OHSWEKEN - Haudenosaunee protesters are claiming victory after the Six Nations band administration chose to avoid a confrontation by abandoning the chosen route of the Olympic torch relay along Highway 54 toward a celebration in Ohsweken.
Instead, organizers opted to have the torch driven in a vehicle from Caledonia to the parking lot of the new Bingo Hall north of 54, where 25 selected members of a torch relay team ran it in laps around a parking lot.
Organizers announced the sudden changes at 1 p.m. Monday in a crowded news conference in the Six Nations Community Hall with elected Chief Coun. Bill Montour, the 25 torch bearers and applauding supporters present.
Cheryl Henhawk, director of parks and recreation, tried to downplay the political controversy surrounding the planned route and celebrations around the torch as it was to pass through Six Nations.
She said the changes were her idea, and portrayed them as an improvement that would allow more people to see all the torch bearers and festivities at one place, and would avoid the disruption of having traffic along Chiefswood Road and Highway 54 cut off at a busy time to accommodate the relay.
"In the interests of making it a community... we found a better venue," Henhawk said while noting that many people had called the administration to complain that they would not be able to see both the opening and closing.
"Now people can see it all. It helps us be more together," she said. "It's going to be an historic moment. It's going to be an awesome experience."
Under media questions, Henhawk finally acknowledged that the threat of protests "played some part" in the decision, but repeatedly said the news conference was not about politics.
At one point, Chief Montour rose to admonish reporters for sticking to the political considerations, and not talking to the torchbearers present.
"It's not a political event," he said. "It's a celebration of sport."
Montour said many people are proud of the Six Nations sporting tradition and the chance to express it in the torch relay.
"Let's not turn it into a what if and what then. Some people are going to protest. That's fine, they have that right. Let's not turn it into a circus," he said to loud applause
"This is history. This is where we show the world Six Nations and what we are all about."
One torch bearer, Robert Henry, a Six Nations police officer, recounted being present at a meeting at the council house last week where he declared why he was running despite the criticism.
One member of a protest group began asking how the torch bearers can go ahead after the abuse that aboriginals have suffered.
"We're athletes. We're not here to be political," another torchbearer, Bev Beaver piped up to applause..
Shortly afterward, the torchbearers field out to a waiting bus, with Six Nations police cruisers around them.
A contingent calling themselves the Onkwehonwe Men's Fire and Women's Fire showed up in the parking lot.
Spokewoman Ojisdaliyo said the protesters were setting up stations at the riverbend along Highway 54 outside Caledonia and at the intersection of Chiefswood Road and Highway 54, and would refuse to allow the torch to pass through the heart of "heart" of Six Nations territory.
"This Canadian torch cannot come through our territory without our permission," she said, noting that the action was to call attention to the salmon killed in a British Columbia river and a mountain demolished to make way for the Winter Olympics, as well as unresolved land claims, lack of respect for the Two Row Wampum treaty between the Confederacy and the Crown, and a history of discrimination against First Nations peoples.
"We do this in solidarity and support with those indigenous nations," said Ojisdaliyo.
"Canada is not treating our people in a fair and just way."
She also said it was not the elected band council's jurisdiction to organize a torch relay.
The contingent went away to the Council House to confer about the change in venue for the celebrations. When they emerged an hour later, she said the protest sites would still go up but they would respect the change because the torch would not be in the heart of Six Nations territory.