Tens of thousands of dollars in application fees have been paid to a Six Nations body set up to oversee development along the Grand River, a spokesperson says.
Aaron Detlor says about 10 developers have each paid a $7,000 application fee to the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, an organization created to regulate projects within the disputed Haldimand Tract.
The province has rejected the authority of the HDI, and Premier Dalton McGuinty has advised developers not to pay fees.
The premier's office referred questions to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant's office. His office noted the request, but did not provide a comment.
The Haldimand Tract runs 10 kilometres on either side of the Grand River, roughly from Port Maitland to near Dundalk. The British Crown granted the area to Six Nations in 1784.
"The people we are talking to go from the source to the head (of the river)," Detlor said.
"I can say we are dealing from the bottom to the very top."
The HDI is a fallout from the ongoing land-claims dispute in Caledonia, which will mark its second anniversary Thursday.
Six Nations says it never surrendered the site of a one-time housing project, now called Kanonhstaton by Six Nations.
Ottawa says it was surrendered in 1844.
Six Nations gets planning role
Natives will have greater involvement in Grand River development
Daniel Nolan
Ontario and Six Nations are starting talks about getting Six Nations "deeper" into the planning and development process along the Grand River, in territory they claim ownership to under a 1784 grant from the British Crown.
The parties are to meet March 8 to talk about a consultation process in what Six Nations calls the Haldimand Tract and "about all the planning processes and how decisions are made in the area," says Murray Coolican, Ontario's chief negotiator with Six Nations.
Coolican said Ontario is interested in expanding the geographical limits and provincial involvement in a 1996 protocol between Six Nations, Ottawa, Ontario and municipalities in the lower Grand River watershed, which provides for consultation with Six Nations on economic development, land use and environmental issues.
"We're prepared to go deeper into the planning process," he said in an interview.
"We think it's important that Six Nations have a meaningful role in anything that goes on along the Grand."
The Grand River Notification Agreement was the result of 18 months of negotiations between Six Nations, Mississaugas of the New Credit, the municipalities, the two senior levels of government and the Grand River Conservation Authority.
The protocol, renewed in 1998 and 2003, however, only involves consultation with the elected band council, not the traditional Confederacy government and it is not legally binding.
The talks come in the wake of Six Nations reasserting its sovereignty in the Haldimand Tract, which involves 10 kilometres on each side of the Grand for its more than 200-kilometre length. The land was granted to Six Nations by the Crown for help during the American War of Independence.
The talks also come after native protests at various development sites in Brantford.
Coolican said he raised the issue at the table a while ago and it is not linked to Six Nations creation of an agency to charge developers a fee for building in the tract.
Ontario rejects the agency and has urged developers not to deal with it.
Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton believes, however, Coolican's offer is related to the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI).
"I don't think the province was willing to discuss it before, but they saw the HDI was not going to go away," MacNaughton said.
"It's not going to go away and we have to sit down and rationalize our way through this. I think it's a good attitude (from the province)."