[IPSM] Home On Native Land: The people of Six Nations are repossessing their land

[samir]

Home On Native Land:  The people of Six Nations are repossessing their
land
by Hillary Bain Lindsay
April 19, 2006
 
http://dominionpaper.ca/original_peoples/2006/04/19/home_on_na.html
 
Sewatis has been at the Six Nations blockade since it began on February
28th. "I was the first one to encounter your enforcement officer," he
says. "I was peaceful and just explained the situation. [I said] 'I
cannot follow your orders because I'm not Canadian. I'm Haudenosaunee.'"
 
The police officer he was speaking with didn't appear to know how to
handle Sewatis' response to his order. Apparently, the fact that someone
born and raised only a few miles from where they stood--just outside of
Caledonia, Ontario--was not Canadian was a difficult concept to grasp.
"So, I just told him 'You'll have to wait for my superiors to come,'"
says Sewatis. "That's the kind of language they seem to understand." 
 
I am sitting with Sewatis in his van. For over six weeks this is where
he has slept. That is to say, when he has slept. Many nights he sits by
the fire, keeping watch in case the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
chooses to invade the site.
 
>From where we sit, we can see dozens of people gathered around the fire,
singing, laughing and talking. To our left is a cookhouse that was
recently built to feed the growing number of people that have come to
support the repossession of Six Nations land. There are several tents, a
teepee and a couple trailers scattered nearby.
 
It might feel like a camping trip except for the fact that we are in the
middle of a construction site. There are no trees or grass and ten
partially built suburban homes stand nearby. Henco Industries had hoped
to build hundreds of houses here. Construction was halted on February
28th when the road to the site was blocked and Henco was informed that
the land is not theirs to build on.
 
"We're here telling people that it's our land and it was illegally
attained and it was illegally sold," says Sewatis. "That's just the
plain and simple truth."
 
This is not "the kind of language they seem to understand."
 
On April 6th, the Canadian government said that the Six Nations dispute
is not about land rights. "This is not a lands-claim matter," said
Deirdre McCracken, a spokesperson for the Minister of Indian Affairs Jim
Prentice. She also said that the blockade "has nothing to do with the
federal government."
 
But according to a statement released on March 20th by the women of
Rotinoshon'non:we (meaning Iroquois or Haudenosaunee, depending on the
language being
spoken), the blockade has quite a lot to do with land--and with the
Canadian government. 
 
The statement outlines how "General Haldimand confirmed that Britain
would affirm the right of the Six Nations to a tract of land six miles
deep on either side of the Grand River running from its mouth to its
source." The piece of land immediately under dispute is only a small
part of the much larger "Haldimand Tract."
 
This piece of history is not being debated. A plaque erected in Cayuga,
Ontario by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board says much
the same thing. The sign also notes that the land was awarded in 1784 in
recognition of the Six Nations' help to the British Crown during the
American Revolution. What the plaque says next is where the stories
diverge. "In later years, large areas of this tract...were sold to white
settlers."
 
According to the women of the Rotinoshon'non:we, however, "None of this
land [the Haldimand tract] was ever legally surrendered." The women's
statement carries a great deal of weight as, "Women are the 'Title
Holders' of the land of Rotinoshon'non:we as recalled by Wampum 44 of
the Kaianereh'ko:wa."
 
The significance of the previous sentence will be lost on most
Canadians, who will have no idea what it means.
 
Indigenous nations have their own constitution (Kaianereh'ko:wa). "The
idea that British Colonists or their descendents--like Canadians--were
the only people who had 'law' is a legal fiction," says Kahentinetha
Horn, a Mohawk elder from Kahnawake. Canada "has totally disrespected
our laws and agreements to conduct a nation-to-nation relationship."
 
The Six Nations Confederacy has been called the oldest living
participatory democracy on earth. Hazel Hill, one of the women active at
the blockade describes how decisions are made. "There are fifty chiefs
which represent the Confederacy Council and they have a clanmother with
each chief. It is the people whose voice the chiefs and clanmothers
carry. Any decision regarding land, comes first from the women, and then
to their clans, and through the process of our council, when all are in
agreement, or when consensus has been reached, only then does the
decision stand," she says. "In our history of the Haldimand Tract, this
has never been done." 
 
In 1924 the Band Council system was imposed by force on Six Nations. In
the place of the traditional government what critics refer to as "a
puppet government" was installed using the Indian Act.
 
Since 1924, the Canadian government has done its negotiating with the
Band Council, a system that is paid for and is a part of the federal
government. "The Band Council," says Horn, "does not represent the Six
Nations peoples according to international law."
 
In an open letter to local newspapers, Hill compares the government's
agreements with Band Council to finding a few people in Caledonia to
agree to sell their town to the people Six Nations. "Would that be
legal?" she asks.
 
The Band Council system does not allow the voice of the people to be
heard, says Horn. If the Canadian government wants to seek legitimate
discussions, negotiations must be done on a nation-to-nation basis.
"There could then be an orderly settlement based on an orderly
investigation of the facts and an orderly identification of the laws
that apply," says Horn. "The reason Canada doesn't want to do this is
because it knows full well that when the process is complete, the facts
will clearly show they have illegally invaded our land."
 
There is a large sign at the Six Nations blockade that reads "Oh Canada,
your home on native land." The play on words from something as basic as
the national anthem is appropriate for a standoff that could turn the
meaning of Canada on its head. 
"A lot of people have squatted on our land," observes
 
Carol Bomberry. Pointing to Caledonia she continues, "This is one of the
towns that is on our land."
 
Most Caledonians probably don't consider themselves squatters. Chances
are they consider Caledonia home. What does it mean if Caledonia is not
Canada?
 
Mike Laughing, one of the men manning the blockade, responds
matter-of-factly. "Look at it this way: just imagine if all those people
got to live on native land. Instead of paying taxes to the government
they could be giving it to the true landlords, back to this nation,"
says Laughing. "If they didn't want to do that then they'd have to move.
But we're not saying move away."
 
As for the small piece of land immediately under dispute, Bomberry has a
similarly straightforward suggestion: She'd like to see the Canadian
government buy the houses back from Henco Industries and restore the
land to Six Nations.
 
The Six Nations Reserve, the most populous reserve in Canada, is
currently less than five per cent the size of the original Haldimand
Tract. "There's a ten year waiting list for houses," Bomberry points
out. "Our population is growing every year. We need more room."
 
Acknowledging Indigenous land rights will, of course, mean much more
than establishing who lives where or who pays taxes to who. Laughing
says he's at the blockade for the sake of his kids. Canada "has been
standing on the back of an Indian for too long," he says. "It's time to
get off and let us stand proud of who we are."
 
It is not only First Nations people that stand to benefit from a just
outcome to the Six Nations standoff, says Horn. Natives and non-natives
alike are suffering from a system that is destroying the environment.
Horn believes that under Indigenous title, the land would be treated
with far more respect. "According to our constitution we have to take
care of the land, in other words we're environmentalists," explains
Horn. "That's why it's important [for non-native people] to help us
assert our jurisdiction."
 
People from across Canada and around the world have lent their support
to the Six Nations' struggle. Hundreds of people have gathered at the
site each time there has been a threat of the OPP moving in.
 
"The Canadian government calls themselves peaceful," says Sewatis. "I
hope that they live what they say."
 
If the OPP chooses to invade, many at the site feel that it is their
duty to defend their land and defend their people. "We're not seeking
violence," Sewatis says. "I seek peace first...but, I believe in what's
right."
 
Sewatis has seen how standoffs over land rights have ended before. "They
think they can make peace by having a gun and having it their way," he
observes. "We want to talk about peace and the laws and jurisdiction of
the lands. We are going to utilize the great law of peace. We're going
to offer it one more time."
 
At the time this article went to print, over 50 police cruisers were
gathering in Caledonia and Six Nations was on "Red Alert."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/ipsm-l/attachments/20060423/c3bf726f/attachment.html>