Negotiations continue

The occupation of Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia, Ont. put Six Nations' land claims in the international spotlight in May.

In Geneva, Switzerland, the Lubicon Cree Nation gave up a couple of their precious minutes before the United Nations committee on economic, social and cultural rights to Six Nations' delegate Doreen Silversmith, who spoke about the unresolved land issues behind the occupation.
The report of the committee, which was examining Canada's performance under international conventions, was to be released on May 19 (after publication deadline).

Back at home, talks continue. Mohawk Confederacy Council Chief Allen McNaughton is not a professional negotiator, but he is the man at the table with the provincial and federal government negotiators. They're looking for a way to end the occupation that, as it entered its 78th day on May 17, equals the 1990 Oka confrontation in longevity.

Having a Confederacy chief at the table with Canada and Ontario is huge news at Six Nations. It's been 82 years since the traditional council was replaced by an elected, Indian Act council. The traditional council was removed from power by armed RCMP officers in 1924. It has continued to exist, impoverished and mostly without real power or influence and in a state of some disrepair. But the Great Law of Peace, the central belief system of the Iroquois Confederacy Council (more properly known as the Haudenosaunee) remains an important part of community life.

But the concern locally is that the Confederacy has influence, but no control, over the people occupying the 40-hectare (100 acre) housing development on disputed lands. The occupiers have also blocked the main road through town, a rail line and the highway bypass around Caledonia. They erected barricades at those three locations after an early morning Ontario Provincial Police raid of the Douglas Creek Estates occupation on April 20.

It's also not clear to any of the parties if the federal negotiator, former Mulroney-era External Affairs minister Barbara McDougall, is empowered to make commitments on land issues. Former Ontario premier David Peterson and former federal Indian Affairs minister Jane Stewart are representing Ontario at the table. Peterson was appointed to look for a way to bring the barricades down as soon as possible.

Deirdra McCracken, special communications assistant for Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, said the minister was not available to discuss the matter with Windspeaker. Margot Geduld, spokesperson for the department of Indian Affairs, responded to our questions on May 17.

She was asked if the federal government was recognizing the Confederacy for the first time in 82 years.

"The discussions reflect the fact that all parties, including the government of Canada, recognize that there are various views within the Six Nations community and all those views will be heard. To some extent, with both the traditional and elected councils engaged in these discussions, there has been some bridging of these different views within the Six Nations community," she said.
But isn't that a departure from the government's previous position?

"It's really what I just said. The government recognizes that there are various views within the Six Nations community and so they are working to ensure that the views are heard," she replied.

Recognition of the Confederacy has been avoided in the past. In 1994, as many of the same people behind the current Caledonia blockades were camped out on an island in the middle of the Grand River to protest a pipeline project, former Brantford mayor Bob Taylor was whisked away by federal officials before he could meet with Confederacy chiefs. The federal officials prevented that meeting because it would have been official recognition of the traditional council.

At a public information meeting hosted by the Confederacy on April 30, McNaughton indicated he was not 100 per cent behind the blockades erected by the occupiers.

"We gave our support for a peaceful protest. There was no mention about blocking roads," Allen McNaughton said. But he urged the community to "stick together and come through this in a peaceful way."

McNaughton was one of the Six Nations chiefs who had been asked to help resolve the Oka standoff in 1990. He pointed out that the land claim at the root of that violent confrontation has still not been resolved 16 years later.

"The main issue that was at hand in the first place is still in limbo and we don't want that to happen here," he said.

The Mohawk chief said he heard people say that ending the blockades would mean the government would stop paying attention to Six Nations' demands.

"I've heard people saying that if we bring the barricades down we'll lose everything. That's not true," he said.

The consensus of the people present at the Confederacy meeting seemed to be that proposed deals to trade Crown land for the lands in Caledonia were not acceptable. Ontario has proposed, as a quick solution to the standoff, that unoccupied Crown lands within the original Six Nations' land grant be exchanged for the disputed lands being occupied in Caledonia. A map showing several small purple dots-the lands that were being offered in exchange for the Douglas Creek Estates lands-was shown to the audience and provoked laughter.

Several people demanded that a neutral arbitrator be brought in from outside Canada to mediate the discussions. Many also said that the entire original land grant remained Six Nations' property and must be returned. Many objected to the idea of accepting money for land that the Crown agrees was not legally alienated from Six Nations' possession.

"I may as well kill my grandchildren for that money because where are they to live?" asked Wendy Hill.

Hill agreed with those that said the blockade was a lever that would force the government to discuss the land issues.

"When those guys come out of there, Canada will say, 'Confederacy who? Agreements what?' The real question is how do we make Canada live up to any agreements," she added.

A few days later, at another Confederacy meeting, Phil Monture, who was the director of the Six Nations' land claims research office for 27 years before being fired by former chief Roberta Jamieson in 2002, was asked to brief the community on the fine points of the claim on the lands under occupation.

He said the Hamilton-Port Dover Plank Road, a route across the Niagara Peninsula from the port city of Hamilton on Lake Ontario to Port Dover on Lake Erie, was reserved for leasing in 1835.
"It was half-a-mile on each side of the highway," he later told Windspeaker in an interview.
"There was an agreement to lease it in 1835. Terms were laid out. It was a 21-year lease with seven-year renewals. That's very definite. The government tried time and time again to get the Indians to surrender it in perpetuity and they refused."

The government claims the land eventually was surrendered in 1841. Monture said his research staff could find no reliable evidence of any surrender.

"There's no land description. We filed to challenge the validity of the Port Dover Plank Road in 1988, and the 1841 surrender in 1989. Canada never responded to either one of them. Canada came out with an 1844 document saying, 'Well, if you didn't do it in 1835 and you didn't do it in 1841, maybe you did it in 1844.' We can gear up to attack that one quite easily," he said.

And even if there was a valid surrender for the Plank Road lands, there's no record of payment received, either for the period when the land was leased or after any purported surrender.
Monture said Six Nations attempts to get the land questions resolved goes back more than a century.

"In 1890, they went to the Hague and Six Nations put an offer on the table saying they'd appoint their representative, Britain would appoint theirs and Canada would appoint theirs. Britain agreed but Canada reneged and refused to be party to it," he said.

The government foot-dragging continues right to the present day and Canada's own actions have painted the Crown into a corner, he said.

"They have no one to blame but themselves. Buy time, hopefully the next election will come or the minister will get shifted and we'll have to start again and the game goes on," he said.

Chief Dave General told Windspeaker that the perception that the government is in no hurry to resolve land claims caused the current confrontation and it will cause others.

"Regardless of who the government is, we've got to start providing First Nations across the country with something they can see as substantive progress. You've got to help First Nations' leadership show that progress to their people. Otherwise, you're just going to have people frustrated. This is just one of the first flash points. There's something brewing," he said.

But he said he preferred negotiations because proving Six Nations' claims in court would not be "a slam dunk" because of legal costs and government tactics. He would not say with certainty that the Plank Road lands were not paid for or surrendered.

"I can't say that because we still have to sit down and go through the process. That's what a claim is. You put the claim in and then you sit down and to and fro with the facts and you work yourself to a stage of agreed upon facts and that's something that hasn't been done yet," he said.