Updated 15 March 2014 - The "Turtle Island News" (TIN) of 5 March 2014 (p.5) includes an article entitled, The women who sparked the nation, remember 8 years ago. TIN lists these women, but I won't repeat them here. Toward the end of the article, it degenerates into further unsubstantiated and outlandish accusations about Bill C10 (see my earlier posting), and, The oppression and the genocidal acts and the ethnic cleansing they're [the Federal Government] are attempting. So enforcing the laws in relation to contraband tobacco is akin to Hitler's Holocaust where 6 million Jews and others were gassed and otherwise murdered! Anyway, back to the "commemoration".
I will be very very blunt here. I am bitterly disappointed in the behaviour and statements of the women who marched to Douglas Creek Estates (Kanonhstaton) the previous Friday to "commemorate" the violent take over of the property of a non-Native person (actually a corporation) who held title based on documents from the beginning of the Ontario Land Registry system. Some of these women I know, some I don't know and may or may have not met. I am shocked at how 8 years after the illegal occupation, there is still a grotesque failure to recognize the historical record. The attitude here appears to be, "if we say it is so, it must be so". I personally feel betrayed by the actions of some, as I will describe below.
Not only were these women celebrating the violent chaotic take over which embarassed the Ontario Provincial Police and destroyed their credibility locally, but also caused immense suffering for the people who lived anywhere near the site. There is NO RECOGNITION of the horrible terrorist inspired conditions that the people of the 6th Line and nearby had to endure while the all night partying and almost constant ATV noise in their backyards grew, and the intimidation (such as requiring Haudenosaunee passports to access their own homes) became more blatant. How could anyone ignore this, and focus on the unwarranted theft of private property and justify it as some sort of assertion of Six Nations "rights" - basically to do anything they please since there are unlikely to be any consequences, as long as no one is killed (assault to the point of permanent brain damage is apparently able to be rationalised).
To add to the obvious oblivion to the suffering of others, thanks to these women and their entourage of 25 or so, Cars lined up for kilometres behind them. I have noted before that this is my "pet peeve", and I admit that I become inflamed when callous groups, enabled by the OPP, block the highways and local roads, thereby inconveniencing or placing in danger those impacted.
This despite the FACT that the historical record shows that in December of 1844 the Six Nations Chiefs in Council transferred the land (ceded the land) to the Crown to be sold and the proceeds added to the Six Nations Trust Fund. Please read the EVIDENCE here, and Justice Harrison Arrell of the Ontario Superior Court in Brantford stating an opinion in November 2010 that if the matter of land claims was ever to reach the Court, the Six Nations have an "exceedingly weak" case, as seen here.
Please read the article in Turtle Island News for the rationales given by these women, some of whom are clearly proud of the role they played in the suffering - it was about perceived "rights", so apparently all is fair. Here we see statements such as, If children are not told the truth, the same mistakes will keep repeating themselves. The problem here is that this is in no way a "fact based" version of "the truth", only that which many at Six Nations have come to perceive as their own personal truth. True factual evidence is irrelevant here, if it does not accord with the Six Nations world view - despite the fact that the ancestors sold the land fair and square 170 years ago - and now some of their descendants want it back!
No shame, no remorse. I have nothing more to say to any of the women whose views were reported in this article. These are people with whom I have little in common (except perhaps a few genes and an "appreciation" of Six Nations culture) - to me that has become entirely clear. More than one of these women told me that the reason "action" was needed at Douglas Creek Estates was the concern that Six Nations was being surrounded by residential development and the Community was feeling choked. I agreed that this was a legitimate concern, for which I was on board for some form of protest (certainly NOT a violent take over) in relation to the urbanization of Haldimand and Brant Counties in the area around the Reserve. Now it seems that I was lied to and I was betrayed. Apparently what happened was about unwarranted Six Nations "rights" to the land - totally different from the spin I was initially given. If the rationale I was initially given was truthful, I would suggest that Six Nations and locals join forces to dispute the McClung Road Development which would see Caledonia doubling in size. Now there is no use in enlisting the support of elders at Six Nations. Those I have spoken with will apparently have no concerns about the environmental impact and other issues which concern me - only bogus Indian "rights". So who can you trust at Six Nations to tell the truth - I really wonder now. Shame on me for believing them. I will not be lied to again by any of the women I had spoken with, that much is clear.
I have gone back and forth on the matter of including the names of those who attended the "commemoration", and who personally disappointed me so much. Ultimately I decided to simply list them in the order they appear in the TIN article. They are as follows:
Jan Longboat
Carol Bomberry
Donna Powless
Hazel Hill
Janie Jamieson
Bebby Jamieson
Doreen Silversmith
Thanks for nothing, and for fostering a wider rift between Six Nations and the local non-Native or off Reserve commuity. So much for healing.
Please, remember Sam Gualtieri (see here) and other victims of the violence of Caledonia 2006, and contemplate where the true responsibility lies. Please seek the truth; and respect the evidence which is supported by irrefutable facts. When we disrespect and deny the truth, we are on the cusp of reentering the Dark Ages.
DeYo.
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