In their determination to present a dual legacy of native and nonnative settlement and development along the Grand River, the writers of the Waterfront Master Plan present a radically different interpretation of the Brantford area's cultural heritage as one 11,000-year sweep of history.
They use a vast archaeological record that places a strong emphasis on recurring patterns of settlement of the area by aboriginal groups over thousands of years, and the first century of industrial and commercial development and settlement after Europeans began arriving in the 1780s.
That view is very different from what local schoolchildren have been taught for decades. In the offi-cial text, the city's history begins at a point when Thayendanegea, or Chief Joseph Brant, arrived at Brant's Crossing in 1784 while leading the Mohawks to a mainly vacant area from upstate New York to assume occupation of the Haldimand Tract.
Soon after, he handed out leases for tracts of land to be taken up by British settlers around what was first called Mohawk Village, and set off the dual relationship that endures.
But the writers of the master plan contend the area's real cultural history and settlement along the waterfront are much longer, and-should be traced back to the first communities known to the archaeological record, which dates back to 9,000 B.C.
They further recommend that the record be better publicly interpreted and promoted as a heritage resource for education, culture, tourism and other purposes, in consultation with Six Nations.
But those proposals are encountering early resistance from Six Nations quarters.
When the master plan was being approved in principle in June, Chief Coun. Bill Montour sent Mayor Mike Hancock a letter and issued a news release raising concerns about the process used to write the document.
Montour said he was "discouraged and frustrated" at what he called the city's reluctance to acknowledge Six Nations land rights and interests within the watershed, or to undertake what he considered proper consultation with a neighbour.
"All references to centuries of Six Nations history and to land claims were left out of the draft waterfront master plan," Montour wrote.
He notified Hancock that the