Nanfan Nonsense

Vincent J. Curtis

5 Oct 22

RE: Treaty rights being ignored in Chedoke Creek cleanup. Op-ed by Aaron Deltor.  The Hamilton Spectator 5 Oct 22.

A small group of Six Nations, who fancy themselves the ‘Haudenosaunee Chiefs Confederacy Council’ and who are pretending to speak on behalf of “the Haudenosaunee.” are as absurd as a group of hereditary British peers claiming to speak on behalf of England.

We’re supposed to be impressed, but the plethora of groups claiming to speak on behalf of the entire band got to the point where elected band councils were imposed so that a single voice, with legitimacy conferred by democracy, could speak and act for the entire band.

The rights claimed under the Nanfan “Treaty” by the spokesman for the HCCC are nonsense.  Nanfan was a straightforward “voluntary surrender and quit claim” of title to land the Iroquois did not actually possess, in exchange for British military protection against Indian bands allied with the French.  Surrendered territory included the “land between the lakes” which was actually possessed by the Mississaugas of the Credit and subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum treaty.  In 1701, the Haudenosaunee surrendered all their rights under Nanfan, and gained none, hoping to use the British against their Indian enemies. (Oh, look!  Those Indians allied with the French are encroaching on our land, the land we surrendered to you!)

The spokesman for the HCCC talks through his hat in claiming rights under Nanfan, and besides, the group he allegedly speaks on behalf of has no legal legitimacy.

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See my Sept 29 posting “Mohawks, circa 1701.”