10-18-06, 8:53 am
The Mulroney Tories sold the 'Douglas Creek Estates' land to Henco Corporation. This land was part of a lease allowing a plank road to be built in colonial times. The 'sale' of this legally disputed land was an act of contempt against the Six Nations and Canadian law, typical of Mulroney and completely in tune with British colonial arrogance that founded the Dominion of Canada.
Mulroney and his robber cohorts must have pulled this off as a trial run to selling out the whole country. The unique concept of Canada paying corporate America to cart away our sovereignty and resources has historical precedence in the relationship between the Six Nations and 200 years of land plunder. This alone should make every Canadian who smarts under NAFTA a natural sympathiser and ally to the First Nations, and in this case the Six Nations people.
The names of the original Five Nations Confederacy, and the sixth nation that joined later, are well known in Ontario and in their original homelands in the United States. The Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk and Cayuga peoples, joined later in the 17th century by the Tuscarora, formed a confederacy that is the oldest and still functioning form of democracy in North America.
The Confederacy is governed by 'The Great Law of Peace.' Established long before the arrival of the Europeans, this sophisticated legal and social code was studied by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in their search for democratic forms for the new American Republic.
Most of the Six Nations land in New York and Pennsylvania was lost during the American War of Independence, but there are still Six Nations people living in the United States and in other parts of Ontario and Quebec. The largest group by far is the Six Nations of the Grand River, situated near the southern Ontario cities and towns of Caledonia, Hagersville, Brantford, and Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Confederacy entered into diplomatic relations with the Dutch in New York State in 1618. The nation-to-nation formal treaty which established the parties as allies - the Covenant Chain or the Two Row Wampum Treaty - was one of trade, military alliance and recognition of land use. The Confederacy did not seek to eject the newcomers, but recognized their presence and sought only fair trade and protection of Confederacy interests. That realistic, peaceful and humane view is historic and present in the present occupation and land claims.
Later treaties were reached with the French colonists and finally with the British. In his scholarly work, The Origins of Canada, Marxist historian Stanley Ryerson described Six Nations diplomacy and negotiating skills as equal to any European state of the day.
The Six Nations, again in equal nation-to-nation negotiations, were granted land in Ontario in 1784. Named after the British negotiator, the 'Haldimand Tract' ceded to the Confederacy was 950,000 acres, six miles on each side of the Grand River from the mouth to the source.
During the establishment of the Dominion of Canada, the Confederacy asserted their independence and exemption from the British North America Act and the Indian Act in a formal letter of protest to Sir John A. MacDonald. The Canadian government's new policy was to undermine the sovereignty of the Six Nations because they were no longer of military use or strength.
In 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, the deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs, speaking to a special committee of the House of Commons about amendments to the Indian Act, stated 'I want to get rid of the Indian problem. That is my whole point. Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question.'
Col. C.E. Morgan, a former colonial administrator from South Africa and a Boer War veteran, was appointed by Scott as local Superintendent for the Six Nations in 1923. This assimilator of nations and culture developed a particularly antagonistic relationship to the proud and independent leadership of the Confederacy.
By 1924 he had prepared a report that stressed the need to depose the 'hereditary council.' Scott secured an Order in Council abolishing the ancient system of government and giving details for the 'democratic' election of a band council.
The Confederacy did not recognise the abolishment of their form of government. Chief Deskeheh worked with Confederacy lawyers and supporters to gain recognition for Six Nations sovereignty. He travelled to England and presented his case to the original partner in the historic equal agreements, the British Government. In response, the Crown passed Section 141 of the Indian Act, preventing Indians from obtaining lawyers for prosecuting claims against the Crown without first obtaining the Crown's permission. Lawyer A.G. Chisolm was legally barred from representing the Confederacy, and Chief Deskeheh died in the United States, exiled from Canada and the Six Nations.
Here are some excerpts from a Six Nations presentation to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs: 'A request for a full accounting of all Six Nations monies derived from legitimate land sales as invested by the Crown has remained with the Auditor General of Canada since 1979.... (I)n 1847, Six Nations funds were used to finance the Law Society of Upper Canada with no record of return... December 20, 1860... Six Nations' funds were used to save the University of McGill College in Montreal... (N)ot only did the works of the Welland Canal Company (flood) 2000 acres of Six Nations Land, but the Crown invested Six Nations money in 1843 and 1865 to do so... (At) a nominal 10% interest rate compounded annually a debt totalling Eighty Two Billion, Two Hundred and Two Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Nine Thousand, Eight Hundred and Thirty One Dollars and Four Cents ($82,202,759,831.04)... payable to Six Nations.' Seldom is theft so well documented.
Now back to the present and the Douglas Creek Estates. Prior to the occupation, the Six Nations held a public information meeting to point out that the illegal sale of disputed land was in violation of treaty and dispute settlement mechanisms worked out with the federal government. It was not until the developers started the construction of a housing development that they occupied the land and shut down the building site. What else could they do? What was being sought in law, through jurisprudence, was being physically taken in front of their eyes. Reclamation would soon be impossible; innocent home buyers would be caught in a conflict they didn't make and the Six Nations didn't want.
From the get-go, the occupation was peaceful, but the original police raids escalated a response of barricades and road closures. Since then the barricades have come down, but the longest occupation by native people in Canadian history continues peacefully. The government of Ontario bought the land from the developers and is holding it in trust. The government has also paid millions to local merchants in Caledonia for alleged lost income. This is a puzzle because there has never been any intimidation to prevent people from shopping. Perhaps the native people don't like shopping where merchants don't appreciate them.
The self-appointed 'Caledonia Citizens Committee' has tried to foment physical conflict by organizing confrontational protests at the occupation site. Initially they mustered a couple of hundred people, most from outside Caledonia, but their support seems to be on the wane.
There is also an organization called Community Friends For Peace and Understanding With Six Nations (which this writer proudly supports). Community Friends has support from many labour activists, including members from CEP, Steel, CAW and CUPE. Formal labour support is on the agenda and there will be meetings and educational sessions. Solidarity House in Hamilton will hold a fundraising dinner in mid-November, and will provide drop-off facilities for donations of food, blankets, etc. for the approaching winter.
The Community Friends held a public meeting of about 120 people at a high school in Caledonia on September 30. This very positive meeting was addressed by Jan Watson, a Caledonia resident and activist in the Community Friends, and Rolph Gerstenberger,president of Local 1005 Steelworkers at Stelco in Hamilton.
The occupation continues, support is growing, but winter and tough weather are looming. While the government of Ontario treads water and the police attempt to balance between the courts and public awareness (remember Ipperwash?), the real culprits in this affair sit smug, silent and untouched. The Harper Feds are using the same corporate contempt that defines their foreign policy more and more as domestic policy. But Harper cannot hide behind the media wordsmiths and image makers for too long. The stench of colonialism, racism and cultural destruction, honed and refined from the British Royalty, lingers over Douglas Creek and every other Indigenous struggle for rights and justice in the Canadian State.
From People's Voice
