Six Nations: Fire on the streets of Caledonia after OPP arrest land protesters

By J.P. Antonacci, Hamilton Spectator, August 5, 2020

Dave Anderson watched the fires burning on Argyle Street on Wednesday and sighed.

“This is starting all over again,” said Anderson, who moved to Caledonia on the very day in 2006 that Six Nations protesters set up an encampment on the former Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) property, sparking a bitter land claims dispute that divided the community for years.

Indigenous convoys slow Ontario highway traffic in solidarity with B.C. pipeline protest

An Indigenous protest convoy drives westbound on Highway 401 near Kingston, Ont. (The Canadian Press)

‘We’re standing strong with our brothers and sisters out west,’ said 1 participant

CBC News, Jan 11, 2019

Two convoys of vehicles slowed traffic on stretches of Canada’s busiest highway Friday morning in Ontario in a show of solidarity with an anti-pipeline protest in British Columbia.

One rolled westbound from the eastern part of the province, while the other began in southwestern Ontario and headed east. Both left before dawn and disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour.

At Six Nations’ deer hunt, aboriginal rights become a target

Chester Gibson, of the Haudenosaunee Wildlife and Habitat Authority, and co-leader of the Six Nations of the Grand River hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park, speaks to visitors on Dec. 5. PHOTOS BY Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

by Dakshana Bascaramurty, Globe and Mail, Dec 11, 2017

For much of Chester Gibson’s adult life, deer hunting outside the boundaries of the Six Nations Reserve was carried out stealthily. He’d be in a car going 30 kilometres per hour and dive out of the passenger seat clutching his crossbow, roll in a ditch and then disappear into the woods. When Mr. Gibson, who is Mohawk, was ready to be picked up, he’d plant a stick at the side of the road to alert his driver. Then he’d lug the deer carcass into the back of the truck as quickly as possible, jump in and take off. If caught, he could be prosecuted.

Bitter land dispute results in road blockade on Six Nations in Caledonia

First Nations people have manned a blockade on the outskirts of Caledonia for three weeks.

A blockade by members of Six Nations has barred a portion of Argyle Street, the main road in Caledonia for the past 21 days.

The protest is connected to a parcel of land that was put into a federal corporation in March by Six Nations’ elected band council, allegedly reneging on an Ontario promise to return it to Six Nations people in 2006 to ameliorate the Caledonia Standoff — a protest that saw a group of Indigenous people occupy a housing development called Douglas Creek Estates. The blockade is situated near the site where violence broke out over 10 years ago.

Haudenosaunee people block Caledonia road over ‘lies’ from Ontario government

Members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy protest along a street in Caledonia Thursday. (David Ritchie/CBC)

CBC News, August 10, 2017

Members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy blocked Argyle Street in Caledonia on Thursday.

The group has listed several demands, most aimed at the Ontario government but one directed at the Six Nations elected band council.

Indigenous protesters ordered to pay oil giant thousands over pipeline legal battle

Haudenosaunee man Todd Williams has been ordered to pay thousands in legal fees after disrupting work in protest at Enbridge dig sites in Hamilton this year. (Adam Carter/CBC)

Haudenosaunee men spent months protesting at Enbridge dig sites

By Adam Carter, CBC News, May 31, 2017

Todd Williams spent months sparring with Enbridge all over Hamilton, trying to disrupt the company’s pipeline operations. And now it’s costing him.

After a legal battle with the oil giant that centred on the company’s property rights versus Indigenous treaty and hunting rights, Williams and another Haudenosaunee man, Wayne Hill, were ordered by a Superior Court in Hamilton this month to pay Enbridge $25,381.81 in legal fees. The costs award comes after Enbridge won an injunction barring them from maintenance dig sites. 

City, Six Nations fighting Hydro One clear-cut of Red Hill corridor

Hamiltonians and Haudenosaunee fighting to keep trees from being cleared

By Chris Seto, CBC News, March 20, 2016

The Six Nations Haudenosaunee and the City of Hamilton are trying to save as many trees as possible from Hydro One’s plan to clear-cut a section of land in the Red Hill Valley.

A line of hydro towers running 1.6 km along the Red Hill Valley Parkway from Glen Castle Park to the brow of the escarpment have been standing over residents since the 1960s.

Since that time, the power authority has periodically trimmed back trees every few years as needed, keeping regulatory clearances between vegetation and hydro lines, while also leaving the undergrowth to thrive.

Native Women Shut Down Pipeline “Consultation” in Montreal

by Submedia, Sept 24, 2015

Montreal — First Nations women and supporters sent a clear message to TransCanada this Wednesday evening that the Energy East pipeline is not welcome through First Nations lands.
“What we want TransCanada to understand is that no means no. This is Kanien’ke, this is Mohawk Land and we are tired of occupation, we are tired of environmental disaster.” said Lickers at Wednesday night’s hearing. “This is our land and we are going to protect it.”

Haudenosaunee women’s lacrosse team will not travel on a foreign passport

by Jim Windle, Two Row Times, July 15, 2015

The U-19 Haudenosaunee Women’s Lacrosse Team has dropped out of the World Field Lacrosse Championships which they were to compete in in Edinburgh Scotland at the end of this month.

Once again, Haudenosaunee passports they intended to travel on, were not acceptable according to Canadian, American and Scottish border crossing policies.

Sound familiar? The Men’s Iroquois Nationals ran into the same roadblock in 2010. In that case, the Men’s team chose not to attend rather than travel under what they believe to be a foreign passport.