The Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy's Grand River Territory
and the Caledonia Land Conflict (Project Preview)

The historical part of the project examines the contested history of the Haldimand Tract --a 950,000 acre tract of land recognized as belonging to the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy in 1784. While Canada says that the Haudenosaunee now only hold about 5% of that original 950,000 acres, the Haudenosaunee say that most of what Canada claims to have acquired was taken illegally, and thus still belongs to the Haudenosaunee, not Canada.

These two maps --one of the original 950,000 acre tract and one of a portion of this tract-- allow users to interactively explore this contested history by viewing multiple map layers, reading summary text, and following links to historical documents and other information.

The second part of this project examines a recent (and ongoing) land conflict in Caledonia, Ontario. When a development company began construction of a subdivision on lands under Haudenosaunee Six Nations claim, Haudenosaunee Six Nations members physically took over the construction site and refused to allow developers to return. Several court injunctions, a contempt of court ruling, and even a pre-dawn police raid all failed to convince Six Nations protesters to leave the site and allow development to continue on what they consider to be their land. Within weeks, non-native residents in Caledonia were holding their own protests (to protest the Haudenosaunee protest). At one point, as many as 500 non-native residents stormed the police barricades, reportedly shouting insults at police officers and racial slurs at native protesters, while attempting to push through the police line in order to physically confront and remove native protesters from the land. Though the bulk of the conflict between Six Nations protesters and non-native Caledonians died down a few months after the failed police raid (when street blockades were removed by Six Nations protesters), as of today, the land dispute between the Haudenosaunee Six Nations and the Canadian and Ontario governments has not been settled, and hard feelings between Six Nations members and non-native residents still linger.