Six Nations responds to Dreschel column

Most of the New Credit families have Six Nations ancestry in their line, says Ava Hill

In light of the opinion of Andrew Dreschel that appeared in The Hamilton Spectator on Nov. 20, 2017, concerning the Indigenous Statement of the Corporation of the City of Hamilton, it is necessary for the Six Nations elected council to respond.

Dreschel quotes Chief Stacey LaForme of the Mississaugas of the New Credit for the statement that the Mississaugas of the New Credit are the “treaty people of these lands,” meaning that the lands comprise the City of Hamilton. This is not entirely correct.

When European contact was first made in this area of southern Ontario the Indigenous Nations that were here were the HuronWendat, who were just north of Hamilton, and the Neutral, Tobacco and Eir Nations in the south, which includes the City of Hamilton. This first contact was made by the French in the early 1600s. The historical record of this is found in the many volumes of the Jesuit Relations in New France.

In the mid-1600s the Five Nations of the Iroquois (now the Six Nations, who are also referred to as the Haudenosaunee) engaged in warfare with the Huron-Wendat over the Beaver Trade. The Hurons were defeated and many were dispersed into other parts of the Americas, but many were also adopted into the Five Nations.

When the Beaver Wars ended, the Five Nations turned their attention to the Neutrals, the Tobacco and Erie Nations, defeating them as well. Many of these people were similarly adopted into the Five Nations.

The nations that the Haudenosaunee had conquered were also Iroquois people with similar languages, religious and cultural beliefs, and some were incorporated into the Haudenosaunee.

After the wars, the area of southern Ontario was vacant. The Five Nations could not occupy it because they had to maintain their lands in the United States that involved treaty-making with other European nations and other Indigenous nations, which sometimes involved warfare. It was in the late 1600s that the Ojibways and the Mississaugas, a branch of the Ojibways, from northern Ontario moved into the area to fill the void.

In 1701, the Five Nations made the Nanfan Treaty with the British Crown in which they placed their interest in southern Ontario with the British Crown as a protectorate against the French, reserving their treaty rights in the lands. This arrangement was acknowledged in the Treaty of Peace between Great Britain, France and Spain, and was signed at Utrecht in 1713. In the Treaty of Utrecht it was agreed between Britain and France, as reflected in Article 15, that the Five Nations specifically would not be “molested” between the areas of Ontario, Erie and Huron, and that the natives would be free to promote trade with the British and the French without hindrance. The City of Hamilton is within the Nanfan Treaty area.

Also in the early 1700s, the Five Nations made a treaty with the Anishinaabe (the Ojibway, the Mississaugas and others) called the Dish with One Spoon Treaty in which all agreed that the lands of southern Ontario would be shared by all, and that no one nation would claim exclusive possession of it.

It was the policy of the British Crown, as stated in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, that no British subjects could occupy land in North America until the Indians in occupation of an area first surrendered the land to the Crown.

For instance, when the British fulfilled its commitment to the Six Nations that the Six Nations would be no worse off if they allied with the British in the war of the American Revolution in 1776, the British obtained the Haldimand Tract. The Six Nations new homeland would be the Haldimand Tract in Southern Ontario.

The Mississaugas appeared to be in possession of it so the British took a surrender from them in 1784. The Mississaugas surrendered absolutely or quit claimed any interest they might have had in the Haldimand Tract. Later they surrendered absolutely their interests in the lands around Lake Ontario to the Crown, reserving no treaty rights. The surrenders included the City of Hamilton lands. The city lands are still subject to the Nanfan Treaty and the Dish with One Spoon Treaty.

The statement made by Chief LaForme that the Mississaugas “routed” the Haudenosaunee at the end of the 18th century and “took it” from the Haudenosaunee does not do justice to the diversity of historical scholarship on this issue and ignores the Dish with One Spoon Treaty between the Mississaugas and the Six Nations.

The Mississaugas of the New Credit have always been a small band. When the pressures of non-Indigenous development around the Credit River in Mississauga became too much for them, they asked their friends, the Six Nations, if they could live among them at the Grand River.

The Six Nations chiefs agreed and permitted them to occupy five blocks at the southeast portion of the Six Nations Reserve, where they are today. For 147 years they have been marrying into the Six Nations and nonnative communities resulting in the loss, a long time ago, of their Mississaugas identity, language and culture.

Most of the families at New Credit have Six Nations ancestry in their line. They have only been able to keep their Mississauga name because the Department of Indian Affairs maintains their membership as a separate band.

On behalf of the Six Nations elected council,

Ava Hill, chief.