Barricades come down around Six Nations

Days after Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced on June 10 that his negotiators would no longer participate in talks aimed at resolving the more than 100-day-old Caledonia land rights protest, the barricades in the town came down.

After the decision was reached (to dismantle the barricades) by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council, work began at about 10 p.m. on June 12 to remove obstructions to a railway line and a highway bypass that had been in place since April 20. An additional blockade of the main street of the town of Caledonia was lifted on May 16. Eyewitnesses report that a burnt-out van was removed from the bypass and provincial inspectors checked the road for damage. Fourteen Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) vehicles were observed parked near exits to the bypass to provide security. Inspectors were also looking over the railway line to see if train traffic could resume.
A local source said all routes were fully operational the next day. Negotiations were scheduled to resume on June 15 (after Windspeaker deadline).

The three routes were blocked in an angry response to an early morning OPP raid on the Douglas Creek Estates, a housing development under construction on disputed land that had been occupied by people from the Six Nation community in late February.

McGuinty issued his ultimatum after the latest of a number of violent confrontations resulted in injuries on June 9. An elderly man was taken to hospital after reportedly suffering a heart attack during a confrontation with Native protesters. A cameraman for a Hamilton television station required stitches to a wound on his head after being confronted by Native men who demanded his tape, which he refused to surrender.

In a bizarre twist, two U.S. law enforcement officers in an unmarked Border Patrol SUV were involved in an altercation with Native protesters. The vehicle was taken behind the barricades and later returned. But documents bearing the home addresses of undercover OPP officers were found in the vehicle by occupiers.

Five townspeople were arrested, charged and released during the Friday night violence on June 9.
Dick Hill is seen in the Six Nations community as one of the main organizers behind the original occupation at Douglas Creek Estates. His wife Hazel Hill has been one of the main spokespersons for the occupiers.

Dick Hill said the Douglas Creek Estates occupation will continue.

"We're there," he said, during a phone interview on June 14, adding the number of people at the development "varies from time to time, anywhere from 15 to 500."

Hill has been described as a Warrior Society member and has led occupations in the past. One occupation of the Indian Affairs office at the Eagle's Nest business park in Brantford in the mid-1990s, ended when clan mothers told the occupiers to give it up.

Hill said some of the frontline people at the occupation were upset when the Confederacy council decided to call for the removal of the blockades.

"Some people are getting downhearted but we just explain the big picture and go from there," he said. "There was a little dissention there at first. You carry on."

He said police sources gave conflicting stories about the presence of the U.S. officials.

"We got about 10 different answers as to why they were there. The first one was that he was there visiting his friend and then his friend didn't materialize. And we asked what the hell he was doing with his damned U.S. car and all his equipment on if he just came up to visit his friend?" Hill said. "And that's an awful long visit. He's been there since before April 2."

Hill described the presence of sensitive papers in the Border Patrol vehicle as "not the most brilliant thing to do."

He pointed out that this first major Native rights confrontation in the day of cell phones and e-mail is starkly different from past confrontations.

"The world is watching. We get e-mails all day from all over the world. Every day the machine's just jammed up with e-mails from all over the place," he said.

Windspeaker asked how long the Douglas Creek Estates occupation will go on.

"We're there for eternity. It's our land. We're not leaving it. Bring in the body bags. If you take us out it's going to be filled up again, simple as that. That's quite obvious," he said. "They came in on April 20 and took the guys out and an hour later they were right back there with 5,000 people. So what does that tell you?"

He said he was surprised at how the Six Nations community rallied behind the occupation in the days after the OPP raid.

"To tell you the truth, it shocked me. I was the happiest person in the world on April 20 when I saw all those people there. I mean, you had longhouse people, you had band council people, you had church people, everything was there and for the same reason," he said.

After the OPP issued arrest warrants for seven of the occupiers, the Haudenosaunee Council met on Saturday June 10.

"The individuals involved in these incidents were brought before the Confederacy chiefs and clan mothers on June 11 to discuss and understand the incidents. The Confederacy chiefs and clan mothers spoke with these individuals about the Great Law of Peace and how it is to guide our actions. Our investigation is continuing. It was decided that for the safety of all involved, these individuals would be removed from the site until our investigation is complete," April Powless, a Confederacy spokesperson, said.

The charged individuals have not been turned over to the OPP and may not be, something that will cause friction between the Confederacy and the provincial and federal governments.

"Under our treaties the only issues which fall under the Crown's jurisdiction are murder, rape and theft. According to the treaty Fort Albany made with the Crown there is an extradition process, which must be followed in order to address any of these three issues," Powless added.

Arrest warrants have been issued for Albert Douglas, 30, of Ohsweken, who is charged with robbery, failing to comply with his bail conditions (two counts), attempt murder, forcible confinement, dangerous driving, assault of a police officer and theft of a motor vehicle.

Audra Ann Taillefer, 45, of Victoria, B.C. is charged with intimidation (two counts) and robbery. Skylar Williams, 22, of Ohsweken, is charged with robbery. Arnold Douglas, 61, of Ohsweken, is charged with intimidation (two counts). Trevor Miller, 30, of no fixed address, is charged with robbery and theft of motor vehicle. Ken Hill, 47, of Ohsweken, Ont. is charged with assault (two counts).

An arrest warrant is pending for one male suspect on a charge of assault causing bodily harm.
The end of the blockades comes without a resolution to the underlying land issue. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called the Caledonia situation a provincial matter, but federal negotiators are at the main table. Academic Dr. Michael Posluns said the question of Six Nations' demand for an accounting of its lands and monies held in trust by the Crown will find a lot of resistance.

"The 1983 Penner Report quotes to this effect from the 1980 auditor general's report," he said. "Further, I can send you text from 1980 when the auditor general said he was unable to audit trust accounts held by DIAND as requested in a bipartisan motion of the Commons because the records were poorly kept and there was no opening balance," he said.

Many people at Six Nations say that the delaying tactics employed by the Crown after the elected council filed its demand for an accounting is an indication that the Crown knows it can't provide that accounting. When Indian Affairs spokesperson Margot Geduld was asked by Windspeaker about the delay she replied that "tens of thousands of pages" and "hundreds of years" had passed and the job was of monumental proportions and would take time.

That comment implies that the government is working on the accounting, and perhaps provides the acknowledgement the Crown has not maintained its trust-like, fiduciary responsibilities. So Windspeaker asked: Shouldn't a trustee, by law, be able to provide an accounting of the trust to the beneficiary on demand within a reasonable time?

"The federal government recognizes that in certain instances monies may be owing related to past management of Six Nations land," she replied, after a lengthy pause.