"Chiefswood Renovation Scheduled"

OHSWEKEN - Chiefswood, the childhood home of Six Nations poet E. Pauline Johnson, will be the reserve's next major renovation project.

The Six Nations band council Tuesday night formed a committee that, ultimately, will oversee a fundraising campaign and restoration of the gabled 19th century house.

Chiefswood has never had major renovations.

"It's falling apart right now," Chief Coun. Wellington Staats said after the meeting. "It's going to be expensive - at least $200,000 - to renovate."

He said the band council has not yet applied for federal grants to help renovate the building because it does not want to compete with Mohawk Chapel for restoration funds.

"The actual restoration may not be until next year," he said.

In other business, council approved the Mohawk translation of a plaque that will be unveiled this summer marking Her Majesty's Chapel of the Mohawks, on Mohawk Street in Brantford, as a national historic site.

The plaque, giving a brief history of the 200-year-old chapel, will be written in Mohawk, English and French. It is the first plaque in Canada to be inscribed in those three languages.