LAND CLAIMS
Why talks have taken a timeout
On Oct. 25, 1784, the British Governor of the Canadian Province of Quebec, Frederick Haldimand, on behalf of a (grateful British government and Monarchy) granted the Mohawk Nation and individuals from the other Five Nations of Iroquois nearly 950,000 acres of land on both sides of the Grand River, but, in reality only 675,000 were received. The land was given primarily to the Mohawk people under the command of Captain Joseph Brant (Tyendanaga) for their assistance to the British cause in the American War of Independence (1775 -1783).
The Grand River land was compensation for the loss of their traditional homeland in the Mohawk Valley which the Mohawks were forced to relinquish to the new United States of America. In the war, some of the Six Nations tribes had fought on the side of the English and some had fought on the side of the American forces, but, the Six Nations Iroquois eventually lost nearly all the land which they had controlled prior to the war.
By the year 2006, the Mohawk Nation and others from the Six Nation Indians who still live along the Grand River controlled a mere 45,000-plus acres of the original acreage granted to them in 1784. The remaining 630,000 acres of land had been lost over time to poor land deals by the Mohawk Nation, the government of the Six Nations Confederacy, greedy land developers and outright theft which had been sanctioned or ignored, first by the English, next by the Canadian government and, lastly, by the government of Ontario.
In the late 20th century, the elected council of the Six Nations of the Grand River initiated a series of land claims (28) against the Canadian government via the Canadian legal system. In the intervening time from the waning years of the 20th century to the present day, only one claim had been settled (Canadian National Railway right of way, April 2, 1987). This claim added 259.1 acres to the Six Nations of the Grand River Reservation. (Information from Six Nations Lands and Resources)
The current land claim negotiations which have been under way at the Oneida Business Park on the Six Nations Reserve began in 2006. They had been set up to settle an incident which had occurred at a construction site at the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia. The four main participants in these talks; (the Iroquois Confederacy, Six Nations elected council, Ontario and the government of Canada) had sat down in the summer of 2006 to seek a reasonable conclusion to the Douglas Creek Estates situation.
The first set of talks went absolutely nowhere as the only thing the two sides could agree on was what to have for dinner. With Ontario picking up the tab, no one ever went away from the table hungry. The government of Canada on the other hand was playing baseball, while the Six Nations was playing lacrosse and in 2008 both teams went home mad. In 2007, Canada's main negotiator threw a curve ball into the fray by offering $125 million to settle several land claims which had nothing to do with Douglas Creek Estates.
Later in 2007, before the Six Nations' 23,000-plus community members even had a chance to properly discuss the first offer, Canada threw another curve ball by offering $26 million to settle the flooding of Six Nations land along the lower Grand River in the 1800s.
This second curve ball confused not only the players themselves, but also the Ontario government which was acting as the umpire for the game. We are now in the middle of the summer of 2008, the players are taking a timeout and the people in the stands are more confused than they were before.
What's worse is that Canada is blaming the timeout on the Six Nations people by saying that "everything is so simple; we offered you $26 million, why is that such a difficult thing to decide upon?"
Here is an explanation that may shed some light on this blacked-out, game. The Six Nations of the Grand River has a total registered population of approximately 23,000 people spread out around the entire world.
In order for the people to arrive at a decision on this $26-million offer, all 23,000 must be located and brought up to speed on the offer before they can answer either yea or nay. This will, obviously, take quite some time.
In addition, there are many factions or groups of people at Six Nations and each wants to be the boss. The land along the Grand was granted primarily to the Mohawk Nation who have never ceded their land to anyone or any other nation.
The Six Nations chief and elected council are the legal governing body according to Canadian law and the Grand River Branch of the Iroquois Confederacy claims to be the hereditary governing body. In addition, there are the Mohawk Workers, the Mohawk Nation of the Grand River and several men's groups who claim to be the proper spokespersons for everyone.
Add to this, the Confederacy is comprised of nine clans representing each of the Six Nations of Iroquois people. Each clan has a chief, a war chief and a clan mother.
Then there are faithkeepers and sub chiefs and the Warriors Society, followed by the general population. The Confederacy and its followers make up only a minority of the total population as many people follow the elected council, others adhere to the precepts of the Mohawks, while a good portion of the population, just wants to live and leave the politics to the politicians.
As you can see, there are many reasons why the talks are at an impasse and why they may or may not resume any time soon.
From a Six Nations perspective, the Grand River community has been waiting for well over 120 years to arrive at a reasonable settlement to the land dilemma along the Grand River and two or three more years is nothing compared to the time which has passed since their arrival in the Grand River Territory in 1784.
Douglas Whitlow Ohsweken