Monday, February 26, 2007

I Have Purposely Been Staying Away From Caledonia

Mainly because most of info comes from other bloggers who seem to have their own agenda but I couldn't pass on this report from the mainstream media......

"It's time for the politically incorrect truth to be told."

John Hagopian goes, for the Hamilton Spectator, where other mainstream outlets have feared to tread - the legal facts of Caledonia;

In short, the Six Nations have no legal rights to the lands in question, and have had none for over a century.

They have never had any rights to land in Ontario by virtue of aboriginal title or by treaty. For a tract of land along the Grand River, they obtained in 1784 merely an occupancy permit from British colonial Governor Frederick Haldimand that endured only at the pleasure of the Crown. After 1784, the Six Nations surrendered to the Crown various portions of the Grand River tract, and by the middle of the 19th century all that remained was the land contained in the current Six Nations reserve south of Brantford. That is a summary of their legal rights.


Then, he tackles the mythology.
Posted by Kate at 12:35 PM

But all we get from the government is excuses, excuses.......
Posted by at

2 comments:

saga said...

Hagopian's opinion is based on 10 year old research and does not reflect all of the evidence.

Illegal colonialism
By Billy Two Rivers,Kahnawake Mohawk Territory
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 3, 2007)

Re: 'The Myths of Caledonia' (Opinion, Feb. 24)

Writer John Hagopian states that, basically, there is no legal basis to the Six Nations land claim and that all they (Six Nations) had was an occupancy permit.

For the information of your readers, I must point out that, during that time, the British Crown did not possess an occupancy permit, either -- never mind crown land or ownership -- legal or otherwise.

That said, herein lies a brief response to some of the propaganda conjured up by the mindset of the writer to undermine all calls for historical redress, by way of European colonial law. The current impasse in Caledonia between the Six Nations and non-natives concerning rights to certain lands is very poorly understood by the public and the media alike.

The ownership history of Six Nations lands in Ontario has been ignored, as has the legal basis claim to those lands. It's time for the truth to be told. In short, the Six Nations do have legal rights to the lands in question; the lands have been Iroquoian homelands long before the founding of our confederacy.

They have all the rights to land in Ontario by virtue of aboriginal title. In fact, all land belongs to the indigenous peoples, contrary to the "doctrine of discovery," i.e. the Papal Bulls of January 8, 1455.

Based on this licence to steal, our learned white brother takes the Canadian soap box and carefully regurgitates the position of colonial and assimilative Canada and its provinces that these lands were "Terra Nullius" and inhabited by "soulless creatures." This made the lands ready for the taking by any immigrant colonial thief. That, of course, makes it all legal in the writer's eyes.

7:21 AM
saga said...

Here is another response...

By Scott Rutherford and Jeffrey Welsh
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 16, 2007)

In John Hagopian's Feb. 24 article on this page -- The myths of Caledonia: There's no legal basis to the Six Nations land claim -- he outlined a set of "myths" to suggest that the Six Nations have no legal or historical claim even to their own reserve, much less the disputed tract near Caledonia.

Hagopian claims these commonly held "myths" include "aboriginal claim to the subject lands," that "the Six Nations were the aboriginal occupants of these lands at the time of first contact with European explorers, traders and colonizers," and that "the Six Nations received a deed of land from Governor (Sir Frederick) Haldimand of Quebec in 1784 that gave the Confederacy ownership of all lands lying 9.66 kilometres on either side of the entire length of the Grand River."

The available historical record demonstrates that Hagopian's "myths" are in fact Six Nations claims to truth:

* The Iroquois Confederacy had multiple treaties over time with the British Crown, such as the 1701 Nanfan Treaty, wherein the Crown recognized all of southern Ontario and much of central and eastern Ontario as the Beaver Hunting Grounds of the Haudenosaunee.

In the treaty, the British promised to protect those lands for the Five Nations' interests.

The British used this treaty as incentive for the Haudenosaunee to give them military support in 1755 against the French and in 1777 against the American colonists.

* At the time of first European contact, the Confederacy already existed. Thus it predates contact with the Europeans and there were, as mentioned above, subsequent treaties which recognized the Confederacy.

While different nations periodically moved through the Grand River territory, Six Nations people have consistently, throughout this period, maintained their right to this land, as well as maintaining working relationships with other nations in the region, both before and after European contact.

* In terms of the specific Crown grant of the Grand River, Governor Haldimand's deed speaks for itself:

"Whereas His Majesty having been pleased to direct that in consideration of the early attachment to His cause manifested by the Mohawk Indians and of the loss of their settlement which they thereby sustained that a convenient tract of land under His protection should be chosen as a safe and comfortable retreat for them and others of the Six Nations who have either lost their settlements within the Territory of the American States or wish to retire from them to the British. I have at the earnest desire of many of these His Majesty's faithful allies purchased a tract of land from the Indians situated between the Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron, and I do hereby in His Majesty's name authorize and permit the said Mohawk Nation and such others of the Six Nations Indians as wish to settle in that quarter to take possession of and settle upon the banks of the river commonly called Ouse or Grand River, running into Lake Erie, allotting to them for that purpose six miles deep from each side of the river, beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of the said river, which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever."

Haldimand's "purchase" of the land in question merely extinguished a rival claim. The deed states that the land was granted by the Crown "in consideration of "both their service to the Crown and "the loss of settlement" in New York.

In British law, the phrase "in consideration" is a reference to payment -- in this case for services rendered and land lost as a result.

Whether the Crown could give the Confederacy land that had already been recognized earlier as Confederacy territory is disputed.

What is unambiguous is the final wording of the grant: that the land was meant for the Six Nations "and their posterity to enjoy for ever."

Scott Rutherford and Jeffrey Welsh are PhD candidates in the department of history at Queen's University, Kingston.

6:19 PM

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I lean to the right but I still have a heart and if I have a mission it is to respond to attacks on people not available to protect themselves and to point out the hypocrisy of the left at every opportunity.MY MAJOR GOAL IS HIGHLIGHT THE HYPOCRISY AND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFTISTS ON TORONTO CITY COUNCIL. Last word: In the final analysis this blog is a relief valve for my rants/raves.

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