Haudenosaunee Confederacy News

The Mohawk Nation Council held a meeting on Sunday February 7th with four agenda items:

Kanienkeh representatives gave a report on a license plate project the community is working on. The project is all encompassing from permit to the actual driving tests. Also included are the rule and regulations involved with responsible driving.

The MNCC will continue dialogue with the Kanienkeh representatives and at some point the whole package will to the grand council.

The Council will be sending runners to Onondaga to request a Grand Council meeting. The issues for the Grand Council are the resurrecting of the External Affairs Committee (one issue for this group is the CBSA), the cigarette tax(es), and the Haudenosaunee ID cards.

A land ownership problem was presented and discussed.

The criteria for passport and identification cards was discussed and was put aside to discuss further with the clans.

The meeting was then closed.

Six Nations Territory: The Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Chiefs approved a thirty-eight page document outlining the duties and responsibilities of the chief negotiators of the land rights issues (Caledonia) with the Crown.

A working committee put the plan together after several meetings with the people. The restructuring of the negotiation process includes the use of the covenant chain as used in a 1759 meeting between Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs and the Crown.

The bottom line-to hold firm that the only way to move ahead is through the covenant chain relationship with the crown.

The chief negotiators for the Haudenosaunee are Allen McNaughton, Jock Hill and Blake Bomberry.

Now it’s a waiting game –waiting for the Crown to come back to the table.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy sent a delegation of ten to the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation one presentation in Arizona. The National Repatriation Act is twenty years old and the time is now to let the officials know what works and where the Act does not work. Pete Jemison, Seneca, made the presentation on behalf of the Haudenosaunee. The major point was the area of the Act that does not cover the return of ceremonial objects especially those items purchased by individuals and the reselling of the items at such sales as auction houses.

The Haudenosaunee were visible and their words heard by such people as Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian. The Haudenosaunee leadership and Haudenosaunee Repatriation Committee will continue the struggle to have our ceremonial and funerary items to be returned to their rightful nation(s).