Dozens of city and provincial police officers were on hand Friday to watch a peaceful demonstration by about 200 natives and non-natives in Victoria Park.
On the north side of Wellington Street, a legal battle was playing out in the Superior Court building over the city's attempt to secure an injunction for $110 million compensation and action against native protesters and a Six Nations Confederacy organization called the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, which has held up construction at several development sites.
Meanwhile, in the park on the south side of Wellington, natives bearing placards attesting to their grievances gathered with sympathetic non-natives beneath the statue to Thayendanegea - Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant - in what was billed as a "peace rally" by organizers from both communities.
They listened to a succession of speeches from selected speakers about reconciliation between Six Nations and Brantford, and the need to understand better the grievances that natives have over neglect, long-unresolved land claims, and oppression of their government and traditions.
Police cordoned off intersections for a block around Victoria Square, and maintained a high-profile presence, with constables standing in clusters or filming the proceedings throughout the park. At one point, Josh Bean, a non-native organizer of the event, commented to the crowd about the uniformed presence.
"It's interesting to see all the police around. I don't think we really need them," he said to applause.
While one native stood in the centre and held two wampum belts, with elder brothers, clan mothers and fire keepers gathered around, Phillip W. Skye, leader of the ceremony, asked representatives from each of the Six Nations, as well as non-natives, to stand at various points in a huge circle as if at a Confederacy council meeting.
"This is the way we should be together," he said.
"Look to your left and look to your right. We are going to be living together for a long time. We can continue to live the politics or greed...or build a bridge of understanding."
Skye also read a lengthy speech delivered by a native delegation to the fledgling United Nations in 1923, which detailed the gobbling up of Six Nations land in the Haldimand Tract, and the government's systematic undermining of traditional Iroquois languages and government by U.S. and Canadian authorities bent on policies of assimilation.
The speech was given shortly before the Canadian government forcibly removed Confederacy leaders from the council house in Ohsweken in 1924 and imposed the elected band council system.
Skye said many of the speech's words have particular resonance today.
Bean, who is chairman of the Business Improvement Association, offered a personal apology for the ill treatment natives received from settlers in Brantford's early days.
"I'd like to do anything I can to help mend the relationship," said Bean, adding that the city's current development plan is not sustainable.
"We are running out of land and resources."
Skye agreed.
"What's happening in this world is not going to happen much longer," he told the gathering. "This present way of life is unsustainable. We hope you are here with a good heart and a good mind, and we can come back to living beside each other as we once did."
Marilyn Vegso, spokeswoman for TRUE - Two Row Understanding Through Education - was one of several speakers who delivered presentations on the history of the troubled relationship. The group takes its name from the Two Row Wampum, the original treaty defining the relationship between Six Nations and British settlers as two peoples living side by side on separate, parallel paths, not interfering with each other.
"This agreement has been kept by the Haudenosaunee nation," said Vegso.
"Has it been kept by our nation? I don't think so."
As she spoke, she held up a "two-row" flag, marked by two parallel bars.
"This flag belongs to me. This flag belongs to you. It belongs to our two nations. As long as we hold it, we will live in peace."
After many joined in a dance circle accompanied by drums and chanting, the gathering moved across the street, where the placards were planted in the ground in front of the courthouse, where about 50 waited for news on the injunction proceedings.
Afterward, Coun. James Calnan, the acting mayor, said he was "deeply moved" by the event, particularly the reading of the United Nations speech and words of natives attesting to their desire to maintain their nationality.
"That spirit of nationality and that desire to speak up was very clear, and it should be heard all the way to Ottawa and beyond," he said, referring to a federal government that many feel is not pursuing land claims negotiations actively enough.
"That is a testament to the hard work and diligence of our police service, a testament to the goodwill of people who were there and a testament to the good sense of the people of this city that a process toward resolution can be undertaken in a good spirit."