A half dozen Mohawks with picks and shovels have set up camp in a south corner of High Park to restore what they contend are ancient burial grounds.
City records indicate otherwise, but in terms of what the group is demanding, it’s somewhat beside the point.
Deep valleys and ramps cover the grounds, called Snake Mound by the natives, although it’s been a BMX bike area for six years. They want the area restored to its natural state and a fence erected to protect the area.
“We’re prepared to stay as long as it takes to bring down these jumps,” said Harrison Friesen, 39, a Cree from northern Alberta who lives now in Toronto. He has heard that bones were removed from the site in 1922.
City spokesperson Margaret Dougherty said that’s not the case.
Nevertheless, bike use in the area has been dwindling since last fall and city staff had already decided to restore the area and put up a fence, she said.
“This was already underway. It’s public space that is treasured,” she said.
The city has been meeting with officials from the Taiaiako’n Historical Preservation Society to aid in the transformation. The group was been provided with a concrete tool shed to store their tools during the process, which is a courtesy done for any group, such as the boy scouts, who do volunteer work in High Park, said Dougherty.
So while the ends might be the same, the motivation is starkly different.
Laurie Waters, a spokesperson with Taiaiako’n, said knowledge of the burial mounds, placed to line up with constellations, has been passed down through oral traditions to the clan mothers of the Six Nations Reserve.
She said her organization has been negotiating with the city for years over the site, which she maintains is one of 56 ancient native burial mounds in High Park.
“This isn’t planned as anything confrontational,” said Waters. “Our job is to be protectors of the earth, we don’t want to claim ownership. The land is for everyone to enjoy… We are very happy we reached an agreement with the city and something will be done,” said Waters.
In 2008 and 2009, the city requested an archeological assessment of the park. Two reports, submitted last year to the Ministry of Culture indicate the site was never used as a burial ground.
In one of 60 dig sites, “a shallow plough… that is the result of nineteenth-century agricultural activity prior to the creation of the park” was located in Picnic Area 7 towards the north of the park.
Hawk Hill, known as Bear Mound, was also excavated.
A second report states: “There is, at present, absolutely no physical evidence to suggest that the feature was built or substantially altered by First Nations peoples or that it incorporates artifact or burial deposits that may have been the result of any use of the feature.”
At Snake Mound, which is located at the southeast end of the park, a Mohawk flag flies over the park site where a camp fire burns to help the workers keep warm. The natives arrived Friday and expect to be there a month, said Friesen.
Some BMX bikers had stopped by but backed off when they saw the flag, said Friesen of the activist group Red Power United.
Police are monitoring the situation.
Cons. Scott Mills, who is the social media coordinator for Toronto police and who works with youth, said police and the riders are interested in respecting the natives.
He added that the BMX riders he is in contact with hope that this occupation “serves as a catalyst” for the city to work with BMX groups to establish other facilities where the riders can go.
Jason Tojeiro, 22, a BMX participant, said he would have to travel to Brampton or Markham now to find another similar outdoor site.
“Just give us another place,” he said.