Six Nations of the Grand River
Six Nations 40 | |
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Six Nations Indian Reserve No. 40 | |
519 and 226 | |
Website | www.sixnations.ca |
Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, French: Réserve des Six Nations, Seneca: Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve.[2] These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape (also known as Delaware) live in the territory as well.
The Six Nations reserve is bordered by the
History
Year | Pop. | ±% |
---|---|---|
1784 | 1,843 | — |
1847 | 2,200 | +19.4% |
1858 | 2,421 | +10.0% |
1915 | 4,700 | +94.1% |
1956 | 5,850 | +24.5% |
1994 | 7,000 | +19.7% |
2013 | 12,271 | +75.3% |
2017 | 12,848 | +4.7% |
Source:[4][5][6] |
Many of the Haudenosaunee people allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War, particularly warriors from the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga and Seneca nations. Some warriors of the Oneida and Tuscarora also allied with them, as warfare was highly decentralized. These nations had longstanding trade relations with the British and hoped they might stop European-American encroachment on their territories. These allies were from the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy.
After the colonists' victory, the British government ceded all of its territory in the colonies to their new government under a peace treaty, including that belonging to the Six Nations without consulting them or making them party to treaty negotiations. The Crown worked to resettle native
The new lands granted to Six Nations reserves were all near important Canadian military targets and placed along the border to prevent any American invasion.[7] The growth of the Six Nations community was also hampered. Land, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, granted a certain measure of power to their owners. Influential leaders such as Joseph Brant and Deseronto were prevented from granting land to business owners who could have brought industry and agriculture to their lands.
After the war, Mohawk leaders
Six Nations at Grand River
Brant decided that he preferred to settle on the
A 1785 census recorded 1,843 Natives living on the Grand River reserve, including 548
As the government did for European Americans, the Indian department provided the Haudenosaunee with some tools and other provisions for resettlement, including such items as saws, axes,
The main town developed at what is now
Governor
According to the
Governor Simcoe opposed the land sales. The interest on the annuity promised an income to the people of £5,119 per year, far more than any other Iroquois people had received. The land speculators were unable to sell farm-size lots to settlers fast enough. By 1801, however, all the land speculators had fallen behind in their payments. Because of the lack of payments, Brant was determined to sell more land to make up for the missing payments.
In 1796,
By 1800, two-thirds of the Haudenosaunee had not yet adapted to the style of subsistence agriculture maintained by separate households that the Canadian government encouraged. Brant had hoped that sales of land to European Americans would help them develop the frontier, but conditions were difficult for such agriculture.
In 1813, the chiefs and councillors of the Six Nations residing in the state of New York would declare war on the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.
In 1828, chief
The Six Nations people were originally given 10 km (6 miles) on either side of the entire length of the Grand River, although much of the land was later sold. The ongoing Grand River land dispute is the result of disputes over the sale process. The current reserves encompass 184.7 km2 (71 sq mi), all but 0.4 km2 (100 acres) in Six Nations reserve No. 40.
In the late 19th century, the Scottish doctor Joseph Bell excavated skulls of indigenous people in the six nations. These skulls reached Berlin through the mediation of the doctor William Osler, where they were considered untraceable for decades. In 2020, the journalists David Bruser and Markus Grill, supported by the ethnologist Nils Seethaler, succeeded in finding the skulls in the anatomical collection of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. A return of the skulls to the care of the community of origin was suggested in this context.[13][14]
Communities
Several named communities exist within the Six Nations reserve:
- Beavers Corner
- Longboat Corners
- Medina Corners
- Millers Corner
- Ohsweken
- St. Johns
- Sixty-Nine Corners
- Smith Corners
- Smoothtown
- Sour Spring
- Stoneridge
Members
They later welcomed to the reserve a group of Lenape, who speak Munsee, an Algonquian language.
Six Nations of the Grand River is the most populous reserve in Canada. As of March 2023, there were 28,520 band members, of whom 11,688 lived on the reserve. The population consists of the following bands:[15]
Nation | Band Name | Total | On reserve |
---|---|---|---|
Haudenosaunee | Bay of Quinte Mohawk | 840 | 368 |
Lower Towns Tuscarora | 2,430 | 974 | |
Konadaha Seneca | 621 | 207 | |
Niharondasa Seneca | 434 | 177 | |
Lower Mohawk | 4,456 | 2,152 | |
Walker Mohawk | 521 | 318 | |
Upper Mohawk | 6,802 | 2,964 | |
Lower Cayuga | 3,881 | 1,407 | |
Upper Cayuga | 3,996 | 1,522 | |
Bearfoot Onondaga | 690 | 150 | |
Clear Sky Onondaga | 876 | 452 | |
Oneida | 2,226 | 771 | |
Lenape | Delaware of Six Nations | 747 | 226 |
total | 28,520 | 11,688 |
*
Government
The Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council is a governing body established to run the affairs of the reserve in 1924, formed under the Indian Act. The Elected Council has, since its foundation, been the primary government of Six Nations recognised by the Government of Canada. However, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council has maintained a presence on the reserve despite the establishment of the elected council, representing a continuity with the traditional government of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Notable people
Education
Prior to colonization, education in Haudenosaunee communities took place in "unstructured and non-coercive ways."[16] This continues to this day alongside state education.
Members of the Six Nations attended the Mohawk Institute, a residential school which was the subject of numerous abuse allegations. Upon closure of the institute in 1972, the residential school was replaced by the Woodland Cultural Centre.[17]
Day schools were also operated on the reserve under the Six Nations School Board (1878–1933), the first Indigenous school board in Ontario.[18] While the official colonial curriculum was taught and many non-Indigenous teachers taught on the reserve, Indigenous influence on the board allowed for the hiring of many Six Nations teachers, many of them women as was and continues to be the case at the elementary level in Ontario.[16] Teachers on the reserve also formed their own association for professional development, the Six Nations Teacher's Organization.[18]
See also
- Bell Homestead National Historic Site
- Caledonia land dispute
- Grand River
- Haldimand Proclamation
- List of townships in Ontario
- Six Nations Polytechnic
- Oneida people
- Oneida Indian Nation
- Oneida Nation of the Thames
- Oneida Nation of Wisconsin
References
Footnotes
- ^ "Six Nations of the Grand River". Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Government of Canada. 14 November 2008. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ a b "Six Nations of the Grand River" (PDF). December 31, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
- ^ Paxton PhD, James W. (2008). Joseph Brant and His World: 18th Century Mohawk Warrior and Statesman. James Lorimer & Company Ltd.
- ^ "Six Nations Of The Grand River Community Profile". www.sixnations.ca. Archived from the original on 2017-06-18. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ^ Norman, Alison Elizabeth (2010). Race, Gender and Colonialism: Public Life among the Six Nations of Grand River, 1899-1939 (PDF) (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Toronto. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
- ^ Shimony, Annemarie Anrod (1994). Conservatism among the Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve. Syracuse University Press. p. 43. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
- ^ "Thayendanegea". www.biographi.ca. University of Toronto/Université Laval.
- ^ "Between the Lakes Treaty No. 3 (1792)". Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ Kelsay 1984, p. 370.
- ^ Buxton Museum, Early Settlements In Canada West For The Fugitives Of Slavery, pp. 36–37
- ^ Kelsay 1984, p. 279.
- ^ Siebert, Wilbur. "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedon (1898) by Wilbert Henry Siebert". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ Markus Grill/Ralf Wiegand: Die Spur der Schädel Süddeutsche Zeitung, 17.12.20.
- ^ David Bruser/Markus Grill: The untold story of four Indigenous skulls given away by one of Canada’s most famous doctors, and the quest to bring them home. Toronto Star, 17.12.20.
- ^ Reserve/Settlement/Village Detail. Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (Report). Government of Canada. March 2023.
- ^ ISSN 0030-2953.
- ^ Woodland Cultural Centre
- ^ a b Moses, Olive; Henhawk, Doris; King, Loyd (1987). History of Education on the Six Nations Reserve. Brantford: Woodland Cultural Centre.
Bibliography
- Graymont, Barbara, The Iroquois in the American Revolution, 1972, ISBN 0-8156-0083-6
- Johnson, Charles M., The Valley of the Six Nations: A Collection of Documents on the Indian Lands of Grand River, Toronto: ISBN 9781442618510
- Kelsay, Isabel Thompson (1984). Joseph Brant, 1743-1807, Man of Two Worlds. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0182-4. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
Joseph Brant Slaves.
- Taylor, Alan, The Divided Ground, 2006, ISBN 0-679-45471-3