Indigenous Studies
Indigenous Studies
Six Nations Land Claim

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Historic Negotiations Begin

In 1924, the Government of Canada entered Six Nations territory with armed force to end the centuries old system of governance outlined in the Gai yen sra go wa (Great Law). The Chiefs of the governing Confederacy were relieved of all responsibilities, and replaced by an elected band council under the Indian Act. Although the Band Council has been in place since that time, Six Nations continues to maintain their own governance outside the Indian Act through the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Six Nations have never permitted the Confederacy to die. It remaines a source of moral authority, the repository of the Haudenausaunee languages and spirituality. The Chiefs of the Confederacy are to be chosen by highly capable women of each clan or Clan mothers.

When the current land claims dispute erupted on Six Nations territory near Caledonia, the Haudenosaunee people called upon the Confederacy and the Clan Mothers to represent their rights and play an active role. As the dispute proceeded and pressures mounted for negotiations, many insisted that the Confederacy negotiate for the Six Nations, not the Band Council. The Band Council supported this position and notified the government that the Confederacy was supported in representing Six Nations at the negotiating table. Currently, they have donated "$10,000 for support to the occupation group" (Tekawennake; May 10, 2006). The federal government and the province have agreed to these arrangements and the negotiations have begun. For the first time in 82 years, the long-standing legitimate, traditional leadership of the Haudenausaunee will be speaking for their people, not the Band Council. We wish the clan mothers and the chiefs success in these discussions and hope that they are able to act as the Peacemaker says in the Great Law: Now you are to work for your people as if you had one head, one body and one heart. You are to always have peace and caring in your minds.

Update on Six Nations Land Reclamation

May we remind our colleagues and friends of the wise words of Martin Luther King Jr.:
“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, 16 April 1963

“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. …. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all.”
“First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

The Six Nations Reclamation is centered around land. Women are inherently connected to the land. Haudenosaunee women sought support to reclaim lands that were illegally granted to developers. They counselled with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and were granted their support. They chose to stand in peaceful protest at the main entrance to the housing development site. The OPP promised the confederacy negotiators that they would not raid the peaceful protest. On April 20, 2006 at 4:30am approximately 100 OPP raided a sleeping camp. Elders, women, youth and men were assaulted as they were abruptly awoken. The Haudenosaunee people are a community who cherish their Elders. Community members responded in defense of their land and relatives. The only violence was perpetrated on the Haudenosaunee as they were subjected to physical force, tasers and pepper spray. In order to protect their community from further assaults barriers were mounted. The Clan Mothers and Chiefs as well as the people of Six Nations continue to encourage peace and request that past injustices be acknowledged and corrected by the crown. The Indigenous Studies Programme was founded by Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Faithkeepers in 1989. The late Chief Harvey Longboat, who carried the title Deskaheh, was one of the founding fathers of the Programme. Chief Arnie General and many other Haudenosaunee people were involved and continue to be the foundation of the ISP. Their goal was to educate Natives and non-Natives alike about our histories, culture and rights. Currently, the Academic Director, the Elder-in-Residence and the fulltime lecturer have been and continue to be intimately tied to the events and the call for justice. We ask our colleagues, alumni and fellow citizens to publicly acknowledge the contribution of the Confederacy and Haudenosaunee people to McMaster University, community and the history of this country.

Haudenosaunee Historical Resistance:
In 1923, Haudenosaunee Chief Deskaheh travelled to Geneva to speak to the League of Nations and defend the right of his people to live under their own laws, on their own land and under their own faith. Even though he was not allowed to speak and returned home in 1924, his vision nourished the generations that followed.

A few months before his death in 1925, Chief Deskaheh made his last speech by radio in Rochester, New York. The following is an excerpt:

“This is the story of the Mohawks, the story of the Oneidas, of the Cayugas — I am a Cayuga — of the Onondagas, the Senecas, and the Tuscaroras. They are the Iroquois. Tell it to those who have not been listening. Maybe I will be stopped from telling it. But if I am prevented from telling it over, as I hope I do, the story will not be lost. I have already told it to thousands of listeners in Europe. It has gone into the records where your children can find it when I may be dead or be in jail for daring to tell the truth. I have told this story in Switzerland. They have free speech in little Switzerland. One can tell the truth over there in public, even if it is uncomfortable for some great people.

Chief Deskaheh

This story comes straight from Deskaheh, one of the chiefs of the Cayugas. I am the speaker of the Council of the Six Nations, the oldest League of Nations now existing. It was founded by Hiawatha. It is a League which is still alive and intends, as best it can, to defend the rights of the Iroquois to live under their own laws in their own little countries now left to them, to worship their Great Spirit in their own way, and to enjoy the rights which are as surely theirs as the white man's rights are his own.”

Historical Undermining of the Clanmothers:
One of the fathers of social science , Emile Durkheim in his book The Division of Labour in Society (1960) wrote: In some societies, female functions are not clearly distinguished from male. There is even now a very great number of savage people where the women mingle in political life. That has been observed especially in the tribes of America, such as the Iroquois, the Natchez; in Hawaii she participates in a myriad of ways in men's lives, as she does in New Zealand and in Samoa.... One of the distinctive contemporary qualities of women, gentility, does not appear to pertain to her primitive society. (Durkheim 1933:58).

Haudenosaunee Women: Violence and Human Rights:

051006-cover

Six Nations librarian Diana Doxtdator was verbally attacked by Caledonia residents including Jim Smith (above) when they learned she was from Six Nations and in the Caledonia rally crowd Friday night. Doxtdator had to have a police escort to leave the fray when the crowd of 300 people pressed forward shouting at her. Doxtdator left in tears. (Photo by Donna Duric)
from theturtleislandnews.com/ Headline Wednesday May 10, 2006.

Blackeye

"Violence against women, and certainly violence against Indigneous women, is rarely understood as a human rights issue. To the extent that governments, media and the general public do consider concerns about violence against women, it is more frequent for it to be described as a criminal concern or social issue. It is both of those things of course. But it is also very much a human rights issue. Women have the right to be safe and free from violence. Indigenous women have the right to be safe and free from violence. When a woman is targeted for violence because of her gender or because of her Indigenous identity, her fundamental rights have been abused. And when she is not offered an adequate level of protection by state authorities because of her gender or because of her Indigenous identity, those rights have been violated" ( Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women In Canada, Amnesty International)

Six Nations Land Reclamation

We are Six Nations

senior

Native land

into the nite

Terralingua Letter

Letter of support from Chief B. Ominayak of Lubicon Cree Nations

Letter from Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee

For more information see:
http://sisis.nativeweb.org/
www.ckrz.com
www.reclamationinfo.com
http://auto_sol.tao.ca
www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/history.html

Help stop violence against Indigenous people. Support the human rights of Indigenous people. Speak out in support of the Haudenosaunee people of Six Nations. Please write a letter of support to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and carbon copy to Minister Prentice, Prime Minister Steven Harper , Primier Dalton McGuinty. These letters can also be submitted to local editors of newspapers. Nya:weh.

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