Considering that the Hereditary Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) and their enforcement and extortion arm the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) have been frustrated by the fact that the Ontario Provincial Government will not play ball with them (hand over the deed to the Douglas Creek Estates property), it is not in the least surprising that they would initiate some action to get the attention of the Province. The action by the HCCC Men's Fire blocking Highway 6 on the 4th and 5th of October 2014 under the pretend reason of demanding an inquiry into the missing and murdered aboriginal women, failed miserably. So some other approach was expected - and now a month after their botched efforts, the HCCC affiliates are at it again. The focus this time, the Grand River Navigation Company tow path and the Grand River river bed claim revived. The target: The Cayuga Bridge along Highway 3 now under major repair work. The action: A work stoppage.
In the online version of "The Sachem" is an article entitled, HDI issues press release in regards to Cayuga Bridge as seen here, we learn that, the HDI have issued a press release as follows:
Cayuga Bridge work stops Ontario fails to consult
CAYUGA-The Ministry of Transportation has been put on notice and construction work on the Cayuga Bridge spanning the Grand River came to a halt Tuesday (November 3 2014) morning after workers were told Ontario had failed to engage with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) on a bridge that encroaches on Haudenosaunee tow path lands and the bed of the Grand River.
Since I have done extensive research into the Indian Affairs (RG10) Series at the National Archives, I can assure readers that there is no valid tow path or River bed claim. It exists only in the minds of the HCCC supporters for whom evidence is never needed, only belief in the validity of something, or the belief that they can get away with gross distortions of reality since they will not likely be challenged on their assertions. Also, it is not the HCCC who has the mandate to deal with either the Ontario Provincial Government or the Federal Government - that role is by law assigned to the Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC). The latter simply give way to the former since the Six Nations community is divided on which body is the "legitimate" governing unit for the Reserve. The HDI claims moral authority, and an atavistic return to romanticized Stone Age conceptualizations in the modern world. The damage caused by the HDI and their precursors is immense. The horrors and acts of terrorism seen during and after the violent take over ("reclamation") of private property at the Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) in 2006 is a classic example. As the HDI became formalized, it emerged as the strong arm of the HCCC and would initiate work stoppages at developments on lands that it considered "unceded". Since the Courts were not willing to tolerate criminal acts, and since the written evidence showed that by 1849 all of the lands outside the present day Reserve had been legally surrendered so that the monies could be places in the Six Nations Trust Account, they have occasionally been willing to act in work stoppages. Thus in 2010 Judge Harrison Arrell of the Superior Court in Brantford fined the HDI members and supporters $385,000 for engaging in work stoppages involving land development. This has not stopped the HDI (who are funded by extracting money from naieve land developers and industrial wind turbine corporations) from continuing with their illegal practices which have absolutely no regard whatsoever for the residents of Brant and Haldimand Counties.
A number of my postings to this blog have explored the matter of bogus land claims. SNEC has agreed with Federal Government researchers that any remaining claims are about fiscal irregularities in matters stretching back 170 years and which were never questioned by the Chiefs who signed the surrenders or their descendants. That is to say, until the time was ripe for manipulating the public and increased radicalization that had been evident since the "Oka Crisis" of the 1980s and the "Ipperwash Incident" of the 1990s. It is with a sense of entitlement that the HCCC, despite their lack of any official status, have attempted to foist their view of "reality" on both their own community and the general public (including the Federal and Provincial Governments). Due to the factionalism within the Six Nations community, SNEC frequently gives in to the HCCC and allows them to take the lead in lost causes (e.g., the return of supposedly unceded land).
Returning to the "press release", and again quoting from the article in "The Sachem", we see further details:
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) the HCCC’s development department, has been attempting to engage with the Ministry of Transportation for the past three (3) years with respect to MTO Projects which are impairing rights in areas of HCCC jurisdiction.
Despite repeated requests for a good faith engagement process the MTO has refused to sit down in good faith and consider the impact of MTO Projects on Haudenosaunee rights and interests, says HDI legal adviser Aaron Detlor.
Instead, he said, the Ontario Liberals would rather “cost the province’s manufacturing and construction industry tens of millions of dollars in work stoppages, shut downs and court costs as their failure to engage pushes the projects and Haudenosaunee into direct conflict”.
It seems that the HDI is able to make any false claim it choses and somehow the Ontario Government is expected to react. Since it is a Federal Government responsibility the actions seem more geared toward getting the attention of the Provincial Government which has refused to negotiate with the HCCC without the legal party representing Six Nations, SNEC, being present. HDI will have none of that. They refuse to sit at any negotiating table with SNEC who they see as usurpers. So when both the Federal and Provincial Government throw up their hands in disgust since they legally cannot deal with HDI or any other HCCC party without the legally mandated representatives of the Six Nations community, is it any wonder?
The work stoppages as noted have in the past resulted in fines against the perpetrators - although the fines have been reduced by negotiation. At this point the present author is unclear as to who has paid how much in the above noted Court proceedings. It is absolutely crystal clear however, that it is not the fault of the Federal or Provincial Governments (the HDI, because they want the deed to the DCE property placed in their hands, are now focusing on the latter) but the perpetrators in the form of the HDI and their thugs.
The legal representative of the HDI then said, after claiming that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation acknowledged the Six Nations claim (which I doubt very much), that, “the refusal of the MTO to deal in good faith has meant that the Haudenosaunee must now exercise their rights in and around the Cayuga Bridge project until the MTO is prepared to halt construction and sit down in good faith to begin discussions to determine if the Haudenosaunee are prepared to grant consent to allow MTO to proceed.” So what are the Six Nations "rights". Apparently this includes work stoppages. Once again a completely uncreative and unproductive in the long run tactic of the HCCC supporters, and done with complete disregard to the innocent citizens whose lives will be negatively impacted.
At Cayuga the geographical situation is such that the HDI thugs cannot expect reinforcement to stream in from the Reserve as they have in any actions in Caledonia (which is more proximal to the Reserve). The protesters would be isolated, and with a large OPP detachment in Cayuga it should be a simple matter to enforce the law fairly and without prejudice by apprehending the protesters, jailing them, then by the Courts issuing stiff fines sufficient to act as a deterrent to any contemplated future actions of this nature. Of course the question is once again, will the OPP continue to operate under a two - tiered policing arrangement with one set of rules and standards for the residents of Haldimand, and another (the kid glove treatment) for those who are defined as "aboriginal" (although are nothing of the sort any more than the Loyalist settlers who came to the Cayuga area as refugees in 1784 one year before the Six Nations Loyalist refugees arrived on the Grand River in 1785). Six Nations are in a sense aboriginal to Upstate New York but only from about 900 AD according to the archaeological evidence. This has all be discussed at length in previous postings.
The HDI representative then says, “The HDI deeply regrets the failure of the MTO to come to the table in good faith and any inconveniences that MTO’s conduct will cause to the people of Haldimand County. We hope that the HDI and MTO will be able to sit down in a mediated process in the near future to resolve the failure of MTO to uphold the honour of the crown.” This cynical statement is without a doubt said to mitigate the inevitable backlash (they have never before shown an ounce of concern for local residents). It is not the Crown involved here - they are directly affecting the lives (once again) of the residents of Haldimand County (one wonders how much more tolerance will be bankable here), and are targeting the Ontario Government not the Federal Government (Crown).
The next statement is, A Communications protocol framework between the Haudenosaunee and Ontario Minister of Aboriginal Affairs has been in limbo since June. It was the first in a series of established processes for the Ontario government, as part of the Crown, in how Ontario and the Haudenosaunee will relate to each other, with its basis in the Two Row Wampum. There are two matters that need comment here.
First, it is now clear that what the HDI are talking about is the intransigence of the Ontario Government in dealing with the HCCC without the participation of SNEC (the legal representatives of the Six Nations community). They want the deed to the DCE property which is in the hands of the Provincial Government, particularly so since the HDI have spent a lot of money constructing a chain link fence and a decorative gate blocking Surrey Street in Caledonia (all illegally done). This is the real issue, the claim about tow path lands is just a ruse.
They also say, in their "press release", that, Ontario instead of returning to the communications table have unilaterally established a new table that appears to include the Six Nations Band Council and Haldimand County Council and attempts to bring the Haudenosaunee Confederacy under the Indian Act system. This is proof positive as to what I have been asserting, in other words that the HCCC here want Ontario to give up using the legal approach and decide on their own that the true representatives of Six Nations are the Hereditary Council that has been in existence since the Stone Age, but which as the modern age dawned showed that they were not up to the task and became completely dysfunctional such that the Mohawk Workers and other progressive elements at Six Nations pleaded with the Federal Government to install an elected system - which after much debate was done in 1924.
Secondly, referring to the "Two Row Wampum" is another of the many fantasies believed at Six Nations but which cannot be supported by anything remotely resembling evidence. So the reality here is constructed, it is merely a perception - but we all know that perception is reality. In fact the Two Row Wampum is entirely constructed of bogus "evidence". The concept of the European "settlers" being in a boat and the Six Nations people being in a canoe and that both travel side by side without interfering with each other is unsupported. The document which allegedly underpins it was found by the brother of one VanLoon at New Credit in the past Century and has been shown by academics to be a mixture of Colonial and modern Dutch - a forgery and a fake. It is at best a trade agreement (not a treaty) signed by two Dutch colonists and four apparently Mohawk individuals in 1613. So the document cannot be show to be valid, then what about the other piece of "evidence", the wampum belt. At some point in time a wampum belt from the 19th Century surfaced and its two purple rows of beads on a background of white beads was interpreted (in modern times) as representing a ship and a canoe. At this point a story came into being about the supposed agreement and it representing the immutable relationship between the English Crown (although the document was signed only by two Dutch traders) and the Six Nations people. They are likely confusing this with the valid "Covenant Chain of friendship" concept that can be traced to 1676 and is well documented. However here the relationship is focused on the hegemony of the Crown and the acknowledgement of Six Nations that their Great Father the King of England was the ruler of all in the colony of New York. When the Six Nations came to Ontario as refugees after the Revolutionary War I can find no evidence of any "Two Row Wampum" agreement. It is only in the 1900s when it was created.
So here we go again, except that the major impact of the illegal acts will be in Cayuga not Caledonia. It is unclear as of now whether the HDI will block all traffic on the bridge at Cayuga, which would cause chaos and millions of dollars. The citizens of Cayuga have never rallied to the defense of those of us in Caledonia so I wish them good luck as they begin to find out what we have had to endure - then maybe we can act together with all of the residents of Haldimand County to defeat these terrorists - that is if the police are unable or unwilling to do their jobs. The HDI do not wish to negotiate except when they are guaranteed a certain outcome. All they understand is the application of the law - although clearly they think that they should be immune, and that they can get away with criminal acts here as they have time and again in both Haldimand and Brant Counties.
Perhaps you would like to ask yourself a question. If the HDI "land protectors" or "warriors" have enough time on their hands to enforce work stoppages, what is their means of supporting themselves?
The bottom line here is, why should the construction crew listen to HDI thugs. If they need police protection call the OPP who are two minutes away. No one needs to obey a group of thugs who represent a rogue group at Six Nations. The workers need to get back to their jobs and quit enabling the HDI and legitimizing their bully behavior.
DeYo.
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