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Ju N f 3, I Cf 8<J ----------~- . isputed land 'din~saur 1 Township seeks ways to place.__.._..OderD tmi controls on 'Indian' property . leasing plots of tne and for $250 _a ,--_,,;;;......,;, ..... By Pater Fitzpatrick Expositor Staff Where Helen Doctor lives there are no taxes, zoning bylaws don't apply and she can do what- ever she likes with her property. Helen Doctor lives in the mid- dle of Brantford Township. "We're kind of like a little islancl," she. says, d~ribing the 21 hectares · of land she and her husband, Leslie, own on Power- line Road, northeast of the city. The 14-year veteran of the real estate business insists her property is special because it is Indian land that belongs to nei- ther Brantford Township nor the Six Nations. Mrs. Doctor, a soft-spoken woman with long silver hair, says the land has been in her family as a farm since 1808. At first it was leased, but in 1835 the Crown gave it to her husband's great-great- grandfather, Peter Green. The property was part of the Haldimand Grant, a tract of land six miles wide on either side of the Grand River, set apart by Governor Frederick Haldimand for Six Nations .Indians in 1784 to reward them for siding with Eng- land during the American Revolu- tion. · Over time, most of that land was sold to white settlers until the remainder was turned into the Six Nations Reserve. The Doctors pay no assess- ment on the land, despite efforts by the township to tax it in 1969, and it is specifically omitted from zoning regulations. Township lawyer Owen Young is working with Six Nations coun- ell to bring the land under some form of control. "'.fhe interesting thing about if is, put to its simplest, th_e argu- ment is that this is a piece of property that is the sal'lle now as _ it was when Haldimand set it aside," he says. "We have a dinosaur in mod- ern times." Mrs. Doctor's lawyer, James Leslie, ·vtews the situation as a case of native rights. "I'm not going to -say it's se- cure from litigation. But it's se- cure in the ultimate adjudication of it. I'm referring to their title as occupants of Indian land, which came down to them through gene- rations of their family. Indian land · "It is Indian land, owned by Indians but not part of the re- serve . . . For the most part pro- vincial law does not apply - for instance, the Assessment Act." In contrast, Six Nations Chief Coun. William Montour says the land clearly belongs to the_ re- serve, regardless of who lives on it, because it is part of the origi- nal Haldimand Grant. "It's Six Nations land and Mrs. Doctor is a Six Nations member," he says. "They're part of the old Six Nations tract." Last June, the township un- dertook to rezone the property when Mrs. Doctor began develop- ing Smokey Hollow Estates, a 130- unit mobile home retirement com- munity. A township bylaw prohib- its mobile homes, but council is powerless to stop or tax the ·devel- · opment. Building the subdivision is not intended to flout municipal by- laws, Mr. Leslie says. Instead, month to· mobile home owners is the best way to maintain its_ e~- empt Indian status and keep it m the family. So far · seven· plots have been leased and t~o trailer homes set up. 'd K 0 l , Township Clerk Davi e ~an says the property's status . gives fise to many. issues. "It raises the question: If you don't pay taxes, should you get services? Can you 'use the roads? And are you entitled to fire ~r~ tection? If you've got a su_bdivi- 1 sion, presumably there's gomg to be children, and can they go to schools?" Other problems He also wonders what re- idents will do if other problems, uch as sewage backup, occurs on a property where there is no local government to appeal to. If they cannot be taxed, ~r. Kelman says, the Doctors ~111 have to pay for fire protection and to use the township's landfill. Mrs. Doctor is willing to nego- tiate such arrangements. Moreover, she says, the devel- opment meets or exceeds tow~- ship building standards, Ontario Hydro ~ Bell Canada will serv- ice the property and self-con- tained water and sewage systems are being installed. She says leasing . agreements protect the · residents from prob- lems. · Still, the township wants to halt the development. "That's the question," said Mr. Kelman. ' "How can we stop them? we say we'll take the?1 to court, and t~ey say,, '.We wo,n t be. seen in a white man s court. - "Because it's a jurisdictional question~ it's n~t easily ans wered." · Yet even more profoun~ que~ tions may lurk on the horizon 1 re vind' ted.