Re: Six Nations Chief Coun. Bill Montour makes case for Six Nations perpetual care (Jan. 6).
First, the British Crown bought the land along the Grand River from the Mississauga Indians on May 22, 1784. After the Crown bought that land, Gov. Haldimand issued his document on Oct. 25, 1784, which said the Mohawks and others of the Six Nations could occupy the land along the Grand River.
However, an archivist I talked to at Library and Archives Canada told me that the Haldimand document was not a proclamation, a treaty or a deed to land along the Grand River but rather it was what is referred to as a "Ticket of Location" the first step in the Crown's four-step process of granting land during that period in history.
In addition, Haldimand made a mistake and allowed the Six Nations to occupy land at the north end of the Grand River that the Crown had not purchased from the Mississauga Indians.
Later, Gov. John Graves Simcoe corrected Haldimand's mistake. In 1793, Simcoe issued a letter patent, which allowed the Six Nations to occupy the land six miles wide on each side of the Grand River from its mouth at Lake Erie to the northern boundary (near Elora, Ontario) of the land the Crown had actually purchased from the Mississauga Indians on May 22, 1784.
Joseph Brant and the Six Nations chiefs, however, refused to recognize or accept Simcoe's letter and the conditions in that patent, which was essentially a deed to a smaller amount of land along the Grand River. The original Simcoe letter patent is now stored at Library and Archives Canada rather than in the hands of the Six Nations.
If the Haldimand document is simply a "Ticket of Location" and if the Six Nations never accepted a deed to land along the Grand River, does the Crown owe the Six Nations money for land to which the Six Nations never accepted or received title?
Is the Crown obliged to provide for the perpetual care of the Six Nations when neither the Haldimand document nor the Simcoe letter patent mentioned anything about providing annuities to the Six Nations, when the Six Nations refused a deed and title to the land, if a land grant to the Six Nations was never finalized and if the Six Nations never owned the land along the Grand River?
Garry Horsnell Brantford