How Native are the Six Nations?
May 24, 2006 · By Peter Rempel
Matthew points out that the Six Nation’s ancestral claims to the disputed Ontario land are somewhat thin:
It’s important to add that when it comes to Six Nations that we’re not dealing with a group that was is as rooted to the land as some of Canada’s other First Nations. The Six Nations originally came up from the U.S. after that country had it’s War of Independence; the deal that they have with the government is purely contractual and not a matter of heritage as the group has been making it out to be. If the Natives in Caledonia really have a beef, they should settle it in a court of law and not on the streets of rural south-eastern Ontario.
their court battles, traditionally, like their relations with the country of canada, snooze until they have to wake us up.
their land, in this instance, was offered as compensation for siding with canada in the revolutionary war of independance the us made in 1776 and is called the haldimand tract. as par normal, the squatters on these lands seem to have won chinked it down to a “reserved” area no one wanted or accepted.
“their land, in this instance, was offered as compensation for siding with canada in the revolutionary war of independance the us made in 1776 and is called the haldimand tract.”
OK, but how does this factor into their claims on the land that Henco wanted to develop? If this is true, I don’t see how the Six Nations are any different from any European or (more relevant) American settlers.
I think (?) the point is that the land is more contracted than treatied - a grant as any other grant to citizens of the Canadian colonies as opposed to lands reserved under nation to nation agreement. That would basically make it a simple civil dispute as opposed to a First Nation land claim.
I believe the land was given in a Treaty after the ancestors of this group lost their land fighting for the Crown. Of course any treaty, when you come down to it, is just a contract. THe distinguishion that is trying to be made doesn’t really exist.
Well…well..well hmmm where would you like me to begin? How Native am I? I can trace my ancestors lineage back for generations and generations…..yes we CAME to be here because we were FORCED by the U.S. Government in the late 1700’s. There are alot of things that you are not aware of …for one, we did not CHOOSE to be here anymore then you want us here…we were FORCED onto RESERVATIONS ….the Gov’ told my ancestors life would be better on a reservation for all people..there would be food, shelter and clothing…for all people…thats ALL my ancestors cared about……their people, their wellbeing, their future generations to come…..are you aware that after we came to be here the Ontario Government had AGENTS assigned to our reservation to ensure that the INDIANS were back on the reservation before a certain time? If they weren’t then you were locked out and killed? Seriously…..and yes, then there was the residential schools..they TOOK children out of their homes and placed them into these schools of geonicide….so they could be “RE-SOCIALIZED” as non-native people….they couldn’t speak their own tongue’s, couldn’t show affection, had their hair cut off, were beaten, whipped, molested, abused physically, mentally, emotionally, and of course….spiritually…. the last residential school to close was in the late 1980’s …..you know regardless of long ago that was we ALL still feel the affects of those institutions….my father, my mother, my brothers, and myself……all native people will feel the affects for generations to come because the healing has only just begun…and yes the Government has begun to financially compensate for the wrongs they have inflicted but it doesn’t matter how much money they try to give, it will not give us back all the things that were lost during that time….that is what we are attempting to reclaim with our future generations….and to know how Native one person is, is to know that they know where they come from…..my grandfather always told me “to know who you are is to know where you came from” and I do…….Do you? I AM Native and I AM PROUD…….Given what has been done to my people I am still proud of who I am and where I came from…what I have always wondered though is after all the attempts to destroy my people why and how are we still here?…….But we still are…….now thats something to be proud of.
After the Rev war, the SN were quite free to stay on their lands, in upstate NY. However, J. Brant decided he wanted to live under British rule and (along with a majority of Mohawks) freely moved to the Grand River area.
The Haldimand Proclamation set aside land for the SN to live on and under the Crown’s protection, but the proclamation do not cede a deed to the SN, and the Crown retained the deed it purchased from the Mississauga’s
J. Brant while still in the Mohawk Valley (eastern gate, upstate NY), sold land to new American settlers starting the sale of natives lands by natives to new settlers. However by 1784 Brant left upstate NY and moved to the Grand River area, where he and others began selling vast tract of Haldimand tract land. Though the Hald. Proclam. forbid that.
At no time did the americans force the SN to leave, howver their are contested land sales that are being sought in court in the form of land claims.
The majority of the Oneida themselves, around the 1780’s sold most of their land in upstate NY to new settlers, and with that money, bought land near London Ont.,where they still have a reserve today.
I cant believe that after the war of 1812 Us natives helped Canada become a so-called country… I think the Natives would be alot better off if they would have let the USA take over Canada…. Even to this day… Atleast the USA can recognize there Native People and take care of them by lettin them participate in the Economy..
Canada just wants to keep the Natives poor, Launder there Land, and steal Resources, at the same time inviting a bunch more Immigrants whom ran away from there country for some odd reason..
I think all these immigrants or Canadians whatever you want to call them.. are all on the same boat when it comes to stealing from the Natives..