Divided community united by occupation

For now, the people of Six Nations are solidly behind the Douglas Creek Estates occupation in Caledonia.

That was made clear during a series of public meetings in late April and early May. The citizens see the blockade as a way of getting the government to finally address their land issues.

In a community that has historically been paralyzed by internal divisions, the tone that emerged at the meetings was surprisingly unified, although the old tensions were still visible. Band council supporters, traditional council supporters, Christians, people of the long house spiritual ways, young, old, men, women - all had their say and most spoke of their support for the occupation.
The consensus that appears to be emerging is both heartening and chilling. Heartening because the divisions that have racked the community since the traditional government was forcibly replaced by an Indian Act council in 1924 appear to be narrowing for the first time in living memory. Chilling because the unity and resolve to continue to support the Caledonia occupation and use it as a tool to force redress puts the community on a collision course with Canadian authorities that have used deadly force in the past.

Windspeaker attended two Confederacy-sponsored meetings and one elected council-sponsored meeting on April 30, May 2 and May 3.

Jessie Porter, one of more than a dozen speakers at the three-hour May 3 meeting hosted by elected Chief Dave General and attended by more than 100 people, summed up the change in direction that is emerging at Six Nations. He noted that a police raid on the occupation early on April 20 touched and galvanized the community as never before.

"I've been involved since that Thursday morning," he said. "I go down and help out with wood, gas, whatever I can. And I sit there and talk to the people that see the big picture beyond that land down there, that see that if we drop the ball on this one we're going to have such a black eye at the negotiating table that we might never get that respect again."

Porter said he knows too well about the labeling that goes on in the community. He urged people to put past disagreements aside and come together behind the occupation.

"When the going gets tough we slap titles on these people and lay the boots to 'em," he said. "The people have to get off their butts and start talking about the solutions. We know what happened. We know what's been done to us over the years. We need to come together. Unity is the first step to this process. We got pushed to the table when that Thursday morning come. Now we're in a process. In that process, unity will heal us first. It'll open our eyes up."

Some community members look down their noses at activists and those who make money by defying Canadian law. Many Confederacy supporters see their community as being occupied by a foreign power. Many look for ways to resist that occupation. They call band council supporters collaborators. Porter said it was time to acknowledge that everyone has their own way of fighting back against the injustices that have been visited on their community.

"We need to take the titles off that we associate with bad news, like 'Warrior Society.' We need to respect those guys that come out here to help us. They did a job that we didn't do and we didn't want to do. It's unfortunate but they're there, they did it, they helped us. I appreciate it," he said. "But we're the ones that slapped those titles on those guys. We're doing the same thing to our leaders. We're slapping identities on them that are not that good because down the line they forgot to be perfect and we nail 'em for it every chance we get."

Then he revealed that it had not been easy for him to arrive at this point of view.

"I was brought up in a Christian home and everybody thinks that the Confederacy is a bad place to be. I went down there. I didn't know the ways or procedures but they showed me out of respect. They never said, 'You're a Christian, get out of here,'" he said. "We need to drop those titles and go to a neutral place."

If the divisions cannot be breached, the opportunity provided by the occupation will be wasted and the community will continue to be paralyzed by factionalism, he added.

"We're repeating history and I don't want to do that. That's why I go down there. My life's been on hold since Thursday (April 20) like a lot of other people," he said.

Rather than the bickering that usually goes on in the community, Jessie Porter asked for tolerance and respect.

"When you see another guy standing beside you and you know that they're a chief or a clan mother or a Christian or a non-believer, when you see all those people come together under one area and have the same words that we're talking about, the same feelings. Their heart hurt the same way that yours did or mine did when the police were beating up our people. They're the same. It's just that we've got those identities down. We're repeating history. We're doing it ourselves. Nobody's doing it for us," he said.

But the very next speaker reminded people just how deep the divide can be. Former band councillor Sid Henhawk angrily stated that he doesn't have much use for Warriors or the Confederacy.

"We know that we've lost a lot of land. We know that we haven't been compensated. I think we've made our point," he said. "And I don't want to see across the newspapers, people with bandanas and fatigues standing up for my rights. I can stand up for my own rights. I don't think we should have people like that doing what our band council or our Confederacy should be doing. We fight our own battles here. It's making me angry to think we have to call in Warriors to fight our battles."

Native Women's Association of Canada President Beverley Jacobs is from Six Nations. She returned home after the police raid. A lawyer by training, she has been advising the Confederacy negotiators.

Jacobs believes the community is moving towards a new level of unity.

"I think we're really, really trying to work with that factionalism. And we're really trying to get to the root of what the Great Law means and how it impacts all of our people. I think [the occupation] really jump-started us to start working towards that. It's something that I personally have done even throughout my professional career, to uplift and empower the Confederacy."
Elected Chief Dave General also sees the community coming closer together.

He has called for a new form of governance that combines both councils. He said his council will not allow Canada to back away from dealing with the Confederacy once the barricades come down because a relationship between the two councils has begun.

"I think it's that time in our history where we have to stand by that working relationship no matter how difficult it is to develop something. We have to do that within our territory. It can begin with full knowledge of Canada. It can be in plain view. We have that shared history, the shared ancestry," he said. "Why not come together on such an important issue as land? That's why I keep saying, if the Confederacy at its full strength could not pull governance back to them over 82 years, what makes people think today that they can do it. But if we are truly in that era where people are not certain about the Confederacy's capacity right now and they're frustrated with the elected council, why not look at a model that's right in between?"