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Haudenosaunee Grand Council position on Elected Councils HAUDENOSAUNEE MOHAWK - ONEIDA - ONONDAGA - CAYUGA - SE.NECA - TUSCARORA ONONDAGA NA nON - VIA BOX 319-B NEDROW NEW YORK 13120 For Immediate Release Onondaga, May I 6111 20 I 3 Greetings from the Chiefs, Clanmothers, Faithkeepers, and people of the Hau- denosaunee Six Nations Confederacy - People of the Longhouse. The Grand Council of Chiefs would like to take this time to remind its citizens of the Haudenosaunee position on imposed elected Band and Tribal councils and our proposed remedy to stan- dardize governance within the domain ofthe Hau- denosaunee Confederacy. From the moment elected councils were imposed in our communities, its primary intent was toabolish the strength and national char- acter of our traditional gov- ernments and to assist in the enfranchisement and assim- ilation of the Hau- denosaunee into the national fabric of both Canada and the United States. It has since been the position of the Hau- denosaunee that elected councils imposed by either Canada or the United States, exist outside the Circle Wampum. No one person or nation can bring into the Cir- cle another form of gover- nance without the full expressed acceptance of the Grand Council. The Circle Wampum makes the line between tra- ditional councils and elected councils clear anddistinct; the traditional councils are the original governments of the Haudenosaunee com- munities/nations handling national affairs, while the elected councils are imposed systems of the Indian Act in Canada and Federal Indian Law in the United States for the administration of colo- nial policies in each commu- nity. Within recent years however, these elected councils have begun com- mandeering the distinct symbols, philosophies, and national character of the Haudenosaunee Confeder- acy - thus misrepresenting themselves to external agen- cies and the limiting the sig- nificance of the Haudenosaunee as an origi- nal Indigenous system of governance. Whether it is reference to the Two Row Wampum, treaties, nation-to-nation re- lationships, or the subtle im- plication that these elected councils are somehow syn- onymous with the Hau- denosaunee Confederacy or the Tradi- tional Councils; this ambigu- ity has now perpetuated a false impression and confu- sion both externally and in- ternally that elected councils are actually a part of the Haudenosaunee Confed- eracy. Most recently, these elected councils have endeavoured into the international arena, a domain populated by na- tions and states, through a formal entity called the Iro- quois Caucus, National Con- gress of American Indians (NCAI), and The United Southern and Eastern Tribes (USET). Since 1977, the Haudenosaunee have pio- neered the indigenous pres- ence at the United Nations and other international ven- ues, leading towards the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; a pres- ence the Iroquois Caucus, NCAI, and USET endeavours to supplant by perpetuating itself as the legitimate voice of our communities interna- tionally and will act in the interest of their colonial masters Canada and the United States. The Grand Council of Chiefs feels that it can no longer remain acquiescent on this matter and must in- sist that the appropriation of the Haudenosaunee national character cease. Further- more, the Grand Council of Chiefs must relay to its neighbours that the Iroquois Caucus and its (Continued page 26)