The hereditary government of Six Nations says it remains in charge of land claim negotiations with Ottawa and Ontario, despite a motion by the elected-band council to dismiss them from the role and take over.
Confederacy legal adviser Aaron Detlor said yesterday treaty rights are between the Crown and the Six Nations/Haudenosaunee Confederacy and not the 86-year-old band council.
"The Confederacy keeps negotiating," he said. "It's absolutely clear that the rights at stake here for the Haudenosaunee are held collectively by the Confederacy."
Detlor said that even if Ottawa and Ontario bypass the Confederacy and restart talks with a council official, the Confederacy will still have to be involved.
"The federal government certainly has a right to speak to whoever they want to speak to, but I think anyone who wants to see a resolution to this knows they are going to have to talk to the Haudenosaunee people," he said.
"If there is to be a resolution found ... the Confederacy needs to be involved and there won't be a resolution until that relationship is respected."
Detlor wouldn't say the Confederacy has formally conveyed its intention to the council that it will continue negotiations, but said "historically they have conveyed" their role in treaty and land rights.
Land claim talks began four years ago this month in the wake of the Caledonia lands claim dispute, but halted last fall over a dispute on the need for a third-party mediator. The talks grew from trying to resolve the native occupation of a Caledonia housing project to several other claims.
Detlor said the Confederacy continues to wait for Ottawa and Ontario to return to the table and is planning negotiation strategy meetings in June.
Federal negotiator Ron Doering could not be reached for comment.
The council rescinded a 2006 motion delegating responsibility for the talks to the Confederacy and aims to hire a negotiator. It also wants to abandon attempts to resolve individual land claims and seek a comprehensive settlement over its claim to all of the land along the Grand River.
Six Nations was given 10 kilometres on each side of the Grand in 1784 by the British Crown for support during the American Revolution, but now only controls 5 per cent of that.
Detlor stated Ottawa was negotiating with the Confederacy over Douglas Creek Estates before the council passed its motion.
"A band council motion is simply that, a band council motion," he said. "It would be equivalent to Haldimand County saying they are going to take over the negotiations."