Six Nations of the Grand River: in a state of chaos

History shows us and historians tell us that hundreds of years ago, the Peacemaker, an emissary from the Great Creator God arrived in Iroquois Country and set about bringing civility to the warring Five Nations of Iroquois.

Eventually the Peacemaker was successful in his quest of stopping the devastating wars, which were ravaging the Five Nations communities. With the wars over, the Peacemaker and a select group of Iroquois Leaders set about setting up a political union (in the form of the Great Law) among the Iroquoian people that has lasted from the distant past until the recent past when several factions of the now, Six Nations of Iroquois have set the clock back and have returned to their original ways of making war upon each other. The latest of these small skirmishes has to do with two small plots of ground known as, Burtch and the Kanata Village, which several factions are claiming as their own. Each of these two sites have their own unique set of problems.

The Burtch situation began in 2006 when the Douglas Creek Estates Housing Development (DCE) was brought to a halt by a group of concerned Six Nations community members. There is no need to revisit the DCE incident as most people who were there are still here now with many involved in the Burtch debacle which has severely divided the Six Nations of the Grand River Community. While there are many sides to the Burtch story and just as many political views as to how the situation should be handled; there is one underlying theme which has caused all this trouble and that is; GREED and the quest for the almighty dollar or perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in this case.

Throughout the course of the past 20 or 30 years, the Six Nations of the Grand River has become one of the main focal points of an increase in the production and sale of tobacco, which has resulted in many poor Indians rising up and out of the ravages of poverty and into a state of wealth. No one among us here in the Grand River community can deny that the growth, production and sale of tobacco has been a good thing for some people; however, increased wealth usually comes with a high cost which here on the Rez has brought us into a state of high civil tension. By now, most people are aware of what the Burtch property is and what it was until a few short years ago when certain groups began claiming ownership of the few hundred acres of good usable land.

The Iroquois Confederacy Chiefs Council and their supporters are claiming ownership by insisting that since the Chiefs Council was the Original Government in the Haldimand Tract, the Burtch property should be theirs to do with as they please. Some of the Mohawk people and certain others of the Six Nation Indians who are direct descendants of the original inhabitants of the Haldimand Tract and holders of the original deed to the Tract also claim (and rightfully so) the Burtch property as their own. The current legal administrators of the Grand River community, the Six Nations Elected Council has imposed on the community their views of ownership to Burtch by appointing a team of negotiators as temporary Administrators of the land, which has just caused every other group to cuss out the Elected Council. On top of all this we have one local supposed lady farmer claiming the right to the land by saying she “has a lease” to do as she pleases with her property.

The Kanata Village located adjacent to the Mohawk Chapel on the site of the Original Mohawk Village on the banks of the Grand River near the City of Brantford is also in a state of chaos as two groups of Mohawks and others are fighting for the care and control of that piece of the Haldimand Tract. One group at Kanata wants to take care of the land and buildings on site and keep everything in pristine condition and allow all people access to the beauty and peace, which exist there at the moment.

The second group of Mohawks and others want to take control of the property and replace the pristine beauty of the property with a parking lot and one or more commercial enterprises as a means of increasing their personal wealth just as the farmer is trying to do at Burtch. So now; here in the Haldimand Tract — hundreds, if not thousands of years after the Peacemaker arrived to bring peace and harmony to the Five Nations of Iroquois, the current Six Nations of Iroquois have returned to a state of continual warfare and disrepair in pursuit of personal wealth and increased greed.