Update from Grand River October 19, 2006

Sago from Grand River. Sooooooooooo October 15th was an AWSOME day of unity, peace and socializing. Way to go Six Nations and Everyone! I was overwhelmed. When people ask me how did it go, all I can say is "it was awsome!" Thanks to Pat and the rest of you guys/girls for doing all the drumming. Thanks to everyone who helped out in the kitchen. Thanks to ALL of you who came out and brought your pot-luck dishes. Overall I just want to thank everyone, the union supporters, all of the organizations who were represented, all of supporters who came to stand in Unity, in Peace, and for Justice. To all of you, a great big NYA WEH!!!!!! I think we made the world record for having the largest potluck. I know we had over a thousand people at the site. Everywhere you looked it was people. Even though channel 11 tried to tell the world that McHale had over a thousand people supporting and six nations had about 500, it was the other way around. And I don't know if they reported or not, but McHale left all of those Caledonia people standing there and took off back to Richmond Hill after he gathered his pails full of money. Thinking he was superman, he beated on his chest, said "my job here is done" and flew back to his own town. The good news on the whole rally thing is that a couple of men from Caledonia, sorry guys, don't remember your names, but they came to the front gate and were totally pissed at McHale for using Caledonia and Six Nations like he did. In their words "this had nothing to do with him and Richmond Hill". Now these guys were obviously not supportive of the reclamation, but we were in total agreement about how Gary tried to take advantage of this situation for his own personal gain, and they thought Six Nations and Caledonia should organize our own rally together and go rally on his front lawn! Not a bad idea guys. And we gained an opportunity to invite these guys back to the site anytime. At least if they want to know a bit of the history, or to learn what is really going on since their government isn't so quick to tell them anything, they can come to the site and talk to the people. That is all we're really asking. If you don't agree, if you don't understand, at least come and talk to us. And before i forget, thanks to Gary McHale for helping to bring our people together, as well as opening a few more eyes in our neighbours. Once again we proved Truth and Justice triumph over Evil. Speaking of evil, looks like Canada is trying to go at the Six Nations from different angles since it knows it doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to our land. In the last two days, with the help of Channel 11 TV, it has been coming down on the Six Nations for signs posted along Hwy #6, (within our territory) and how illegal they are, and then they went further making claims about the so-called illegal cigarette industry. Again, JURISDICTION. What part of WE ARE NOT CANADIAN, is it they don't understand. And how do you get it through their thick skulls that the laws of Canada do not apply. We are a Sovereign Nation. Hello, where have you people been for the last 8 months, or the last 20 years for that matter! I was even repremanded for speaking out in the press about it and telling Canada to "back off". The way i see it, jurisdiction is jurisdiction. They are using an old trick many people use when confronted with the truth and not wanting to take responsibility. They are deflecting to another area/topic to take the eyes off of their guilt. What it boils down to is Canada does not want to face the people of Caledonia, nor do they want to face any of the people up and down the Grand River because they will have to admit to those people that they've sold them land to which they hold no legal title. Meantime, Canada keeps trying to push this land management act through, which they believe will somehow make all the Native land claims go away. Guess the fact that several hundreds of years of genocide and assimilation didn't make us go away, so what makes them think they can make a law, a man-made law, that holds no bearing on the LAW OF THE LAND, does not supercede TREATIES, and ultimately holds no effect on the INHERENT RIGHTS of our people, will make us give up on title and jurisdiction. So, they can continue to try and rile up Canadians that the Six Nations are above the law, but the TRUTH is, Six Nation's Territory is not part of Canada. CANADA IS PART OF THE SIX NATIONS TERRITORY!!!!! And when you speak of violation of law, Canada better take a look at exactly WHO is in violation of law. And it had also better realize that while they may drag us through their court systems, they may stick us in their jails, they can even bring in their army's against us; when THEY answer for the Violation of Law, they are answering to the Creator, and no man-made law can Supercede the Law of Creation! As far as everything else at Kanonhstaton, everything is great. The people are in good spirits and we're doing what we have to do to keep everything going. Archaeology has started, nothing to report yet, they will be having a media conference soon. As far as negotiations, main table goes back on the 20th of October, maybe we'll have some good news then! We'll see if the Crown has been able to get their documents together that Six Nations has asked for. This should prove whether or not they followed THEIR LAW when dealing with "Indian lands" pre-confederation. According to their laws, there is certain requirements such as an Order in Council, mapping, exact description and sketching of the lands in question, etc.; that they are required to have accompany any "surrender" of lands. I'll let you know how they do next week. At the side table I sit at, (we're suppose to deal with Archaeology and Appearances), we are also dealing with buffer zones, water & gas use etc, drainage, they even try to drag in policing, but anyway, recently two things have come up. One of the issues was the fact that Haldimand Township was concerned about the water and possible contaminants in it. So, being the nice guys that we are, we worked a relationship with Haldimand to let their people come in an test the water. It was scheduled every tuesday and had been going on for about a month and they were taking their sample from an outside tap at the main house. Two weeks ago, they decided that instead of taking the sample from the outside tap, they needed to take it from the inside tap. There was even some discussion of shutting off some of the fire hydrants before winter to prevent freezing. I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but common sense tells me they don't go shutting of fire hydrants throughout the rest of Canada when winter hits. Can you imagine the chaos! What really got me is the discussion about their need to bring in someone from the Gas Company because they had a report that we were syphoning off gas with a water hose. Can you imagine! Sure, we're gonna syphon natural gas with a garden hose.... and blow ourselves up in the process!!! Dah! and as far as the water testing, I took it to the people, and concensus was that we're sick and tired of always giving giving giving. It wasn't good enough for them to have us co-operate in giving the sample, they should have left it at that. Instead now they're pushing to get into the houses. I told them, "we give you an inch and you take a mile" Doesn't that sound familiar. Give an inch for the squatters, (town plots in Brantford) and look where that got us! And again, I might be stupid, but doesn't all the water coming into that house come from the same source! And why all of a sudden is it not ok for having us do our own water sampling anyway? they give us this big song and dance about how their ministry officials have to take the sample for legal reasons since the Walkerton episode. Well, I guess that only holds if your skin is a little darker cause what it really boils down to is Trust. They don't trust us. They stole all of our land and resources, and they have issues with trust!!!!! Riddle me that one batman! This weekend, I had the opportunity to speak to a young woman from Caledonia who had water problems just a couple of years ago, was allowed to take her own samples, run them into the health unit, and they even were used in court on a legal matter, so guess what Canada, once again your lies and deciet have been uncovered, and as far as the water sampling, gas testing, hydro meter reading and anything else on the site, THE PEOPLE OF SIX NATIONS will deal with it. And there again, is another issue that got my dander up a bit. Since the reclamation began, the mayor of Caledonia and others have been whining and complaining that the taxpayers are paying for the utilities at the site. We told them last winter to send us the bills at #1 Reclamation Drive, Six Nations, but we received no bills. Then the discussions comes to that side table i sit on, and again I told them "go ahead and send the bills. Better yet send them to the Queen, she's holding all of our trust monies" . So rather than take it to the Chiefs and the Maintable where any decisions, especially having to do with spending money should go, they had McGuinty, one of their politicians, make a big announcement in the media that they have "negotiated with the Six Nations to have the utility bills paid". I want everyone to know that while it was said at our side table, (along with the suggestion about sending the bills to the Queen), it should have come back to the main table and to the people for ratification. That is the process and protocol that was established in the beginning of negotiations, and the Crown representatives know full well that this is what has been agreed to. So, maybe, if I suggest that while the province of Ontario was quick to pay off Henco over 15 million, put millions of dollars into the town of Caledonia for its trauma and hardships, perhaps it should put some of those millions into Six Nations since we do own the land, have never been paid any lease monies on any of the lands and their bill right now exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars, and they got the nerve to whine about a couple of hundred bucks for utility bills. Send the bills, but make sure you're ready to cut a cheque for at least a hundred million to start covering the damn rent you owe! Have a good day all! In Love, Light and Peace, Hazel

MNN: "THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN IS A JAILED INDIAN". PRIVATIZATION OF INDIANS AND PRISONS

MNN. Oct. 19, 2006. Howard Saper, the Ombudsman for Inmates, just came out with a report on the state of Indigenous prisoners. He said the incarceration rate for Indigenous people was nine times higher than for the Canadian population, even though we are 1.5 per cent of the population. The numbers are even worse for Indigenous women. One in three inmates in federally-run women's prisons was Indigenous. Half are in maximum security institutions. One reason is because there was "routine over classification" of native prisoners. At least we're higher class in something, eh! So their family, community, friends and elders are robbed of their presence. They are sent more often into segregation and don't get rehabilitative treatment so they can be released. Parole is not even a consideration. Any lawyer will tell you that when someone looks native, they are more likely to be found guilty. Does that mean we have to powder our faces white when we go out in public? Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day rejected the report and said, "There is no evidence of systemic discrimination against native offenders in the prison system". Is he telling us that he went to visit a jail one time and they didn't complain to him? To him they all seem to be happy, like they never had it so good. A major problem with our people is that we don't lie. We're basically hospitable, honest and don't B.S. our way out of the system. We have a hard time conning anybody. We even tell the truth on ourselves. We are apt to accept responsibility if we did a wrong. We are taken advantage of over what they think is our "character flaw". Most of our people who go to jail are involved in bar fights and actions related to alcohol. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is introducing the "three strikes you're out" and "you're-going-to-jail-for-the-rest-of-your-life" legislation aimed at increasing the prison population. He says he wants to protect the "Canadian" way of life. Isn't the Canadian way of life to be fair? Or is this a take on the old genocidal proclamations allowing British subjects in Nova Scotia to kill all Indian men, women, children and even babies? Let's not forget that the first prisons were built in Prince Albert right after they hung Louis Riel for defending democracy. As far as we're concerned it's the same, old same old. "If you do a serious crime, you're going to do serious time", Harper declared. He's aiming at "violent offenders" like the Indigenous people. They want to go after spontaneous instinctive behavior which is done without premeditation. They are usually ashamed and do their time without complaint. How about all those corrupt politicians? What about white collar criminals who steal millions and get away with it? Generally speaking it is considered worse if someone plans a crime. Slimy politicians, liars and deceivers who rob people of millions of dollars are not the targets of Harper's law, even though they do more harm to society. What about contractors who skim on public works like overpasses that kill innocent people? A violent offence usually takes place between two individuals. In such cases the cops can easily set them up for two more charges and have them put away forever. What a weapon in the hands of the cops! Imagine "super jails" run for profit by private companies eager to cash in on Harper's plans to get tougher on crime. Stockwell Day has made private security companies jump for joy. They are gloating over the "jackpot" they are going to hit by putting our people in jail. They just have to ask, "What's your band number?" to get the payment from Indian Affairs. Harper is trying to convince Canadians that private prisons are cheaper so he can call on his private sector friends to build and operate them. This is part of the U.S. pro-privatization ideology adopted by the Conservative government. He will try wherever he can to turn over a growing range of public services to private operators, most of whom are his friends and backers. It will be a for-profit business paid for by the tax payers. It looks like Indian Affairs can easily transfer $50,000 to $60,000 a head to these private prisons. Jailing Indians is big business. It's a "cash cow" for the provinces which can get huge transfer payments from the federal government for every Indigenous inmate. They don't get nothin' for non-native inmates. That's why it's real attractive to keep us in jail. At the same time the Conservative government has announced that Indian communities are going to be privatized. They want our communities to be run by corporations and trust companies for which the bottom line is profit. Band councils are now, for the most part, corporations which are being taken over by auditing firms such as PriceWaterhouse. We've been giving the federal and provincial governments and corporations a hard time over theft of our lands and resources. They want to control us. They've figured out a way. They are going to privatize us and let the multinational corporations move in for a feast. We won't know what's going on with our money or anything. Corporations, of course, will want to cut costs so they can make a bigger profit. So our standard of living will go down, as if this is possible. If we don't pay our mortgage or our taxes, the corporation will be able to seize our land and possessions. Strange as it may seem, Canadians have never thought of registering mortgages against Newfoundland or British Columbia. So why do they think they can do this with with our land? The bluff and hypocrisy supporting this scheme is transparent. It's meant to dispossess us. It's called the "Indian business". In Kanehsatake PriceWaterhouse took over from James Gabriel who deliberately mismanaged the funds and affairs of the community. Every program and service was cut back. There was a lot "streamlining" or skimming off the top so there would be more for the corporation. $34 million is basically unaccounted for so far. Hey, Canada, did you ever wonder why your taxes are so high! Trust companies will make money on privatizing our communities. The government will put up $50,000 a head and blow up the population figures to feed the corporate gluttons. They will do this in the jail system too. They want big jails full of Indians. We will be marketed on the stock exchange for the public to invest in our jails and our corporate controlled communities. The politicians will offer patronage plums to their friends to be trustees over Indigenous communities and jails. Why do they need to victimize us? Why don't they just write checks to their friends? Do they think Canadians and Americans are so dumb they don't know what's going on? The more they can cause mismanagement of band councils and criminalizing of Indians, the more justification there is for taking over Indigenous communities and putting us in jail. According to their business plan, warehousing Indians is a growth industry! The United States corporations want to bring this system in. Is that the reason for that big agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico called "deep integration"? They're streamlining everything economically under a central control of 130 CEO's who will make all the decisions for Harper, Bush and Fox. In all of this, they are violating international law. Our incarcerated Indigenous inmates are not even citizens of Canada or the United States. They are from their own nations. They come under their own laws. This is like Guantanamo Bay! Let's think of how much the trustees of the Six Nations of Grand River Corporation would get under such privatization - $1.1 billion per year. Just think of the salaries for the CEO's! Of course, there might not be anything left for the people. But, hey, since when did we count? Kahentinetha Horn MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For updates and to sign up go to www.mohawknationnews.com