"Seek Independence, Iroquois Tell Court"

By ELDON STONEHOUSE, Globe and Mail Staff Reporter

Brantford, April 15 - The chiefs, warriors and women of the Six Nations recited their history, religion and traditions in the white man's court this afternoon in a continuation of their battle for the independence of the Iroquois Confederacy.

They came to court as witnesses at the opening of the hearing of an application by Mrs. Verna Logan, wife of Chief Joseph Logan Jr., for an injunction to prevent sale of 3.5 acres of Indian land to Cockshutt Farm Equipment. Defendants are Clifford Styres, chief councillor of the elected council on the reserve, R. J. Stallwood, superintendent of the Six Nations Indian Agency at Brantford, and the Attorney-General of Canada.

But from the witness stand the representatives of what they term the Grand River Country left no doubt that there was more involved than a small tract of land. The application before the Supreme Court of Ontario also asks that orders in council setting up the elected council (P.C. 1,629 of 1924 and P.C. 6,015 of 1951) be declared ultra vires. The claim is that the Six Nations form an independent nation which holds its lands of the Grand River Country as a result of a treaty with the British Government, and therefore the Canadian Government had no right to oust the hereditary chiefs and set up an elected council to govern the band.

The independence of the Mohawks, Senecas, Onandagas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Tuscaroras was displayed from the opening of today's hearing before Mr. Justice King.

Mrs. Logan, the plaintiff, in keeping with the matriarchal tradition of the tribes, went to the witness stand in buckskins. Questioned by her counsel, Malcolm Montgomery of Toronto, she said she had never voted, had never accepted family allowance cheques and that the elected council had no right to surrender any land. She asked for wampum to be brought to the stand when she took the oath, and was sworn in according to the belief of her people, the Long House religion.

Others followed, some in business suits, others in Indian dress. Some used the Bible, some the wampum. All of those heard today said the Six Nations Indians supported the hereditary chiefs, which aren't really hereditary but are chosen by the clan mothers, and opposed the elected council. They had not voted this group out of office because this was not the Six Nations way and they feared voting in any form might make them franchised Indian.

Then came Chief Joseph Logan Sr., 80-year-old chief of the Onandagas and a sachem, entitled to perform marriages.

Through interpreter Samuel Anderson he told the court that the laws of the Six Nations had been given to the tribes from a divine source through a boy known as Dekanawida "about 900 years ago."

Asked why he was not registered with provincial authorities as entitled to perform marriages, he said: "I would not be following the laws of Dekanawida if I started using the white man's laws."

There was a declaration of independence too, in the testimony of Emily General, a former school teacher on the reserve who was a member of the delegation that went to England in 1930 to "seek justice for our people."

Mr. Montgomery asked why she had ceased teaching school and taken up farming.

"In 1947 the Indian agent came and asked me to swear allegiance (to the Crown). I would swear allegiance to the council of chiefs but never to a foreign government. Since I could not continue to teach unless I took the oath, I quit teaching.

"It is our duty to protect the land, the forests, our wild animals and the confederacy for future generations."

Sub-Chief Emerson Hill, who works in Buffalo, said the Haldimand Deed of 1784, which he called treaty rather than deed, was a treaty between the British Imperial Government and the Six Nations "as allies."

Under cross-examination by R. F. Wilson, QC, he said he did not live on the reserve but came home almost every weekend. He said the Six Nations had let other tribes, the Chippawas and Delawares enter their country and remain, but did not make them chiefs. Some now served on the elected council.

"The Delawares came 100 years or so ago and asked for a place to camp and are still there," he said. "The Chippawas had no home. They're there because of the kindness of our chiefs, who said 'come and live with us'."

The case continues tomorrow.