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Confederacy tells HDI to clear up Burtch problem (Continued from page 3) "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. Detlor cou1d not pRMde an estimated timeframe of when work will resume but said the HDI is c:unently in talks with Infrastructure Ontario and Aborisinal Af­fairs to sort out the •mis­communicatiorf on the details ofthe dean-up proj­ect.