4-17-06, 8:51 am

Six Nations protesters have occupied a Caledonia, Ontario, subdivision building site known as the Douglas Creek Estates since February 28. The land is part of the original Haldimand Deed of 1784 ceded to them by the British Crown for their support as allies in the U.S. War of Independence.

The Haldimand Tract, originally six miles on either side of the Grand River from the mouth to the source, comprised 950,000 acres and contained some of the richest land in Ontario. In typical fashion, the British Crown waited only eleven years until Lord Simcoe arbitrarily reduced the tract to 275,000 acres.

The distribution, theft, illegal seizure and phony sales carried out in the last 322 years have reduced the reserve to less than 5% of the original tract. Years ago when the colonial administration built a plank road from Hamilton to Port Dover (from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie), Six Nations land was confiscated where the road crosses the Grand River at Caledonia.

In 1987 this Plank Road Tract was officially placed as a land claim by the Six Nations. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow when this disputed land was sold in 1991 to John and Don Henning, frustrated developers and current deed holders who own Henco Industries. This in itself is witness to the ambivalent attitude of government to serious claims of redress by Aboriginal peoples.

The situation is somewhat complicated by the existence of two authorities on the reserve, because of historical, cultural and traditional differences with the imposition of elected band councils which are alien to the traditional governance of the Six Nations. In the current struggle, the elected council does not support the occupation but does support the Plank Road Land Claim and opposes any use of force against the occupiers. The traditional leaders, including the Clan Mothers, support the occupation and the land claim.

On March 9th superior court justice David Marshall, addressing an application by Henco Industries, granted an injunction against native occupiers of the entrance to the disputed site. This injunction went back to court on March 16-17, partly at request of the Ontario Provincial Police for more clarity. The Crown Counsel, John Pearson, asked a peeved Judge Marshall for more clarity to allow proper enforcement so the protesters could be charged with contempt of court.

Judge Marshall stressed that the original order had been drafted with help of lawyers for the attorney general, the OPP and Henco Industries. (That must have been a nice party - everyone welcome but native people. So much for the neutral court. If contempt could really be enforced, the entire native population and most of the working class would have to be incarcerated.)

The injunction was rehashed and honed and March 22 was set for enforcement. On March 23, about 100 Six Nations women, including the Clan Mothers, formed a human chain across the entrance to the site, locking arms together and waiting for the OPP. They were joined by about 200 native and non-native supporters. The police, still smarting from the Ipperwash Enquiry into the murder of Dudley George, and perhaps remembering the humiliation of the Canadian Army by Mohawk women defending their reserve in Quebec in 1992, did not show up. To everyone's credit, it was a non-event. The OPP are in the area but have not sought a confrontation.

On Sunday, April 9, about 200 people attended a rally held at the site. It was a good show, with Local 1005 United Steelworkers and their banners most evident among labour supporters. There were also signs from peace groups.

The Six Nations came to this area, not as defeated people, but as allies of the British because they thought they could get a better deal. They were mindful that the new American Republic was a slave state with no love for native rights. It is doubtful if the British in 1784 or again in 1812 could have held Canada without the military strength of the native people. In 1812 the native people, who did most of the fighting under Tecumseh, took heavy casualties and probably saved the country despite British bungling and deceit.

The Six Nations Confederacy (the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Tuscarora, Cayuga and Mohawks) is a tradition of one of the oldest participatory democracies in the world. It is a tradition of a courageous and unconquered people, a parallel nation who have been allies and supporters in the formation of Canada. In the last 300 years they have been robbed of 95% of their original land - one hell of a rotten way to treat allies and friends. This ongoing struggle will continue to boil over everywhere in this country until justice is done with the Aboriginal Nations.

From People's Voice