Right: Johnny Hawke, Left: Richard Peters in the repossessed traditional gathering place known as Council Rock and Oshkimaadizing Unity Camp.
by Johnny Hawke and Richard Peters
Land claim settlements between the federal government and the indigenous Anishinabek Nations of Turtle Island are being resolved using biased colonial policies where these settler states are the judge and jury of their own crimes. The policies used to settle the land claims reflect the same injustices that are in the claims are supposed to resolve. Unlike our ancestors we can read and write in the colonial languages and understand what we are signing and surrendering.
There are two types of Aboriginal claims in Canada that are commonly referred to as “land claims”: comprehensive claims and specific claims. Comprehensive claims (also called modern treaties) are always about rights to land. Specific claims deal with a majority of our grievances and allow our Nations to purchase private lands back from private landowners on a willing seller and willing buyer basis. Specific claims also involve financial compensation distributed per capita to “Band Members.” The remaining dollars are usually not enough to acquire the same amount of lands that were stolen.
Why should we have to purchase our own territories that were stolen from us? Our teachings are that we are of the Earth and do not own the Earth but these lands are our territory. Just as a bear belongs to its natural territory, we have our natural habitat. The theft of our lands allowed for the imposition of colonial policies that suppressed our own forms of government as sovereign nations. In these land claim settlements there is no relinquishing of these foreign laws such as the Indian Act and the judicial system that are imposed on our nations.
Our Nations of Turtle Island have Intertribal Agreements where many nations around the Great Lakes agreed to the One Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt. This agreement established a peace and coexistence treaty that acknowledged each nation’s right to their territory. We know we don’t own the Earth and never colonized each other for territory. We made this agreement because what happens to one nation’s territory affects the others. This Agreement was forgotten as individual groups started to cede away their own territories to the settler nations without first consulting with the Nations involved in this agreement. Many land surrenders are invalid because this agreement has not been respected.
The 1764 Treaty of Fort Niagara is an agreement where our nations established an alliance with the British Crown where the Canadian state is its current representative. Our nations and the Crown accepted a nation-to-nation relationship rooted in a policy of peace, non-interference and coexistence. When the Crown breaches this Agreement, which ultimately legitimizes their presence on this Continent, every one of their laws becomes invalid.
If we as Anishinabek Nations believe one does not sell or own the Earth and at the same time believe that we need to walk in both a mainstream and an Anishinabek world how do we then accept the benefits from selling our share of the Earth to survive in the mainstream capitalist world yet expect to distinguish ourselves as a distinct Nation with a belief system that connects us to the Earth?
My community has accepted $307 million settlement surrendering our traditional territories. I, along with my brother, opted out of this illegal process and have repossessed a traditional gathering place that now sits in a provincial park, a place interwoven in the Six Nations and Ojibway Friendship Belt. A Nation is not a Nation without a connection to the Earth and a Territory to feed its own people. Like a bear I will die fighting to protect my territory and way of life. No surrender!
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See also the author’s blog at oshkimaadziig.org and their recent interview on Radio Basics.