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• a, Vicki White, Expositor Staff '17l0Af If /ft "We're not here to force people off their I OHSWEKEN - For staff at the Six Na- land. We're not here to create new prob- lions lands research office it's as though lems, we're here to solve old ones." the fed~ral government's promised land If the government continues to be quick claim reforms have been written in disap- with promises and slow with results, Mr. pearing ink. ) Monture is afraid the land claims will be- Since last fall, the federal government come a focal point for the anger of younger Jlas been promising to speed up and ex- band me~be~. - "pand the land claims process, by giving the The cl81ms mclude: Department of Indian Affairs more money D Johnson Settlement - Filed in 1989 Jmd authority. for 2,800 hectares (7,000 acres) ~eluding r The changes have yet to reach the Lynden Park Mall, the Braneida industrial people closest to the process - the band area and residential ~ such 8:5 Brant- employees preparing ·claims and the wood Park and Lynden mns. Also mcludes .government employees assessing them. part of Brantford. Townshi~. . Phil Monture, director of land claims j D Eagles Nest Tract - Filed m 1989 for research for Six Nations, says the time for '12n hectares (1~ acr:es> around the Mo- .talk is over. Now is the time for action. hawk Chapel, mcluding Mohawk Park, The band is waiting to negotiate 14 land J Echo Place and Eagle_ Pla~e. claims, covering an area more than four D Burtch Tract - Filed m 1989 for 2,<139 times the size of Brantford.. They have been hectares (5.?:23 acres) south west of Brant- in the backlog of specific claims for peri- ford, includmg Burt.ch _and ~ewport. ods ranging from one to seven years. I D Oxbow Bend - ~led m 1990 for .480 , Y I hectares (1,200 acres) m Brantford. around ears of frustrat on Bow Park Farm. "We've got to address these things. l Other cl~ms are in Dunnville and the They're not going away," said Mr. Monture, 1 townships of Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, who has watched community members I and Moulton. grow incre~i~y frustrated . with the ' The claims. all relate to land granted to process dunng his 15 years with the re- \ the Six Nations Indians after the American search office. Revolution. Mr. Monture said there are many ways The Six Nations people were invaluable the disputes could be resolved, with a com- allies to the British during the war, and blnation of land, money and even many were afraid to return to their Upper guarantees of federal services. , New York homelands when the Americans He emphasized that the band's claims won the conflicl are with the Canadian government, not The British had always guaranteed that Canadian citizens. The Six Nations people the Indians wouldn't lose any oftheirtradi- do not want innocent third parties to be tional lands, but they no longer had control affected, he said. over the area. It is unlikely the land under claim will Instead, in 1784, Sir Frederick Haldi- be returned to the band, even if the federal mand offered the Six Nations people six government determines the claims are miles of land on either side of the Grand valid. Under the specitlc claims policy, in- River from the river's head to its mouth at dividual land owners cannot be forced to Laite Erie. · sell. 'Ibe band soon lost much of the original "We do not, and cannot, expropriate 270,000 hectares (675,000 acres), after pres- land," said Manfred Klein, director of the sures from the government and the white Jndian Affairs specific claims branch. settlers who moved onto the unoceupled lands. Today, that land base has been reduced to about 18,000 hectares (45,000 acres). Mr. Klein said only about half of the claims received from bands across the country have been successf'ul. The rest have been rejected by the governmenl Helen Lynne, one of the federal govern- ment's researchers most involved with the Six' Nations claims, said the·disputes can be resolved in a number of ways. If the claim is based on the misuse of banq money, the band would receive monetaey" compensation. · The 'SBJ]le is tru~ 'in situa- tions where bands claiin they never re- ceived money for lands; sold. In instances where reserve land was never· sold, it can be 'returned to the band if it is in the hands of the federal or pro- vincial goverrurients. · Receive compensation If not, the band will receive money and may be able to use it to buy land elsewhere. Although it is impossible to estimate the value of the more than 32,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of land claimed by Six Na- tions, f'uture .settlements might be pat- terned after an agreement reached in 1985. That's when the band settled a dispute over the unauthorized transfer of about 36 hectares (90 acres) of land now being used by the Canadian National Railway, run- ning along the eastern limit Qf the reserve. The band received $610,000 compensa- tion, which was used to purchase a parcel of farm land on the opposite end of the reserve. That land is now part of the Six Nations reserve. It's the sort of deal Mr. Monture would like to make again, but it bas not always been possible. Two of the band's claims, near Barrie and outside Ottawa, already have been rejected, largely because they involved events which occurred before Confederation. Currently, the govel'?Dlent only accepts Continued on Page A2