It isn’t enough to acknowledge that generational trauma exists. We should be examining how it often guides the actions of those who experience it. Generational trauma needs to be accepted and treated just like any other health condition with its signs and symptoms, especially amongst Onkwehonwe community members.
This is precisely why Matthew Whitlow created Mind-Body-Whole. Matthew himself admits that he has struggled with addictions for half of his life and hasn’t always been the person he wanted to be. A father and grandfather now, Matt chooses to appreciate life and learn how to heal and move forward.
In 2016, Matthew was with his close friend Johnathan Styres when John died during an alleged auto theft. It changed everything for Matthew, including pushing him into his first step of recovery.
August 18th, Matthew will be running our roads to share a message of empowerment and honouring his friend who never had the chance to choose to turn his life around.
Matt knows It’s not going to be easy, and rediscovering the connections within Onkwehonweneha is key to our survival; it must be available to our entire population.
If you would like to participate or support, contact MBWrecovery@gmail.com or contact directly at 905-517-0383 for August 18th or if you are interested in recovery support through a holistic approach.
This original deed is in the safe at SS12 on Six Line, at Six Nations Of The Grand River, since five years ago, the other day I verified it is still there. It is the 1st DEED for Lot 4 West Range Mckenzie Road, CALEDONIA. The farm on the south edge of LANDBACK LANE, where I grew up, The HUTTON FARM. Robert Anderson died and left it to his sister in Scotland, near Dundee, way up along the northeast coast, she married a Hutton.
The farm shows the owner as Jas Hutton in the 1879 Haldimand County Atlas. This is my great grandfather James Hutton.
The deed demonstrates the debt owed by the crown to the Haudenosaunee People based on the £135 (and change) paid to the NDN Affairs Office.
PHOTO CREDIT: JIM HUTTON
Today it would amount to a minimum current debt over $13,000,000. The crown appropriated 95% of the Haldimand Tract, aside from lifelong leases of 99 years, forged to 999 years!
“You Rotiianer (Chiefs) will receive many scratches, and the thickness of your skins shall be seven spans. You must be patient and henceforth work in unity. Never consider your own interests but work to benefit the people and the generations not yet born. Let not anger nor fury find lodging in your minds and hearts.”
Tekanawita, founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, date unknown.
Tekanawita, a Huron-Wendat, brought the Great Law of Peace and ended civil war amongst the Mohawks. His words offer a possible solution to political divisions in Kanesatake.
The Great Law is the social, political and spiritual constitution of the Six Nations, the Mohawks, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora Nations. Tekanawitas’ words have been passed down orally and have become part of the cultural fabric of the Kanienkehaka people. This system of traditional government and chiefs exists in most Mohawk communities. However, it is not recognized nor supported financially, politically or legally by the Canadian government. Nevertheless, it is recognized in most Mohawk communities as the legitimate Mohawk government by the majority.
The only First Nations governments recognized by the Canadian government are the elected band councils. Band councils are a British colonial creation designed in the 1840s to undermine indigenous government systems and substitute them with a municipal form of government. Band councils are composed of a grand chief and a number of chiefs depending on the populations of the band. The Grand Chief is essentially the mayor, and the chiefs are councillors. The term “chiefs” is only cultural icing for a municipal council.
The Canadian government supports band councils financially, legally and politically to deliver programs, services and information to First Nations peoples. Band councils may pass municipal by-laws only, subject to the approval of the Minister of Indian Affairs, provided they are not considered unconstitutional. They do not violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is a democracy, according to Canadians, their leaders and the media. It is not a democracy, according to First Nations peoples. The Dominion of Canada’s intentions in 1867 was to thrust “democracy” on Mohawk communities and implement it by force if necessary. The Dominion Police, the RCMP, Provincial Police forces and Federal law attempted to abolish First nations forms of government-provided that force. Those that refused “democracy” were branded and treated as “criminals and hotheads”. Thus, creating the stereotype of Native Peoples that resisted the coercive policies of the Government, the Churches, and the law as threats to “law and order.”
As hard as the Federal government, Police and Church-run residential schools tried to suppress First Nations socials, cultural and political structures; our people secretly kept our languages and cultures alive. Part of that cultural transmission was chiefs were chosen to represent their people. That included consulting the wishes of the people and making decisions in their best interest.
If a chief or chiefs ever lost the esteem of their people, the people could ask the clan mothers to remove the offending chiefs from office. Mohawk society is matrilineal, and women pass on their clan and citizenship to their children. Once a chief was removed from office, he never regained it as his removal was considered a disgrace.
According to Mohawk society, this is a responsible government, as their leaders remained leaders as long as they worked for the welfare of their people and held the popular support of their people. However, once they no longer worked for the welfare or lost the esteem of the people, their horns of a chief’s office were removed, and they were forced to step down as a chief.
The band council system introduced by the Indian Act of 1876 changed this to chiefs being elected by popular votes, with the candidates winning the most votes becoming elected leaders. Consensus in Mohawk society was replaced with the creation of opposing parties. The party having the quorum or majority of seats has the political power and recognition of the Department of Indian Affairs to pass by-laws. Once the chiefs have been elected, they are no legal obligations for the party having the ability to consult with their constituents.
Thus, a handful of “chiefs” can negotiate an agreement with the Federal government without obtaining the approval of the opposing party of chiefs and the people living on the reserve. And this is the root of the political problems in Kanesatake.
The people living in Kanesatake want a responsible government that listens, consults and follows the community’s wishes. And if its ruling party fails to do that, to have the right to call for a non-confidence vote to remove their leaders from power.
Originally Published in March 1959 By PAUL KIDD, Spectator Staff Writer
The 6,000 Indians who have their homes in the Grand River Country are sitting on a volcano.
And it is one that could explode without warning.
Behind what some outsiders regard as the incredible happenings of the last two days on the Six Nations Reserve, 25 miles from Hamilton, a dangerous situation is smouldering.
This is recognized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are waiting for “a tribal showdown” at any time between the elective and hereditary councils.
It could, said Inspector H.C. Forbes, result in mob violence.
“IT’S OUR JOB to see that this doesn’t happen,” declared the officer commanding the London subdivision, who has moved on to the reservation to take personal charge of the Ohsweken detachment.
If and when such a fracas did come, armed Mounties would probably have to act as “referees”.
So far it has been a bloodless revolution. Some 1,000 supporters of the Confederacy, ignoring RCMP warnings that they were breaking the law, tore down the doors of the council house and reinstalled the hereditary chiefs in power.
BUT the elected councillors, who slipped out of a back door 10 minutes before the building was broken into, have the support of hundreds of Indians who favor the democratic system of internal government introduced in 1924.
This faction has so far voiced no protest. To the Mounties, it is an ominous silence.
It is believed that the elective system’s supporters – of which there are at least 700 – may soon hold a mass meeting to indicate their rejection of the hereditary council.
If the two groups clashed, it is hard to predict what would happen, observers say.
IN THE MEANTIME, the RCMP will continue to recognize the elected council as the legal governing body on the reservation.
But the Confederacy has proclaimed itself the territory’s “only government.”
For the hereditary chiefs are seriously applying every word of their proclamation of independence, which outlawed the RCMP as the law enforcement agency at Ohsweken.
Supported by at least 1,000 men, women and children – and maybe more – the Confederacy is showing disregard for Canada and its laws.
“If one of our people should break the law, we will arrest and try him,” said 26-year-old Irvin Logan, who has been named “Chief of the Iroquois Police.”
As you all know, the developer has begun the process of refunding deposits to those poor homeowners who have been cheated of their dream. This is not them abandoning the site, as we still believe that they hold legal title to the lands in dispute. This is a respectful decision to allow the potential homeowners to make future decisions that best serve them.
If and when the Province and the Federal government move forward and not just engage those on Six Nations with some meaningful dialogue but also stand behind the land registry system that guides all of us accordingly, we will then start to see progress.
Whether you are a homeowner, a developer, or a municipality following the planning process, you should be able to count on the regulations and policies set out to guide the final outcome of owning your dream home.
I continue to support my friends on Six Nations who truly deserve an outcome on their long-time outstanding claims, but I will never support the methodology that has been employed on Douglas Creek Estates or Mackenzie Meadows or any of those involved in such acts of disobedience.
I will continue to lobby those at the Province to engage leaders on Six Nations and to bring the Feds to account on the actual claims that are legitimate and will continue to show Haldimand, of which Caledonia is in, being a great place to live, to work, to play and mostly to raise a family.
What’s behind the Crown’s unilateral takeover of Bridging Finance, the largest Indigenous-led investment management firm in Canada?
TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY – David Sharpe is a Tyendinaga Mohawk who’s been in the mainstream media quite a lot recently. Sharpe, who lives on the Territory, was the head of Bridging Finance and is quite likely the only Indigenous CEO and Ultimate Designated Person of an investment management firm in Canada. His firm, with assets under management exceeding $2 billion, was privately owned and specialized in making loans of between $3-50 million to small and medium businesses that had difficulties in accessing financing.
A major part of the business was its Indigenous Impact Fund, which invested over $500 million in First Nations and $100 million in Inuit businesses. These loans had a tremendous impact on the Indigenous economy, provided a profitable net return to investors, and were offered directly to First Nations outside of the control of the economic Apartheid of Canada’s Indian Act system.
The achievements of Bridging’s Indigenous Impact Fund in supporting Indigenous economic sovereignty were remarkable. In Nunavut, Bridging Finance provided capital to Hunters and Trappers Organizations to purchase two arctic fishing vessels (one a former icebreaker) to grow a 100% Inuit-owned local fishery. In Akwesasne, they helped to finance a small tobacco production operation. In Elsipogtog they financed a large on-reserve grocery store and pharmacy that provides 50+ jobs and food security for the community. In Membertou, they loaned the First Nation $6.8 million to gain a 12.5% stake in a container shipping terminal in Sydney Harbour. In providing funding to the Alberta to Alaska Railway they planned a multibillion operation that would not only provide an alternative to the Liberal’s TransCanada pipeline but that would be owned by the First Nations along its path and economically unite northern Indigenous communities in Alaska and Northwest Canada.
The economic plans that Sharpe financed didn’t require First Nations to jump through any of Canada’s hurdles to get Indian Affairs approval for the projects. When Sharpe and his team met in Elsipogtog to finance the large grocery store and pharmacy, they promised they would be back with $15 million in a week’s time to fulfill the community’s long-standing dream. Their counterparts laughed and said, “yeah right, we’ve heard that before.” But the next week, Sharpe was back with the $15 million, and the project was rapidly completed. At the ribbon-cutting for the grand opening of the project, the Indian Affairs bureaucrats appeared befuddled and upset when they realized that a project that they had stalled and starved of funds could be completed without them.
Retaliation or reconciliation?
On April 30th, 2021, Sharpe was stunned to be informed that the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), a Crown Corporation filled with political appointees – some of them holding longstanding ties to the Federal Liberal Party – had taken complete control over his business through an ex-parte court hearing. An ex-parte hearing is one that takes place without the knowledge or presence of the other party. Sharpe and Bridging Finance were not given any opportunity to respond to the allegations or to provide any evidence to object to the court order.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is now in full control of Bridging Finance as the receiver, and Sharpe and the other owners have had their company stolen without a chance to be heard – even down to their laptops and personal effects left in the office.
So what is Bridging Finance’s “crimes” that would warrant such an unprecedented reaction from the Crown Corporation overseeing Ontario’s world of finance? After Sharpe reported a fraud carried out by a business partner to the OSC in February of 2020, the OSC got the opportunity to investigate Bridging Finance. Even though the Bridging Finance shareholders made restitution to the tune of over $60 million to ensure no investor losses, the OSC spent millions of dollars on an eight-person investigation team to examine every detail of the company for over a year. Through a combination of compelled evidence and forensic accounting, OSC prejudged certain transactions as being detrimental to the company without giving Sharpe the opportunity to rebut their allegations in a court of law.
There is no evidence of any missing investor money in the Bridging Finance case, but rather an issue of a potential conflict of interest and lack of disclosure that could have been easily handled without the OSC taking over and totally destroying the company. Sharpe has cooperated with the OSC and answered all of their queries under oath.
Such irresponsible behaviour by a Crown Corporation towards a Mohawk doing business in his traditional territory raises some very serious questions about the state of Mohawk people’s treaty relationship with the Crown. Does the OSC not wish to uphold the treaty principles of mutually beneficial peace and friendship agreements that allowed the Crown onto our lands in the first place? How is the OSC honouring the Two Row Wampum and the ideals of peace, friendship and respect in its relationship to a Mohawk CEO of an investment management firm? Why is the Crown seeking a mandate of total destruction for a firm based on advancing Indigenous economic potential and overcoming the deadly legacy of Canadian colonialism?
No harm, no foul
Another question worth exploring concerns exactly who was harmed in this whole process. Bridging Finance received a clean audit from KPMG for the period ending December 31, 2020. The loans were all performing, and according to financial reports, Bridging Finance has not lost one dollar on Indigenous loans since they began making loans in 2015.
Through the process of receivership, and the extensive publishing of his compelled testimony in violation of Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Ontario Securities Act and his Constitutional rights, Sharpe has had his reputation smeared and his company dismembered. The very next day after the surprise ex parte court hearing, The Globe and Mail received leaks of all materials from the OSC and PriceWaterhouseCoopers and published them.
Sharpe’s legal team is now seeking a declaration that the OCS violated sections 16 and 17 of the Act and engaged in abuse of process. Sharpe’s legal efforts are seeking to “quash the OSC’s investigation order, throw out certain evidence that was obtained in his compelled interviews with enforcement staff and remove or seal documents that were posted online detailing his testimony.” His aim is to have his company removed from receivership or to have it sold so that investors are not hurt by the government’s efforts to harm Indigenous economic revitalization.
By assisting those with the means to invest in Indigenous communities and businesses, Sharpe became a conduit for the investment community to engage in what he termed an effort of “economic reconciliation” by private businesses that can help to overcome the horrific outcomes of state-sponsored racism and colonialism in Canada. In financial boardrooms, Sharpe encouraged Canada’s business community to take responsibility for enacting recommendation #92 of the Truth and Reconciliation commission by upholding UNDRIP principles, employing Indigenous people in mutually beneficial relationships, and teaching the corporate sector respect for Indigenous ways of being.
Sharpe’s efforts inspired the film Economic Reconciliation written by Indigenous writer and publisher Maurice Switzer and produced by the Gemini-nominated filmmaker Andrée Cazabon. In the film, Sharpe talks about his experience as a man who while walking in both worlds, felt compelled to hide his identity as an Indigenous person for many years. “I felt if I came out and said who I am, that I would be excluded from power and opportunity,” he reveals in the film.
Ironically, since the Crown Corporation took over his company, Sharpe has been completely edited out of the film that he had inspired the creation of. This unannounced erasure of Sharpe, like the shuttering of his company, has come without any criminal or Securities Act charges placed against him, and without him having any opportunity to defend his company’s actions in a court of law. It is exactly the kind of underhanded exclusion from power and opportunity that he feared would happen if he spoke up.
In a September 2020 email sent to Jeff Kehoe, the Crown’s representative leading the investigation and receivership of Bridging Finance, Sharpe detailed his experiences with racism in the world of high finance. Sharpe described his experiences as a Status Indian working in finance and his efforts to combat racism as a founding board member of the Black North Initiative, former chair of the First Nations University of Canada, Director of Historica Canada, Indigenous Ambassador for the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, Vice-Chair of Futurpreneur Canada and Chair of Diversity and Inclusion. Sharpe discussed the way systemic and institutional racism forces many Indigenous and Black people out of their chosen workplaces and careers, and the politics of erasure and privilege that underpin such efforts.
Jeff Kehoe, the head of enforcement of the Ontario Securities Commission is responsible for the investigation and receivership of Bridging Finance. Photo Credit: Jeff Kehoe Twitter.
Kehoe, himself a long-standing Liberal Party operative and the former Ontario campaign chair of Michael Ignatieff’s failed leadership bid for the party, acknowledged receipt of the email and promised to respond to its substance. He never did, unless one considers the ex parte hearing, the leaking of Sharpe’s confidential compelled testimony, and the destruction of Bridging Finance as his response.
Conclusion
Here at Real People’s Media, we don’t claim to be experts in the Canadian financial system and the intricacies of its rules and regulations. But we do pay close attention to matters affecting the Indigenous economy and the efforts that our people make in trying to break out of Canada’s Economic Apartheid.
As always, the question that is most important when discussing any matter of justice or restitution, is who was harmed? In the case of Bridging Finance, it seems that the only real harm that was done was through Canada’s economic oppression of Indigenous people.
The destruction of a multi-billion dollar Indigenous company in an ex-parte hearing without even the option to mount a defence is a trampling not only of Mr. Sharpe’s constitutionally protected rights but also of the broader rights of all Indigenous peoples to develop their own economies and institutions free from colonial domination. Such an act sets a chilling precedent and sends a clear message to the financial world: if you invest in the Indigenous economy outside of the Indian Act and the Liberal Party’s control, you risk being destroyed and having your reputation ruined without being given any chance to defend yourself.
We will be doing our part with boosting the Kanyenkeha revitalization efforts by posting simple words and sharing a few helpful tips to get you started.
Tip 1: Have contact with the language through youtube videos or listening to fluent speakers. It helps with correct pronunciation and builds vocabulary.
The Court of the Queen’s Bench of Saskatchewan recently overturned a 2019 provincial judgement regarding Onkwehonwe hunting and fishing rights. The move affirms that Saskatchewan has done little to address the systematic and racist legislation noted explicitly by the UN
Ohsweken resident and Mohawk Nation member Blair Hill were one of several Onkwehonwe hunters targeted while hunting in Saskatchewan’s Moose Mountain Provincial Park in 2018 when the incident occurred.
By Canada location map.svg:derivative work: Yug (talk)Canada (geolocalisation).svg: STyxderivative work: Themightyquill (talk) – Canada location map.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14706244
The crown attorney stated in 2019 that they wanted to “save the game for their own FN communities.” Still, Onkwehonwe cannot peacefully exercise their rights significantly if the original treaty overlaps into two Provinces.
The Court of the Queens Bench Decision uses precedent-setting cases rife with racism as rationale, contradicting their seasoned trial judge who appropriately applied the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement.
After 3 years of fighting the province of Saskatchewan to uphold their end of the treaties, Hill confirmed that he would be appealing this latest decision and pushing for the case to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.
A newspaper article reports peculiar findings; some 200 skeletal remains found neatly stacked about 6 ft deep on the banks of the Grand River; the piece was original printed in 1871. Delaware nation members were to have set up their villages in what is now referred to as South Cayuga.
The size and manner of death are what make the find peculiar. Seven to nine-foot skeletons with clear signs of trauma. Onkwehonwe has long-held stories of large humans such as the white giants with red hair and thirst for blood. The latter being reason enough to kill these people who were large.
Big Boned
Cusick’s Curiosities
A Tuscarora Baptist minister named David Cusick took the time and liberty to write a story referring specifically to battles involving Ronnonkwe’towá’nens along the rim of Sewatokwat’shera’t.
Cusick’s writing has primarily been dismissed as Iroquoian lore. But it’s not easy to translate many concepts from an Onkwehonwe language to English adequately. As a result, it loses its intent and meaning without including the relationship to land and other naturally occurring phenomena in its context.
The historical accounts mention that the area was simply filled back in as grave robbers and antiquity dealers were plucking the specimens directly from the pit. There was no mention of any bones in the area in the Samsung Renewable Energy archeology report filed in 2010/2011.
