"Kanonhstaton Dumping Escalating as Earth Day Rolls Around"

With Earth Day on the horizon the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is facing cleaning up the dumping of trash on reclaimed Six Nations lands at Caledonia.

The Confederacy's Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI} learned Monday Kanonhstaton (the former Douglas Creek Estates) was being littered with trash.

"We have met with the Chiefs and Ontario and instructed Ontario that we will be constructing a fence from the school all the way to Braemar Street, behind the homes," said Hazel Hill director.

She said they met with Ontario representatives Tuesday.

"I have contacted people who put up fences and we will be meeting with them to proceed with insuring the fence goes from the school all the way to Braemar. Which should have happened in the first place," said Hill.

She said it not only serves to protect the environment but safety as well.

"I told Ontario, in our meeting today (Tuesday) that it was a reflection on what those citizens think of our people They are throwing garbage on our people. Ontario has been told a fence is going up."

The Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs said the Ontario government is working with reps from both the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC} and Haldimand County on a plan.

"The government is aware of the current challenges regarding site maintenance and upkeep and is working with representatives of the Haudenosaunee Chiefs and Haldimand County on a plan to address this," said Flavia Mussio, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.

HDI's director Hazel Hill attended Kanonhstaton early Monday morning after receiving reports of dumping on the site by Caledonia residents who live adjacent to the reclaimed lands.

"Ontario did say they wanted to be involved in this but I have not spoken with Haldimand County and don't intend to. It's Six Nations land. It has been put in the Confederacy land registry," she said.

She said "How Ontario or Canada address their citizens on the issue of dumping is up to them but we are proceeding because it is Six Nations land, it is in our land registry. There is no need to negotiate it."

She said "what has shown itself is that encroachment is continuing and growing and now they are dumping garbage and expanding their lawns."

Torn, broken sofas, heaps of burnt trash, and piles of rotting wood were strewn all along the edge of Kanonhstaton.

Hill visited the site Monday.

"This is a symbol of a dumping ground for the race issue." She said the dumping of trash symbolized how Caledonia still felt about the reclamation.

"This to me is the same thing of that racism, that same kind of mentality they're using against us. All we're thought of is as garbage. That's what this symbolizes to me."

Last July a Thistlemoor Drive resident in Caledonia chopped down trees on Kanonhstaton and planted a garden claiming that the unmanicured Kanonhstaton land was a breeding ground for woodticks.

Infrastructure Ontario said no permission was given to do anything on Kanonhstaton lands.

But nothing was done. On Monday the garden was still intact and expanding, flanked on each side by other neighbours who instead dumped trash.

Meanwhile, the HCCC plans to continue with the reforestation of the reclaimed lands that saw 15,000 saplings planted on the western edge of Kanonhstaton, opposite Highway 6.

The reforestation of the lands is part of a plan to protect archeological finds.