Haudenosauee Still Bullying Hamilton

Vincent J. Curtis

12 May 25

The City of Hamilton is once again menaced with trouble by the self-styled “hereditary chiefs of the Haudenosauee,” or Iroquois indians.  This aboriginal aristocracy insists on being consulted, and having an approval, on engineering projects concerning the Red Hill valley, and other places as their whimsy chooses, projects that are far above their capabilities to judge.

The consciences of city councillors are soothed somewhat, if not entirely placated, at this humiliation by the thought that they are bound by the so-called Nanfan Treaty.  It’s a pity no one in the legal department has read it, for otherwise the hereditary chiefs would be escorted from the building; and the city would have to deal with the trouble the chiefs imply they could cause.

The Nanfan Treaty is a straight-up quit claim, “quit claimed onto the King of England forever all the right, title, and interest and all claims and demands whatsoever.”

John Nanfan was the Acting Governor of the-then English province of New York; he had no royal commission to be Governor; and, more importantly, he had no Letters Patent from King Willian III to act as his plenipotentiary to negotiate a treaty with anyone on behalf of the English Crown.  Nevertheless, on 19 July, 1701, representatives of the Iroquois confederacy walked into his office with an offer to surrender lands - which they did not actually possess.  Specifically, the Iroquois Nations deeded to the English Crown their title to Beaver Hunting grounds that they claimed to have acquired by right of conquest in the 17^th century, and that saw the annihilation of the Huron Nation in 1649.  This territory included the Niagara Peninsula, all of South-Western Ontario (the “Land between the Lakes”), the Bruce Peninsula, and the north shore of Lake Ontario as far east as Oshawa.  This and more were part of New France at the time, and claimed, as well as occupied, by French Algonquinian allies, which included the Mississaugas of the Credit.  Much of this territory was subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum treaty!

The Iroquois “voluntarily surrendered, delivered up, and by these presents do for us, our heirs and successors forever, quit claimed onto the King of England forever all the right, title, and interest and all claims and demands whatsoever.”  That’s pretty definitive, and raises the question why would the Iroquois surrender title in exchange, apparently, for nothing (albeit land that wasn’t theirs)?  It was ostensibly offered as a gift to the King William III of England, his heir and successors, out of an admiration for him.

The answer seems to be that this was a way for the Iroquois to engage English help to protect hunting and fishing territory, which, up until then the Iroquois had to defend on their own; and, in particular, to drive the Mississaugas out of the Dish With One Spoon territory. For the English, the beaver trade would then flow though English hands instead of through French hands.  But the English did not help, and the Nanfan Treaty fell from the notice of history, until it’s recent revival.

The wording quoted above clearly denies the hereditary chiefs any right to interfere, make claims, or demands, concerning the surrendered territory - that includes modern-day Hamilton. If anyone had a claim, it would be the Mississaugas, but they sold this land to the Crown in 1792.

Naked force is an ugly thing; and submitting to a bullying and humiliating consultative processes is judged a pang the city can endure rather than have to deal with expensive delays and politically difficult confrontations. Nevertheless, there’s no treaty basis for some self-chosen group of indian aristocrats to have a veto over city engineering projects in the Red Hill Valley, or anywhere else.

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