Treaty lets our hunters kill deer: Six Nations

Danielle Wong
The Hamilton Spectator

(Nov 17, 2009)

Six Nations hunters say they have treaty rights to shoot deer in the Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area.

At least two residents in the Ancaster area say they have confronted hunters armed with bows who told them it was their treaty right to kill the deer.

Brian Skye, who is a member of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, confirmed hunters are citing the Nanfan Treaty of 1701, which gave the Iroquois Confederacy perpetual hunting and fishing rights in southwestern Ontario while subjecting them and their land claims to English authority. Skye said this treaty gives Six Nations the right to hunt "wherever they want" in southern Ontario.

But Hamilton Conservation Authority general manager Steve Miazga maintained yesterday the hunting was unauthorized.

While residents have called the authority and police about illegal hunting, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Natural Resources said they are no longer investigating the issue.

The ministry has not received illegal hunting reports from the area after one on Nov. 6 that was dismissed, said Jolanta Kowalski.

Bonnie Jen, a longtime resident in the area, said she was frustrated no one is ensuring public safety.

"There's nobody there to monitor anything. How can they possibly be there to protect you?"

Three other agencies besides the ministry have some jurisdiction in the matter, but, to date, no one has been charged.

The conservation authority owns the property and could technically pursue trespassers, but Miazga said that would be "difficult." The authority has not set up patrols in the area because there are too many entrances to the site, he said.

"If people feel threatened, we can certainly look at stepping up need for enforcement. But, frankly, we have very limited means to do so."

At this point, the authority is waiting for confirmation the hunting has stopped, he said.

Hamilton police can charge someone with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, said Mountain Superintendent Ken Bond, but these situations are handled "incident by incident" and are generally referred to the ministry.

A couple of witnesses have called about bow hunters in the area, Bond said, but police could not locate the hunters when they arrived.

The city's discharge of firearms bylaw prohibits people from firing a bow within 100 metres of a dwelling, a public or a private park. Those who violate the bylaw can be charged under the Provincial Offences Act, but the city has not received complaints of illegal hunting in the area, said spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos.

Jen said she and her husband had seen men in camouflage and armed with bows walking in the Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area in the late afternoon of Nov. 3.

When her husband called police, she said one man yelled: "Call them! Call them! We're allowed to hunt wherever we want."

The man then showed them a map with areas shaded where he claimed Six Nations had treaty hunting rights, she said.

The couple followed the two men and a teenager to Filman Road, where police met up with them and told them the Six Nations men had hunting rights there, Jen said.

Bond said police reports don't document that meeting, but three officers attended a call in the area the same day and reported "suspicious parties" were not found.

Iroquoia Heights was closed Nov. 6 after a ministry conservation officer spoke with a group of Six Nations men following a report of illegal deer hunting. That investigation ended because no connection could be made between the killed deer and men present, Kowalski said.

The ministry can charge someone under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and illegal hunting falls under that, Kowalski said.

Skye, who was part of the group the conservation officer spoke to, would not say whether people were still hunting deer.

"It's now in the hands of our lawyer, and anything further would have to be cleared through the Confederacy and legally."

In the meantime, people will continue to frequent the site, Jen said.

"In protest of what's going on, they've chosen to walk through there ... They disagree with what's going on.

"We as taxpayers pay to have (the area) kept up."