Canada Day is a day to remember that Canada was made into a legal country by Indigenous people
By Thohahoken
"If it wasn't for your people Canada would not be a nation today," said the late-Sylvannus General, last of the old time Mohawk Workers (Kanienkehaka Ratiiotens). He was the brother of Emily C. General and a contemporary of Iroquois founders of the Mohawk Workers and Indian Defense League of America (IDLA) such as Sophie Martin and Clinton Rickard in the early 1900s.
Sylvannus referred to an event that took place between the Queen of England and the Mohawk People in Brantford, Ontario on October 1, 1869. On this day at the Mohawk Chapel in Brantford the Iroquois People (Wisk Nihohnnowentsiake) made Canada legal.
Here's how Canada became a nation as Sylvannus General said.
By custom the Iroquois people hold an important role among the Indigenous peoples of North America. The Mohawk people were usually the first to tell Europeans how things worked over here. The best way they knew was to describe the entire continent as one Long House.
"Where the sun rises is the eastern door," the Old Ones would say," and where the sun sets is the western door. The blue sky over our heads is the roof, and living in that long house is one family."
The depiction of the Long House meant that Indian people (Onkwehonwe) considered themselves to be One Family, the origin of the idea "all my relations" (akwekon akenkweten).
Iroquois people have many customs for helping each other cope with changes. For example, some time in the future the law changes or a new "rafter" seems to be good or needed. The wanted change will be decided by the People and called "adding (moving) the rafters" (the Old Ones would say: "...enkaka'enionke tahnon tokat eniohetston, ne'e enthonwanatonkkwe' "thikate sontewanahsaren").
Moving or "extending the rafters" included not only making the Long House bigger, but also adding to the family. When an Iroquois family or person thought highly or strongly of someone, a family, or families and wanted to adopt them, they took the matter to their Chief to confirm to the other clan families (the Old Ones would say: "...etho niienhatiriwenhawe tsi nonwe enthatika'enion ne Rotiianer tahnon onen ok tsi enthatiriwahnnirate tahnon enhonnohetse ne Rotiianer").
Adoption and "extending" the rafters in the Great Law (Kaiianereserakowa) gives Iroquois people a model for other Indigenous peoples living in the continent-wide Long House, but also is a colour-blind model that was reportedly used for Europeans since the 1600s. The model was also used in the creation of Canada.
In 1867 the British Crown enacted legislation called the British North America Act (BNA) that formed colonies north of the medicine line (the border created in 1760 by the Iroquois to separate the English and French) into the Dominion of Canada.
However, Queen Victoria understood that the preemptive right of the Indigenous people needed to be included. Conferring membership to the Iroquois People in the British Commonwealth in the late 1800s demonstrated the lofty position she accepted. So, Queen Victoria sent her son Prince Arthur the Duke of Connaught to the Iroquois people near Brantford, Ontario at Her Majesty's Chapel.
On that Friday the 19-year-old Prince was given the condolence ceremony by Chief John Buck and John Smoke Johnson, made a chief (Rotiianer), and was adopted into the Long House with the name "Kar-a-kow-dye" which is the Mohawk wolf clan name now spelled Karakontie.
As a symbol of the Crown, It was on that day Canada was added as a rafter to the Long House of Many Relations and became legal.
Usually when Iroquois people hear the Mohawk Workers tell the story the Old Ones are accused of making a mistake. Or that those were "Christian" chiefs. However, the story of how the Iroquois people made Canada has many subtleties that help us understand that 150 years ago the Old Ones had a strong sense of their Indigenous international rights as a People. Adding the Canadian rafter meant adopting a man to be their chief. This custom began in the 1600s with the Dutch and was repeated in 1869.
But it didn't end there. In 1913 Arthur was given the condolence ceremony again at the Old Council House on the Six Nations Indian Reserve 30 kilometers from Brantford because his mother Victoria had died since he'd been there in 1869. The difference in 1913 was that he was Governor General of Canada.
And it didn't end there. After World War I, when the Iroquois people had again kept their Two Row Treaty promise to the Crown for "mutual defense", Prince Edward was also given the condolence ceremony. Addressed by Asa Hill, Prince Edward was adopted by David John at Victoria Park in Brantford. The throng gathered there witnessed the Canadian rafter's new chief named Taionhense'iah (spelled "da-yon-hen-se-ia" at the time).
Taionhense'iah became known around the world as King Edward VIII.
Why did they do this? Was it their chance to be in the spotlight--their 15-minutes of fame? Were they grabbing at something from back in the day?
The Old Ones knew their place in the world as a People. They had stated the Two Row Treaty for all land in North America. Sitting on the Two Row is the Gunshot Treaty to regulate European travel. Sitting on the Two Row is the 1701 Nanfan Treaty that covers the 320,000 square-mile economic zone now known as the Great Lakes watershed. And lastly the Haldimand proclamation treaty covers all of southern Ontario from the Niagara escarpment and the land between lakes Erie, Huron, and Ontario--the Grand River valley set-aside specifically for the Iroquois. The 1701 Treaty of Montreal provides the land base for the Laurentian Iroquois—the Mohawks of Kanehsatake, Akwesasne, and Kahnawake.
The Old Ones did not make a mistake. They knew precisely what they were doing. Here’s what they did on behalf of all Indigenous People.
Canada’s rafter was raised inside the Long House of Many Relations when the Iroquois told the Crown “we stood you up in our land”: Iakorakowa…ionkiiari Wisk Nihohnnowentsiake ahensenonni atewatiteshstohn nera ohnwentsiate.” The agreement would last “as the long as the sun rises, the grass grows and the waters flow” (the Old Ones say: “…tsi nikariwes enkahhwatsiratatie tahnon entkarakwinekenseke, ohente entkeniohseke, nok ohnekanos konnes…”).
The Long House is governed by the Indigenous peoples’ law-of-the-land from coast to coast, which means so is Canada. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) certainly affirms that pre-emptive right that was long acknowledged in international law. With this certainly in mind according to Sylvannus General, on June 21, 1880 the Iroquois chiefs near current day Brantford, Ontario adopted the Indian Act to brace the Canada rafter to the other rafters in the Long House—from the Miqmaq rafter in the east to the Haida rafter in the west. Canada formally became a legal nation.
Anything created by Canada is under the Indigenous people, including the Indian Act and by consequence the Band Councils. There might be a billion Canadians but the Canadian rafter has only one voice. There might only be a thousand Abenakis, but they also have one voice. Each rafter has one voice no matter how big or small.
What happens when someone acts badly, such as Canada’s refusal to uphold the honour of the Crown?
If an adoptee acts badly the Old Ones gave their children another option. When the adopted individual, family, or nation misbehaves they can always be expelled. The People could disown and remove the adoption (…onenkati sakwatka’we nok oni saiiakwarihsi tsi ionkwatekwe’tarakwenh, tahnon kati sewathahisaks ka’niiaonsesewe…).”
Indigenous Peoples have an international right to assert their Indigenous rights in their land. Indigenous leadership has a great responsibility to protect those Indigenous rights using the same thinking shown by the Old Ones--Canada is our country.
(Thohahoken, ahkwatsire Satekariwateron:non)
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