Elected Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill said Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council is the legal governing body of the community as she took to the stand last week in Six Nations’ litigation case against the Crown.
“Elected council is the legal governing body of Six Nations of the Grand River,” she told the court. “We advocate for our rights, jurisdiction, safety and well-being of our community.”
She told the court elected council has tried to have a relationship with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council but “they don’t recognize” elected council, she said.
Hill explained that Six Nations band members 18 years or older vote to elect the chief and council, who oversee an administration of roughly 1,000 employees and 12 departments.
She said her role is the elected leader of the “band” and official spokesperson for the community.
Hill’s father was Mohawk and Cayuga and her mother is non-native, she said as she was asked to provide a biographical background.
She currently lives in Ohsweken and started living on the reserve around the age of 20.
She was born in Hagersville. She’s lived on the reserve since about 1992.
She moved back to raise her children there because she wanted them to learn the language and culture, an opportunity she never had.
Hill grew up in the nearby small town of Waterford and said her childhood was difficult.
“There was a lot of discrimination, a lot of racism,” she said.
She said her family didn’t talk much about their heritage growing up because of the pain and hurt and discrimination her dad went through.
He was shot at and had his teeth kicked out due to racism.
Her father never spoke the languages.
Hill said she can’t speak any of the Haudenosaunee languages fluently but she can introduce herself in Seneca and knows a few Mohawk words.
Her ex-husband, a faith keeper, is fluent in Seneca and lives in New York State.
She picked up a few basic Mohawk words here and there such as how to count, in her adult years on the reserve.
She didn’t learn any of the languages as a child.
Her upbringing was difficult, she told the court.
“I come from an alcoholic dysfunctional family. There was abuse. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t know what mood my dad was in. I just did what I had to do to survive.”
When she wanted to move back to the reserve, she said it was hard to find a house and the pickings were slim.
“I was lucky I came upon a house,” she said and she still lives there to this day, 28 years later. She has three children and seven grandchildren.
Her four grandchildren are in straight Mohawk schools and the others are learning Mohawk and Cayuga in their classes, a stark contrast from her childhood.
She said she is glad her children put her grandchildren in those schools.
“I thank their parents for putting them there.”
Hill went to hairdressing school but didn’t enjoy working with hair and eventually went to college to become an addictions worker.
“I wanted to help people in the addictions field.”
She worked in the community in the mental health and addictions field until about 2008 and moved to Salamanca in New York state and then in 2012, she moved back home to Six Nations.
She started her own consulting business around addictions.
She eventually ran as a councillor for her district and she won.
Her first term lasted three years. She ran again in 2016 for councillor and got re-elected for another three years until 2019, then she ran again for councillor that year and won again.
She served as a councillor for four years that term then ran for elected chief in 2023, which she won against her opponent, Steve Williams.
She said she ran for elected chief because she wanted more.
“I wanted to build more relationships and I thought I’d be able to make that difference for my community.”
Litigation viewings continue this week at Dajoh in the Oneida room.
Originally published in the Two Row Times, October 21, 2026 (Volume 14, Issue 10), page 2.
