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What happened to .R ~ trl,LJ-f;, pJ} .Zwb. ,lo~~ ,,,,u ~ fiJ ~ . 1-r- - - T- 7'_ ~ said they need at leas I think we re ftndmg d1 OHSWEKEN - In the Six Na- twice that amount to conduct the ent sources of information," tions Iroquois Plaza, next to the proper research on the land as the oral history passed on supermarket and the laundro- deals - which can date back to elders. "Indian Affairs isn't th •t, sits a small, modest offl~e the 1700s. · . only place to ftnd thi~." wt)ich may hold the key to this The Haldlmand Deed WM for With documents dating bac community's future. . six miles of land on each side o to the 1700s one of the most try. Employees of the Six Nations the Grand River from the river's ing parts oi the job is decipher- Lands Research de~artmeQt are head to its mouth at Lake Erie, ing hand-written notes many 0 responsible for ftnd1~ out what which the federal government which have been tran;ferred to happened to the land Sir Fred8e!- has estimated to be almost microftlm ick Haldimand granted to the ix 675,000 acres. .. : , Nations in 1784 as compensati<?n Today, that land base has Sometimes ~ou 11 see all 10 for territory the Indians 1~ m been reduced to about 45,000 or 12 o! us looking ~t one.~~ New York after the American acres. just trying to figure 1t out, said Revolution. "All the deals that were done Ms. Bomberry. After numerous land. sales, honorably, by all means the Six Once the research has been grants and leases, the Sue N~ ations recognizes and honors completed, Mr. Monture consults tions te~tory ~ b~ red~f~ them," said Mr. Monture, "but with lawyers and the _Six Nations to a ~ction of its original f th~ there are many that weren't." council to _decide whether to ftle Phil Mon~re, di~tor O "th Mr. Monture ~id he believes a claim with the Department of department, 1s a quiet man Wl some lots were given away for Indian Affairs. a quick wit. . free to friends of the Crown's In- "Our whole objective is to dian agents. Some properties ork ourselves out of a job," he were given life-time leases, with aughed. 6. ownership to revert back to the He would like to see the ix Six Nations when · the owner ations' 17 land claims already died. The original owners are Jed with the federal govern- long gone, but the lands never ent resolved, along with 34 returned to the band. thers they have identified but In other cases, a price was de- ve not yet submitted to Ottawa. termined and there was an Mr. Monture won't ~ive agreement of sale, but the money iftc details about the cl81';'1S, was never received by the Six or fear of alarming non-native. Nations. pie living in the areas. But "Where did the money go? tt e will say that these settlemen!-5 went to England, and then it ould provide the econom!c went back to Canada to build the curity necessary for the Six roads, to the provincial and fed- ations communit¥ to have true eral governments." lf'-government . Some of the land was leased Mr. Monture began working for 999 years, which means pay- for the department 15 ~ars ~ ments should still be coming in. when the main task was to bulld a library of original documents "That money was supposed to £rom which to base the land take care of us, it would be com- ing to us for a thousand years," clal,;;::~ took him to Ottawa f'or said Mr. Monture. "Where is it two years, "literally drawl~ all now?" the documents out of the Nation- Charlene Bomberry is one of al Archives, Secretary of ~~te, the people responsible for ftnd- lbdian Affairs, everywhere. ing out She is a researcher for Other document forays have the department, which means led to a number ?f loc~ spending hours going over old museums the Smithsoman lnsti- books, from minutes of meetings te in W~ and British to records of land sales. government records. "I'm learning more about my When Mr. Monture began, the own history, the history of our «.l,artment had a stQtT of three people," said Ms. Bomberry, who an annual bud4et of $l5,000. has been in the department for 1-'l"lildllY there are a dozen em- inr:!!linwe~s.m.ila... _______ _ aiic:1 a $190,000 MOual - bt DepWtmentofln- He emphasized that the band's . claims are with · the government, not the people who are now living on the land. "The only time the non-Indi is going to be involved is if th federal government doesn't ne- gotiate," he said. There is a long-standing de- bate over the ownership of land in the centre of Caledonia. Edith Fuller, mayor of Haldi- mand, says people in the com- unity are concerned. "The former town of Cale- donia has had peaceful posses- sion of the land for 150 years so, needless to say, we were sur- prised to hear that there was a problem with the Six Nations." The town has passed several esolutions asking the federal d provincial governments to esolve the matter and pay com- ensatfon if necessary. There should be a way of "ftnding a resolution tJ]at is satisfactory and the least disrup- ,tive to all of' us," she said. Six Nations Chief Coun. Wil- liam Montour said that "when there's direct evidence that the people who had originally pur- chased the · land skipped out without paying, it should be re- d • n