Mohawk Confederacy Chief Allen MacNaughton says it's business as usual in land claims negotiations despite Six Nations band council's attempt to shake up the process.
"We will continue working," he said this week. "I'm not controlled by the band council."
Last week, band council announced that it was taking back responsibility from the Confederacy for negotiating with the government over the Douglas Creek Estates site in Caledonia.
But MacNaughton said he plans to attend a scheduled meeting with a government representative later this month. "Other than that, I have no comment."
In a news release, Chief Coun. Bill Montour said the decision to rescind council's four-year-old motion to recognize the Haudenosaunee Confederacy council as the lead in negotiations was "the right decision at this point."
Montour said the Confederacy team has had limited success over the course of four years and the negotiations aren't conducive to reaching a settlement.
"It was purely a process geared to give Ontario and Canada press communications," Montour said. "If pressed by Canadians to settle the issue of Caledonia and Six Nations (the governments could say) that Six Nations can't get its act together."
The elected council remains the official government of the band in the eyes of federal and provincial governments. The Confederacy council, which has seen a resurgence in power over the last few years, is still struggling to establish some form of funding and get more traditional chiefs in place.
Last year, band council took its 1994 land claims lawsuit back to court after a break to try negotiations.
Montour said the court eventually will order negotiations.
He said the band council wants to continue a relationship with the Confederacy. Although, according to published accounts of the council meeting, Montour said he has concerns that the Confederacy is broke and hasn't enough chiefs to sign legal documents.
The same reports said some councillors expressed distrust of the Confederacy council, saying they have refused to meet with the elected group and have declined to work together.
Montour said his concern is founded in how the original agreement to negotiate about the Douglas Creek lands morphed over the years to talks about various other land claims.
"This has got to stop. We've got to start focusing on first of all the Douglas Creek Estates, which was the cause of all the problems that went on, and come up with options to resolve that issue," he said.
Montour said the elected council should re-establish a negotiating base for a "global settlement" where it would look at the return of lands that may become available and the return of funds that were taken from the Six Nations accounts.
The band council wants to settle land claims for money and then sign an agreement that would absolve Canada of further obligations in the claims.
The Confederacy council refuses to agree that the land claims can be settled with money.
The vote to rescind the Confederacy's lead in negotiations passed 10-2.