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