When do you think people are going to learn? How many times are they going to try and sell or develop land that is claimed under treaty rights by a First Nations tribe? You'd have thought they'd have learned from the mess that's happening in Caledonia in South Western Ontario where the Six Nations Reserve has set up a blockade around a housing development's construction site.
A report in the December issue of The Mohawk Nation Drummer tells how the town of Deseronto is doing just that. Located in Eastern Ontario, bordering the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve, they are trying to illegally develop treaty land. Eight hundred and twenty-seven acres of land on the eastern edge of the reserve was illegally removed from the possession of the Mohawks in 1837. The Mohawks at the time had leased it to one man, who then left the land as an inheritance to his grandson. The government at the time illegally gave John Cullbertson, the grandson, a crown grant for the land.
In 1995 the Tyendinaga Band Council submitted a claim for the return of the land, which was upheld by the Department of Justice, who agreed the land had never been surrendered nor had any compensation been awarded the Mohawks at the time. It was agreed a settlement would be negotiated with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in the year 2003. The Mohawks are still waiting.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 that stipulated all lands occupied by the First Nations people could only be purchased or leased from them by the Crown (read government now) has been accepted by the Supreme Court of Canada as the law regarding title to disputed territory. If you had any brains you'd consider any land that had an outstanding land claim against it as being unsuitable for anything.
Municipal governments and some provinces are still trying to play fast and loose with the treaties and are illegally disposing of the lands for their own profit. Even when they are fully conversant with the circumstances, as were all parties involved in the Caledonia situation, they are going ahead and making deals with private interests. Perhaps they are hoping that if the courts see populated housing developments on the territory they won't cede it back to Native control, and allow the municipality to continue to collect all tax revenues.
Article comments
1 - RedTard
I'm 1/16th neanderthal. All property in Europe is mine and should be surrendered at once. Damn the Cro-Magnons!!!!!
Really, if you go back far enough everyone got screwed in some way. The indian tribe that claims some modern lands got it by killing off an earlier tribe and so on and so on ad infinitum. All lands have been stolen time and time again.
I'm not necessarily against giving a group their due, but when do you call it quits? How many hundreds of years have to go by before you say enough is enough, no more compromises or special treatment, no more whining about how 20 generations ago you got screwed, how bout an ultimate 100 year statute of limitations against whining, we all live as equals after that?
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
RedTard,
The problem with your comments is that the principles that Richard recites in his piece are recognized in Canadian law - even if Canadians aren't willing to abide by them. The difference between this situation and the arrogant screeds about international law as it applies to Israel by one of the writers here at BC is that there is a legitimate sovereign authority that HAS been appealed to and that has established a principle in Canadian law that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 is to be obeyed by the government of Canada and its inferior agents, the provinces and municipalities.
3 - Richard Marcus
What Rueven said. If it were a simply a matter of saying we used to live there but left give it back you would be right I'd says RedTard. But these cases involve good faith deals where one party has leased something to another and when the lease expires the leasee has kept it without continuing payments.
The probelem was that the baliffs didn't want to execute the repo papers because they were getting paid under the table by the folk in the wrong so until now there has been no recourse open to the damaged party to retain lawful posession of their property.
It's unfair to have a statute of limitations when the due process isn't being followed. Until the government of Canada is willing to start following their own schedule - The Mohawks in question were promised a neotiations in 2003 which have yet to commence, setting a time limit is a denial of due process.
Where a time limit would be a good thing is for the government to establish deadlines and stick to them. These are usually open and shut cases where one party is in the wrong so there is no need for the process to be dragged out except for the governments refusal to live up to the law of the land.
If that were to happen all these cases would be over and done with and you would only have to listen to the whining of those who stole the land in the first place. If you want to blame soemone blame the folk who broke the law in the first place.
cheers
Richard Marcus
4 - Tekanawantante
Being a member of the Six Nations at the Grand River, it's so very obvious what the government is doing in this instance. They've inherited a mess, one in which the government is so very much in the wrong and is on the hook to redress the situation, but the amount of money it will take and the precedent it will set -- what Tory right-wing asshole government is going to want to be the one that had to knuckle under to the savages? But the issue has never been one of money. It's the land, man. If people realized that then maybe we could talk to each other in a more meaningful way. It's the land. So until the government starts to be present and negotiate in a fair and open manner, there's gonna be an occupation to the end of time.
5 - Cayuga1
The irony is that a statute of limitations is meant to prevent action after a prolonged period of informed inaction. The Native/First Nation cases usually involve long periods of no possible legal action. As for leases, most were made banking on the hope that the Indians wouldn't be around come renewal time. Look at the Senecas in Salamanca; the 'lessees' didn't expect them to still be around when the 99-year lease was up. Surprise! We're still here! Time to pay up!