
The Six Nations Confederacy claim that the protesters acted on their own, without the support of the Confederacy. At a press conference on September 14, Chief Alan McNaughton expressed regrets for the violence and offered prayers for a speedy and full recovery.
McNaughton said that the protesters remaining on site, including those involved in the confrontation with Gualtieri, are “in violation of the peace and are on their own.”
But Kaiiatege, still on site Friday afternoon, said she was unsure if they were acting with support of the Confederacy.
“It may seem like a native problem,” Shieranne McNaughton, another young woman still on-site, said, “but to us its bigger. It should be everyone’s problem.” The goal of the occupancy, she added, “is to stop development.”
“The young people’s future depends on what we do here. If we don’t start somewhere, we’ll have nothing.”
On Thursday night about 50 Caledonia residents gathered in protest of the occupation. They were kept from confronting the natives by a line of OPP officers.
Then on Friday night, after word of Gualtieri’s injuries spread through town, over 80 people gathered in the pouring rain to show support for Gualtieri and protest the occupation.
“It infuriates me that this happens,” said Caledonia resident Kevin Beres, “that someone could just come in like this and take over the land. DCE was one thing, and we’re all prepared to write that off. But it shouldn’t be allowed to spread.”
“This is despicable,” said long-time resident Carol Vanimpe. “This has got to stop. We need the government to step in, stop negotiations, get (the natives) off the property and then negotiations can start.”
“I’m afraid everyday,” Vanimpe added. “We need law and order in our town.” On September 17 it was reported by the Spectator that the developers and Six Nations representatives had come to an agreement allowing workers to go back to work on site.
Yet that same day the OPP were keeping the public off the site. There were no workers to be seen, and over the hill on the western edge of Stirling Woods a native encampment with flags and signs was set up.
David General, elected Chief of Six Nations, said he did not know who the protesters were still on site. “(The protesters) are certainly not there with the blessing of the elected chief,” he said. “We have no idea who those people are, and we condemn the violence.”
Shieranne McNaughton said that despite the agreement between the Confederacy and the developers, “We have no fear of (Canadian) law, because their law doesn’t govern us.”