Thursday 29 October 2015

Opportunist Ambulance Chasers Try to Scam More Money from the Government over Residential Schools Etc.

In an article entitled Compensation for Sixties Scoop and Day School Abuse, found in "Two Row Times", 28 October 2015, p.4, we learn that some law firm proposes that there are "victims of Canada's assimilation policies through residential schools and other legislative bodies that have fallen through the cracks when it comes to financial compensation".  The solution .............. a class action law suit to grab more money from the Canadian taxpayer.  Perhaps the election of Trudeau has opened the door to attempts to fleece the taxpayer that never would have flown under the Harper administration.

I have spoken many times in this blog about how controversial the Residential Schools matter is at Six Nations.  Many stepped forward to tell stories of supposed woes, garner the sympathy of whoever holds the purse strings, and obtained "compensation" for the pain and suffering they supposedly endured.  The party line says that you must all agree that this happened everywhere, not just in remote communities up north, no it was endemic and so all Residential Schools must be tarred with the same brush.  The approach worked well at Six Nations with the publication of a book entitled "The Mush Hole", pertaining to the Mohawk Institute in Brantford (actually on the Six Nations Reserve even to this day).  However if one looks at the objective facts, and speaks to respected elders who were there and whose stories have NOT been told, you will hear a very different scenario.  I have said on more than one occasion, while most will not speak against the party line at "inquiries" and the like, they will to insiders.  The most succinct statement of the reality was told to me in this way:  "At home we were beaten, had nothing to eat and learned nothing; at school we were beaten, had 3 meals a day, and learned something".  To deny these stories is to try to shape the past to fit the common myth - and the truth be damned.  Not only this, but most of the teachers at Six Nations in past years were taught at the Mohawk Institute - the story is now so distorted that most are inclined to listen only to those who relay their perceptions of the horrors they claim to have experienced - all other versions are suppressed.

So now some might say that a group of fly by night ambulance chasers are proposing to squeeze more money out of perceived abusers because it is possible that some at Six Nations may have not received enough or even any compensation.  Add in something called "Sixties Scoop" and "Day School abuse" where half of the students went home at night, but "were subject to the same life altering abuse as well", and you have the makings of a fine class action law suit.  What many seem to fail to realize that many of us across Canada had a rough time at school - it was not only Indian children who experienced brutality at school.  I was bullied and abused at Day School - that was indeed the experience of half or more of kids at school in the 50s and 60s, and even into the 80s.  I still carry the physical and emotional scars.  It was the times, and I don't want a dime in "compensation".  The times have changed for the better and methods instituted to ensure what I went through will be far less likely to be foisted on some poor youngster today.  Unfortunately there is a group of whiners and complainers who have no ambition and put the blame on everyone and everything but themselves for any misfortunes.  A suggestion here would be to take some responsibility and realize that *%it happens and it is how you deal with it that makes you strong - not blood money.

These legal eagles say, as you hear on TV all the time with lawyers offering their personal injury services, that we "will only be paid if you win your case based on a percentage of compensation paid to the client".  A cynic here might say that what the lawyers are hyping is that, "you too can also be compensated for 'cultural genocide' and assorted ills, it merely requires you to step forward and sign on the dotted line - what do you have to lose?

It would not be surprising if some would feel contempt for those involved in such questionable actions for monetary gain.

DeYo.

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Continued Threats by HDI and HCCC - Claims of Treaty Rights Etc. Now Recognized as Myths and Fairy Tales - The HDI Outlandish Assertions Fall on Deaf Ears

Well, unsurprisingly, it seems that the once powerful and influential Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), which claimed to speak for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC), the Hereditary Council replaced by the Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) in 1924, is about to sail into the sunset and sink under the weight of its own rhetoric and changing times.

It would not be an understatement to say the not only residents of Caledonia, but also the Provincial and Federal Governments, and even the HCCC itself are getting sick of, or losing faith in, the HDI, which emerged after the Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) / Kanonhstaton reclamation / theft and the brutality, arson and anti - social behaviour  on the part of many Six Nations members as the activist - militant group self proclaimed to speak for Six Nations on any matter dealing with "unsurrendered" land (that was in fact sold 170 years ago), and bogus "treaty rights".  People are now starting to catch on - rhetoric (attended with non - transparency) and not fact is all they have to offer.

Here I will summarize my take on the events of the last three weeks as seen in the "Sachem", "Turtle Island News" and Two Row Times" newspapers.  There is no need here to provide, as I have in all other postings, complete references.  The data can be found in the above three newspapers, and in my numerous postings (complete with photographic copies of the actual original documents) below.

Recent Events:  HDI is upset because the Province will not negotiate or accommodate or consult with them (or the HCCC) on the following matters:

1)  Completing the repairs of the Cayuga Bridge (which the HDI shut down in 2014).  The Province maintains that the legally constituted authority to negotiate with them is SNEC - and they are absolutely correct.  If the HDI wants to be included they will need to work out things through with SNEC or risk Six Nations be seen as a community divided (which it is), and lose all credibility.

2)  Then there is the mega 3000 plus residential homes project along McClung Road to create, eventually, a "second Caledonia" equal in size to the present community.  Personally I believe that this would be a disaster, what with one bridge (which also desperately needs to be replaced) and a traffic nightmare on Argyle Street at any time of the day which would rival what one would find anywhere in Los Angeles - and to double the trouble with twice the vehicles crossing the one bridge!  So I would love to see this ill conceived project grind to a halt, but the HDI does not have the clout to do it.  They tried, using as a pretext the assertion that the archaeology was not properly done.  Actually it was.  I am very familiar with ASI (Archaeological Services, Incorporated) and they have followed the letter of the law on the matter and have brought in monitors from Six Nations and New Credit - just not the HDI monitors (whose training is questionable and whose demands for payment are embarrassing).  At any rate consultation with Aboriginal Communities is a guideline not a standard of practice in archaeology - so by having monitors from both New Credit and Six Nations (just not those with HDI approval) they are actually doing more than is required.

3)  A similar situation is brewing at the Tutela Heights residential development project in Brant County.

A Major Problem for the HDI:  There is no law or legal precedent or even requirement that HDI be involved in any way.  HDI maintains that only they have the connection to the Crown and the governance body which is legitimate.  That is only true in a fairy tale world.  They say that everything in not only the Haldimand Tract, but Southwestern Ontario is "Treaty land", coming under the supposed "Nanfan Treaty of 1701" and the "Haldimand Proclamation".  They even trot out the "Two Row Wampum" arrangement of 1613 to bolster their argument.  The problem here is that not one of these entities gives Six Nations any claim to lands beyond the 45,000 plus acres which now comprise the Six Nations Reserve in Tuscarora, Oneida and Onondaga Townships.  As I have shown over and over with all the original supporting documentation - the Six Nations claims are a myth, and nothing more.  Taking each in turn:

1)  The Nanfan document of 1701 is nothing more than a request by 20 Five Nations chiefs that their Sovereign Lord the King of England grant them beaver hunting rights on lands in Southwestern Ontario.  A couple of problems here.  The document was never given the seal of the then Governor of New York, John Nanfan; nor was it given the Privy Council Seal in England.  It is not a treaty, it is a request.  Secondly, the Five Nations had no right to request anything in this particular geographical region.  After the Five Nations had committed acts of genocide to remove the Wyandotte (Huron), Attiwandaronk (Neutral) and other tribes in the area between 1642 and 1649, by 1696 the Mississauga and their allies had destroyed 8 Haudenosaunee settlements north of Lake Ontario and had taken the lands by conquest from the Five Nations.  No group can negotiate for lands that do not belong them.

2)  The Haldimand Proclamation of 1784 is not in any legal sense what the HDI is claiming.  Southwestern Ontario was Mississauga land in 1784 when Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand purchased the land along the Grand River and allowed the Six Nations and their allies to settled upon these lands, but the title to the lands was vested in the Crown.

3)  Going from the sublime to the ridiculous is the supposed "Two Row Wampum" treaty or agreement of 1613.  Somewhere, perhaps on the present Onondaga Reserve near Syracuse NY, is a document written in old Dutch supposedly in 1613, but of highly suspect provenance, which is a trade agreement between two Dutchmen (only one of whom can be identified), and four Mohawks whose status is unclear.  There is nothing whatsoever to suggest that it is a treaty, nor do the signators have authority to make any such arrangement.  Somehow this questionable piece of paper became linked to a wampum belt that has two purple rows set on a background of white wampum (shell beads).  Its age is unknown,  Its provenance is unknown.  Its meaning is unknown.  However, I would venture to say that many to most at Six Nations believe that this is a valid arrangement between the Crown (despite it being signed long before England took New Netherlands in 1664), and that each purple row represents a vessel - one being a canoe (the Five, later Six, Nations) and the other a ship (the Dutch and later the British Crown).  Boiling down the supposed meaning (there being nothing objective to support it) is that the canoe and the ship were to sail independently on their own course not interfering with each other, but interacting to their mutual benefit as befit the circumstances.  Sorry not a shred of evidence, but the belief is strong to this day and data or evidence take a back seat to what is believed to be the case - which is also held out as "proof" of a sovereignty arrangement between Six Nations and the Crown - which in fact it does nothing of the sort.

Serious Problems Facing the HDI:  So now the HDI is being left out of any consultation process on the bridges along the Grand River, Developments such as the McClung Road Development near Caledonia, and most recently the Tutela Heights Development in Brant County.  The Government and the developers are holding their ground this time and in the case of the McClung Development, they have obtained an injunction (Cayuga Court) such that any interference with the project will result in the Ontario Provincial Police being called and the protesters being charged with trespass if they try to impede the developers.  This is more or less what happened with DCE, so what is different this time - two things basically.  In addition to the fact that the HDI has no legal authority there are some other difficulties they will inevitably face.

First, at long last the County, and the "Little Crown" (Ontario) and the "Big Crown" (Federal Government) are playing hard ball and turning to the law which says they only need to consider any negotiations with SNEC as the proper representatives of the Six Nations people.  That is the law.

Second, one might ask why it is not likely that another 2006 take over event will occur at either McClung or Tutela Heights.  In a word, geography.

What those who do not live here would not realize is that the DCE property at the south end of Caledonia is within a few minutes of the Reserve and that by driving down 6th Line and taking the dirt road before Argyle Street (old Highway 6) Six Nations reinforcements could stream down to the site in seconds without having to pass through more than a few farms enroute to the protest site.  Taking McClung as an example, they would have to find their way to Argyle Street and then get locked in traffic like the rest of us trying to cross the bridge.  Even closer access is Stirling Street Bridge which at one time brought traffic from the Reserve to Argyle Street near the Bridge - but that went up in flames during an episode of arson during the 2006 take over of DCE - and it is doubtful that it will ever be rebuilt.

Chiefswood Bridge off Highway 54 (Sutherland Street in Caledonia paralleling the Grand River and leading to McClung about a mile east of the lights) is another access point - but distant.  Either way the OPP would have ample opportunity to "discourage" and "disperse" - something not available to them in the 2006 crisis.  So in this instance the "phone tree" and social media would not be particularly helpful, and only the most dedicated of souls would venture into such uncertainty where they would not have their neighbours and kinfolk streaming down right behind them.  The OPP could send them on "detours" that would highly discourage any organized agglomeration of Six Nations radicals.  Here the OPP would be in a position to "shine" and perhaps redeem themselves in the eyes of local residents - something that surely is in their awareness.  Any hearty souls who did make it to McClung would probably be met with a lot of angry Caledonians who would be in a position to block the exit of the protesters, and give the OPP the opportunity to arrest the leaders and clip off the head of the snake.  All entirely different from the dynamics of 2006.

Also, it has become apparent to many at Six Nations that 2006 created a public relations nightmare and deep wounds.  It is questionable whether there would be the same level of support for an event of that nature in 2015 - just as things are beginning to normalize.

Basically the HDI have been partially declawed and defanged, and whatever they do they are likely to run into a "roadblock".  Even on the Reserve they are under intense scrutiny by those who see them as lacking in any transparency, and making decisions on their own without Council (HCCC) approval.  These are not halcion days for the HDI - these times were in the past.  Perhaps some are coming to realize that in order to survive, even the HCCC is going to have to change.  Nothing can stay the same from Stone Age times.  That is not the way the modern world works - it is more along the lines of adapt or become obsolete and fall by the wayside.  This is the danger that the HCCC faces unless it changes to meet the challenges of the times.  The HDI would drag them back to maladaptive ways and along paths to meet their ultimate demise. Clearly if HDI is to play a role in the Six Nations community it will need to also change - what it is doing is not working - to continue in this way is called perseveration which is a clear sign of pathology.

DeYo.