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anonhstaton 11The Protecttd Place11: 10-years after By Jim Windle SIX NATIONS - It was one decade ago, but for many who were involved in the 2006 Caledonia land rec- lamation on both sides of the barricades, it still feels like yesterday. What started out as an information campaign in- tended to educate Six Na- tions' non-Native neigh- bours and builders of outstanding land claims on an area being pre- pared for a large housing development just outside of Caledonia, evolved into one of the biggest news stories of the next two years and beyond. Two Six Nations wom- en, went before both the Elected Band Coun- cil and the Confederacy Chiefs Council seeking and attaining support for their efforts to stop the development until the land claims were settled. The inaction on this and other claims were taken to court by Six Nations Elected Council in 1995 but had been languishing in courts for more than 10 years after being filed. But records clearly show that these claims were known to the Canadian government for more than a century of been brought by many peti- tions to the Crown from Six Nations Traditional Chiefs. According to Six Na- tions researchers and historians, the land, alongside what used to be called the Plank Road, now Highway #6, was never ceded for sale, only for lease and only under certain usage restric- tions. It is also part of the Haldimand Tract, which was deeded to the Mo- hawks and such others of the Six Nations that chose to remove themselves from the newly formed United States following the American Revolution. The builders who had invested money and in some cases had already begun construction of a few homes on the OCR site were unwilling to accept that fact to be true and began to lobby the local government for help. The developer, The Henning Brothers, under the name Henco Homes, went to the Ten years ago, on a cold, cold early February 28th morning, a hand- ful of Six Nations women backed up by Clan Mothers and with the blessing of the Elected Council and the Confederacy Council, began what would become the caledonia land reclamation. Six Nations men began to arrive to protect the women and the caledonia land recla- mation offlcially began. The land remains undeveloped to this day after the Ontario government purchased the land from the developer and allowed Six Nations land protectors to maintain presence on the troubled land still under land claim but still unresolved. PHOTO BY JIM WINDLE courts in Cayuga to seek an injunction to remove those who had begun oc- cupied of the site in the very cold early morning hours of Feb. 28, 2006. The injunction was quickly granted and soon there were threats of po- lice action to uphold the injunction. Rather than back down, Six Nations and allied supporters instead began an occu- pation and blocked the entrance to the site as support grew for a nego- tiated resolution before construction began. Formal negotiations began between the prov- ince of Ontario under Liberal leader Dalton Mc- Guinty, the federal Con- servative government, Six Nations Confederacy Chiefs and the Six Nations Elected Council under Chief David General. In the beginning, the elect- ed council chose to stand down and let the Confed- eracy do the negotiations. OPP had promised that there would be no police action while negotiations were underway. Following a very late night session, April 19, an erroneous report that negotiations had official- ly broke down was circu- lated and at around 4:20 a.m., ironically, on April 20, a major OPP operation was launched against those dwelling in a tent village on the property. By 6 a.m., there were hundreds of Six Nations residents flooding onto Sixth Line Road at a place named by the occupiers as Silver Pines. By 10 a.m., their numbers over- whelmed the armed OPP insurgency and forced police to back off of the contested site, rather than trigger another Ip- CONTINUED ON PAGE 9