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te i on kwak has hio n ts i niionkwa ri h o :t e n
w e sh a r e
our m at ter s
Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance
at Six Nations of the Grand River
r ic k montu re
WE SH AR E OUR M ATTER S
In Memory of
carol e g. mon ture ( f rohma n)
1940 – 1983
University of Manitoba Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada R3T 2M5
uofmpress.ca
Printed in Canada
Text printed on chlorine-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper
18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior
written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of photocopying or
any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright
(Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency). For an Access Copyright licence,
visit www.accesscopyright.ca, or call 1-800-893-5777.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the
Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program,
using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
C016245
Co n te n ts
L i st of I l l ustrat i o n s | ix
P re fa c e | xi
i ntro d u c t i on | 1
2 Lands granted by the Haldimand Deed. Map design by Weldon Hiebert. source:
http://www.sixnations.ca/LandsResources/LCMap.pdf. | 2
4 The Mohawk Village at Grand River, with the Mohawk Chapel in the foreground,
c. 1805. The Chapel is the burial place of Joseph Brant, and still stands today
in the city of Brantford, Ontario. (Library and Archives Canada,
No. 1990-113-1) | 40
6 The Six Nations Council House built by the Confederacy Chiefs in 1863, four
years before the Confederation of Canada. The Council House still stands in the
main village of Ohsweken. (Courtesy of Deyohahá:ge: Indigenous Knowledge
Centre, Six Nations) | 66
7 Seth Newhouse with Two Row Wampum belt, c. 1895. (Courtesy of Deyohahá:ge:
Indigneous Knowledge Centre, Six Nations) | 75
8 Publicity photo of Pauline Johnson during the height of her popularity in the 1890s.
(Courtesy of Chiefswood Museum, Six Nations) | 92
11 Confederacy Chiefs and supporters displaying Two Row and Silver Covenant
Chain wampum belts at Six Nations, May 1955. (Courtesy of Deyohahá:ge:
Indigenous Knowledge Centre, Six Nations) | 139
12 Chief Jake Thomas interpreting wampum string during the wampum repatriation
ceremony at Onondaga Longhouse, Grand River, 1988. (Photo by Tim Johnson.
Courtesy of Deyohahá:ge: Indigenous Knowledge Centre, Six Nations) | 193
11 Mavis Dogblood (Kateri Walker) and Bug (Eric Schweig) in her living room
studio as she works on a painting of the Peacemaker and his stone canoe, an
important image from the story of the Kaienerekowa/Great Law. (Photo by Calvin
Thomas. Courtesy of Shelley Niro) | 208
pre fa ce
xi
foresaw the important need to produce a text devoted to Native history and
traditional knowledge. In a letter written in 1791, he expressed his wish
to “visit ... the distant Nations and collect ... matter to proceed upon with
my History ... the customs preserv’d by tradition amongst them and also a
knowledge of the Medical Plants natural to their Soil & Climate” (in Klinck
and Talman 1970, xiv). Unfortunately, Brant was never able to complete such
a work, but his desire to do so is highly significant, for it demonstrates an
understanding on his part of the need to disrupt the colonialist agendas
of England and America at the time. He knew, very early on, that “Indian
Nations” would benefit from such a written history because Great Britain and
the newly formed United States were eager to inscribe their own history upon
this continent. Furthermore, he believed that his own people would suffer
politically if the story of the Six Nations’ involvement in the Revolution was
left entirely to the English to document, especially the significance of their
relationship as allies, and not subjects, of the Crown.3 As it turned out, his
assumptions were correct: the last few years of his life, right until his death in
1807, were taken up with attempting to establish Haudenosaunee sovereignty
within the Grand River territory. These lands, amounting to nearly a million
acres, had been acquired by the Crown from the Mississauga and allotted to
the Six Nations under the Haldimand Deed of 1784 in compensation for their
New York State homelands that were lost fighting for the British cause.4 Since
Brant’s time, this particular issue of autonomy—in terms of land rights,
political sovereignty, and cultural independence—has remained at the fore-
front of Haudenosaunee assertions of nationhood.
In July 1900, nearly 100 years after Brant’s death, the Hereditary Council
of Chiefs at Six Nations also felt compelled to translate their most significant
oral tradition in order to produce a written version of Haudenosaunee history
when they published the story of the founding of the Great Law of Peace, or
Kaienerekowa, which is said to have taken place during the twelfth century
and which first established the Confederacy Council that still presided over
Grand River affairs at that time.5 Aware that non-Native ethnographers and
government officials were increasingly engaged in the process of studying
and writing about the Iroquois, always with their own agendas in mind, the
committee of Chiefs in charge of this document wisely outlined their reasons
for committing their ancient traditions to print: “For several hundred years
xii Prefac e
the Five Nations (since 1715 the Six Nations) have existed without a written
history chronicled by themselves, of their ancient customs, rites and ceremo-
nies, and of the formation of the Iroquois League. Books have been written by
white men in the past, but these have been found to be too voluminous and
inaccurate in some instances” (quoted in Parker [1916] 1968, 61).
What makes this brief passage so interesting is that it demonstrates the
level of awareness with which these men were writing their history—from
their own perspective—for the first time. As the leaders in a community
that still adhered to a traditional form of government, they had certainly felt
mounting pressure from Ottawa, and from within their own community
as well, to conform to an elected system of government as required by the
Indian Act of 1876. But to do so would have been to relinquish the sovereign
status that Six Nations had maintained since earliest European contact and
that was, albeit begrudgingly, recognized by Canada throughout the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries. Understanding their predicament, the
Chiefs recognized the need to codify their own political “constitution,” as
established in the Kaienerekowa/Great Law, in order to counter the designs
of the federal government and the potential imposition of an elected council.
The Chiefs then set about to translate and articulate their unique form of
government as one that was not dictated by white bureaucrats in Ottawa, but
was put forth by a spiritual figure known as the Peacemaker “several hundred
years” ago. To them, producing such an account of their social, spiritual,
and political history was of great potential benefit, since this culture-bearing
story that had been told for centuries among Iroquoian-speaking people had
served them remarkably well. But to the colonial, Canadian mind of the time
such a history was undoubtedly considered merely legend and folklore due to
its narrative of “supernatural” individuals and events. To this way of thinking,
such published evidence of this formation of Native government as a “consti-
tution” would have been simply further proof of the need to assimilate Native
peoples into a more civilized society and advanced mode of thought. The
irony is that this document, produced entirely by Haudenosaunee people, was
proof of their ability to function extremely well in the English language.
This clash of worldviews, or the inability to communicate across cultural
divides, has been a source of conflict and frustration between Indigenous
peoples and colonialist authorities for centuries, and it was no doubt the
P r e fa c e xiii
driving force behind Joseph Brant’s desire to write a history of Native people.
As a college-educated individual, one of the very few successful Native
students at Moor’s Charity School run by Reverend Eleazar Wheelock in
Connecticut, Brant understood and anticipated European reactions to the
basic philosophies of Native traditions. Although he may have appeared as a
colonized subject to them, Brant nevertheless saw himself, and his people,
quite differently, and he continually resisted early British control over the
Six Nations. Over 200 years after his death, Haudenosaunee leaders and
scholars alike continue to confront the difficult issue of mediating between
Six Nations tradition and Canadian cultural impositions, between colonial-
ism and anti-colonial political struggle, and between generalized, externally
imposed views of Indigenous thinking and the need to articulate a distinct
Haudenosaunee experience. While we have changed as a people in our daily
routines, economic pursuits, and language, our understanding of who we are
as a confederacy of nations with a unique history and purpose has remained
essentially the same since pre-contact times. Canada, on the other hand, has
had a long history of wondering about its identity as a distinct and unified
nation—all the while attempting to define our Indigenous identity for us
since 1867.
In documenting the literary history of the Six Nations of the Grand
River, pivotal events in the relationship between the Haudenosaunee and
British and Canadian governments since 1784 will be outlined in order to
examine our responses to them. Our people have often been in conflict with
colonial authorities—and sometimes with each other—and in the process
have created an impressive spoken and written legacy of these engage-
ments. Despite the occasional piece of writing from members of the Six
Nations community that conforms to the Western standards of “literature,”
the best examples of creative expression at Grand River over the past 200
years have often been the works of non-fiction that have arisen from times
of social and political crisis. Such texts are potent examples of articulat-
ing the authentic experience of Native communities, according to Osage
scholar Robert Warrior, who states, “Nonfiction as nonfiction deserves to be
regarded as constitutive of the Native written literary tradition”(2005, 117).
I contend that it is during the moments of conflict that the Haudenosaunee
have drawn from our understanding of the oral traditions that sustained our
xiv Prefac e
ancestors for centuries, thought about them, argued over them, and ulti-
mately given voice to them in diverse yet convergent ways. Throughout it all,
we adhere to a basic belief: Iawerenhatien oh nahio:ten teiotennionhatie kato:ken
ne ionkwanikonhraien:tas (“it does not matter what continually changes,
our understanding remains certain”). It is from this foundation of shared
beliefs that this particular study will operate, demonstrating that while
Haudenosaunee thought—in both oral and written form—is an expression of
“intellectual sovereignty” and our unique cultural identity, it is also very much
concerned with developing and sustaining a respectful dialogue with others
in the world. We have a very long history in a particular geographical place to
which we have given a tremendous amount of consideration, and our oral/lit-
erary traditions are therefore a means by which we share our matters so that
all can learn and benefit from our experiential understanding of the natural
world and humankind’s place within it.
P r e fa c e xv
Whereas His Majesty having been pleased to direct that in
Consideration of the early Attachment to His Cause manifested
by the Mohawk Indians, & of the Loss of their Settlement they
thereby sustained that a Convenient Tract of Land under His
Protection should be chosen as a Safe & Comfortable Retreat
for them & others of the Six Nations who have either lost their
Settlements within the Territory of the American States, or
wish to retire from them to the British—I have, at the earnest
Desire of many of these His Majesty’s faithfull Allies purchased
a Tract of Land, from the Indians situated between the Lakes
Ontario, Erie, & Huron and I do hereby in His Majesty’s name
authorize and permit the said Mohawk Nation, and such
other of the Six Nation Indians as wish to settle in that Quarter
to take Possession of, & Settle upon the Banks of the River
commonly called Ours [Ouse] or Grand River, running into
Lake Erie, allotting to them for that Purpose Six Miles deep from
each Side of the River beginning at Lake Erie, & extending in
that Proportion to the Head of the said River, which them &
their Posterity are to enjoy for ever.
The community of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory is the largest
First Nations reservation in Canada, with a current population of approxi-
mately 13,000 (out of a total band membership of 25,000). Members primarily
comprise descendants of those who migrated to Upper Canada (now Ontario)
in 1785 following the American Revolution. At that time, some 2,000 people,
led by Joseph Brant, settled along the banks of the Grand River under the terms
of the Haldimand Deed, which promised these lands “as a safe and com-
fortable retreat ... which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever” (see
page xvi). The majority of this group was made up of Mohawk and Cayuga,
the two nations whose homelands in New York State were completely taken
away from them at the close of the Revolution. Although the Oneida, Seneca,
Onondaga, and Tuscarora retained small tracts of reservation lands in New
York, some members of these nations also came to Ontario. During this time,
the Great Council Fire of the Iroquois Confederacy was also divided between
those Chiefs remaining in New York and those who travelled to Ontario, where
an identical council was eventually established to govern affairs in the new ter-
ritory. As a result, there are currently two Confederacy Councils, one based at
Onondaga, New York and the other at Grand River in Ontario.
1
Lands granted by the Haldimand Deed. Map design by Weldon Hiebert. source: http://www.
sixnations.ca/LandsResources/LCMap.pdf.
2 I ntro d u c ti o n
Both councils operate more or less independently, but maintain close
contact on larger issues of both sacred and secular importance. Although
space limitations do not allow for a detailed history of the Iroquois
Confederacy, it is important to remember that the ancient form of govern-
ment first initiated by the Peacemaker continues to meet regularly to discuss
social, legal, and political matters on both sides of the border. It is also
important to note that some 100,000 Haudenosaunee currently reside at
seventeen communities located in New York (eight communities), Ontario
(four), Quebec (three), Wisconsin (one), and Oklahoma (one), as well as in
urban centres throughout North America. These transnational reserve/reser-
vation communities, like the two Confederacy Councils, exist independently
but, despite geographical distance, retain strong connections to each other
through intermarriage, ceremonial events, and other social/political occa-
sions. This understood alliance of shared history, languages, and cultural
tradition is a unique situation in that it recognizes and reinforces common
features of a collective Haudenosaunee experience but also allows for region-
ally distinct social and cultural flavours. In short, each reserve/reservation
community has a sense of itself as a particular place with distinct customs
and identity, but each is also aware of its deeper connection to the larger
Haudenosaunee world. Although the Six Nations of Grand River has its own
unique history shaped largely by its relationship first with the British Crown
and then later with the Canadian state, it must be understood in relationship
to the larger, ideological foundation of Haudenosaunee thought that serves
to define our place in the world, regardless of geographical location.
In all cultures, the story of Creation, of how a particular people came to
exist in this world, is a defining narrative. Kimberly Roppolo writes, “Native
articulation of philosophy—of who we are and how we see the world, of
what our position is in relation to the rest of Creation—has been accom-
plished by indirect discourse. We are taught by story, and we explain by story,
not by exposition” (2001, 268). As Haudenosaunee, we believe that we are
descended from Sky Woman, who fell from the Sky World through a hole that
was created when a great tree was uprooted. As she fell through this hole, she
clutched at the earth around her and in doing so grabbed tobacco and straw-
berry plants, which are both seen as very sacred to this day. As she was falling
toward this world, the animals that existed on the waters below noticed her
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