The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Mohawks Workers serve notice in Eagle's Nest continued from front page Brantford and Brant County. "I am not speaking on behalf of the Men's Fire right now, mind you, bt;1t I personally agree with what they (the. Workers) are doing and I support it fully." According to Mohawk Workers spokesperson Bill Squire, the signs have been put up under the authority of the women of the Mohawk Workers who are concerned about the resumption of the negotiations under the Elected Council's leader- ship and the Confederacy's stance that they will contin- ue in the lead role at those talks despite Band Council's declaration. "The women made a commit~ent to put up those signs as a reminder to not only Brantford, but to Six Nations Elected -Council ·and Haudenosaunee Con- federacy Council that this land is Mohawk land and neither the Confederacy nor the Elected Council should be making decisions over it without the Mohawks input and leadership ." It is the stand of the Mohawk Workers that the Haldimand Deed is primar- ily a Mohawk document and the Mohawks should be at least at the table, not the Elected Council or the Con- federacy Council . "That does not mean that we are unwilling to share it with all of Six Nations," Squire has stated in the past. "It's just that us Mohawks have been marginalized and ridiculed by both Band Council and the Confedera- cy Chiefs, when all we are trying to do is re-establish the proper lines of authority, as spelled out in the Great Peace before the Code of Handsome Lake made its way into the Longhouse." According to the Mo- ha wk Workers, a politically and socially active organiza- tion with a long history with Six Nations, .they only wish to restore order to the Con- federacy by following its original plan as laid out by the Peacemaker. It is their contention that neither Al- len MacNaughton nor Joe Skye who presently occupy the Mohawk bench at the Longhouse, are legitimate Chiefs, according to the qualifications as spelled out in the Great Law, (or Great Peace as the Mohawk Work- ers refer to it). It is their belief that the Confederacy has become weak and politically impo- tent over years of duplicated titles and the introduction of the Code of Handsome Lake which the Workers believe has no business within the politics of the Six Nations at large. They believe that the Code has stripped the Clan Mothers of their Cre- ator given authority and es- tablished a· male dominant, European world view in its place. "The women decided that it's time to get active within Brantford and remind everyone that the land was given to the Mohawks for loss o( traditional lands in New York State, and was for the perpetual care and main- tenance of those who came to receive the Haldimand promise," says Squire. The Mohawk women want to ensure that these signs remain up and main- tained, and not be removed by the city or anyone else. "We will view any action to remove or deface those signs as an act of aggres- sion," says Squire. "This is no threat, but rather a graph- ic reminder of whose land this is." In the recent past, Elect- ed Chief Bill Montour has agreed with the Workers' stance that the Mohawk Vil- lage lands of the Eagles Nest are, in fact, Mohawk terri- . tory and should be honoured and protected as such. Montour is also calling A series of signs have been placed throughout the south Eagles Nest area to remind all that the land still bel.ongs to the Mohawks who have never. su"endered their interest in the Haldimand Tract lands in general, nor the former Mohawk Village in parlicular. (Photo by Jim Windle) I~ CJ H /4 YI I( Tl: l~RI TOl~lf for a new negotiation team which would include rep- resentation of the Mohawk Workers. The Confederac has since demanded that the talks continue with the Con- federacy in the leadership role - a osition neither the Moha Electe• --~!ii~: Workers, nor the lUncil agree with.