"And... Band Council says Confederacy has no say over lands"

By Donna Duric, Writer

Six Nations Burtch Tract lands may be, becoming a type of volleyball in an On­tario-Band council move to oust the Confederacy.

Despite precedent-setting negotiations with the Con­federacy to return the Burtch lands to Six Nations, through the Confederacy, the band council is now claiming the Confederacy has no authority over what happens to the lands.

The issue came to light at a band council meeting last week when a local con­struction worker, Dan El­liott, sought band council's help in getting back to work on the property.

Elliott's company was sub­contracted by a Kitchener company to remediate the soil at Burtch.

Ontario shut down the job after the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) indicated it was not happy with Ontario and the band council removing a Six Nations environmental en­gineering firm from the re­mediation work.

An angry Elliot accused the H.D.I. of acting without the consent of the Confederacy which prompted councillors to echo the elected council has authority over Six Na­tions, not the Confederacy.

"Hazel (Hill HDI interim di­rector) and Detlor are acting without authority in my mind," said Elected Chief Bill Montour who offered to help Elliot get back to work.

Elected Chief Montour said the H.D.I. had no authority over the Burtch lands. The H.D.I. is the planning de­partment of the Confeder­acy Council.

Band Councillor Ross Johnson said the band needed to "take a stand" against the H.D.I.

Councillor Carl Hill claimed that elected council had, in fact, negotiated the return of the Burtch lands in 1992. H.D.I. lawyer, Aaron Detlor said the H.D.I did not shut the project down.

"Ontario had bypassed the process put in place for re­mediation of the Burtch Lands including the hiring of Six Nations people."

He said Ontario had actu­ally let a Six Nations com­pany go in favour of a Kitchener company.

Daniel Santa, with MHPM Consulting, the Kitchener project management team, shut the project down after Detlor said he could not in good faith agree to the fir­ing of Six Nations people.

Detlor said he did not know what discussion took place between the band council and Ontario that re­sulted in Six Nations envi­ronmental engineer Drew Hill being let go on both the Burtch projects and Hydro One's Bruce to Milton ex­tender and Middleport to Niagara extension.

"Drew (Hill) had presented a proposal on the Hydro One Bruce to Milton exten­der and Middleport to Niag­ara negotiations but the band's negotiating team wanted a Toronto firm to work on it instead and did not consult with the Con­federacy."

Detlor said the H.D.I. has requested copies of all emails that have passed be­tween the band council and Ontario on the projects. "We haven't received them yet."

Hazel Hill said the Burtch property was returned to Six Nations in 2006 as a re­sult of the former Douglas Creek Estates protest in Caledonia, which paved the way for historic land claims negotiations between the government and Confeder­acy Council. Hill said those lands were not to be re­turned under the auspices of band council.

"The Burtch lands were re­turned to the Six Nations people during the Confed­eracy negotiations with the Crown in exchange for the barricades coming down (in 2006)," she said. "The lands were to be returned under original title, to the Six Nations people, not under the Indian Act."

She said the land was con­taminated, however, and required a clean-up before being returned.

A process had been estab­lished for the clean-up of those lands and a commit­tee established to oversee it, said Hill.

That committee included the hiring of a Six Nations environmental monitor, Drew Hill and his company, Abor Group.

She said the Crown, through Infrastructure On­tario and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, unilater­ally decided to tender out the job for Environmental Monitor to a Kitchener-Wa­terloo-based company, DST, and ousted the Abor Group from the property.

"There was no communica­tion whatsoever to our rep­resentatives that this was happening," said Hill. Hill said aboriginal affairs repre­sentative Bruce Leslie had told Infrastructure Ontario that the only point of con­tact for them would be the elected band council lands and resource director Lonny Bomberry.

She said Infrastructure On­tario then created an RFP (Request for Proposal) that required a letter from Bomberry. "This was seen as an attempt to undermine the negotiated settlement of those lands coming back to the Six Nations through the Confederacy and was an attempt by Ontario and (elected council) to bypass Confederacy and bring the lands back under the Indian Act as additions to the reserve," said Hill.

Montour told Elliott Tues­day night that the Confed­eracy has no authority over Six Nations, citing the 1977 Isaac-Davey case.

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"The Supreme court was very clear that the elected council is the legal representative of Six Nations," he said.

But Detlor says its an at­tempt by Ontario to keep Six Nations bickering inter­nally, and back out of the Confederacy negotiated deal that brought down the barricades in 2006.

"We believe the band council should support the return of lands to the Con­federacy, as (former Pre­mier) David Peterson had agreed."

He said the band relies on the and Davies court case but the case was based on Six Nations hav­ing usufructuary use of its lands not fee simple.

"That means someone else owns it and you can use it as long as you have their permission."

He said Isaac and Davies was determined on the fact that Canada held trust monies on behalf of the band, it did not deal with the land.

"So this is a wonderful op­portunity to move forward with protecting the rights of the Haudenosaunee. If it comes back to the Hau­denosaunee it comes back as something other than usufructuary. It addresses the whole issue of, are you al­lies or subjects?"

He said basing Six Nations rights on the Isaac and Davie court case sets back Haudenosaunee rights by centuries."

Detlor said "Every First Na­tions group is saying you can't apply it to our lands the only one saying it, is band council as a method of linking itself to power and control but by doing that, they diminish the fu­ture rights of future gener­ations."

This past spring, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne signed a negotiations framework with the Confederacy but Montour called that agree­ment "bogus."

Montour said the issue had the potential to turn into a "nasty community issue" when Elliott mentioned he could have 20 men supporting him at the site "in a hurry" if anyone gives him "trouble" when he returns to work there.

Elliott claimed that Hill and Detlor were working independently of Confederacy chiefs after saying he spoke with Onondaga Chiefs Pete Skye and Arnie General, who he claims had "no idea" what was happening with the Burtch lands. But Onondaga Chief Pete Skye said Elliott came to his house and woke him from his sleep. "I was still in my pyjamas and I couldn't help him right then. I just woke up."

Hill said she had spoken with Elliott and told him to go after DST for lost wages, but Elliott said he was going to consult a lawyer instead. to go after the HDI instead.

Montour told Elliott he would instruct the com­pany that band council has authorized work to resume.

Confederacy chiefs in­structed the HDI to work with Elliott to help him re­cover lost wages on the clean-up.

At Saturday's Confederacy meeting, Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton told El­liott that the Confederacy respected the work he and his company were doing and said unfortunately he had been caught in the middle.

Onondaga Chief Arnie General was dismayed at the thought of the land going back to band council.

"I'm very dismayed at what's going on," he said. "Why did band council get involved when it's not their territorial right? They don't have the authority to deal with the land base. They're just an administrative body."

Detlor could not provide an estimated timeframe of when work will resume but said the HDI is currently in talks with Infrastructure Ontario and Aboriginal Affairs to sort out the "miscommunication" on the details of the clean-up project.