Nanfan Nonsense

What's a Nanfan Doug?
Not what, but whom.  John Nanfan was the acting Governor of the English Colony of New York in 1701 when he signed on behalf of the Crown a treaty with the Five Nations of the Iroquois which bares his name. That confederation through this document gave England beaver hunting rights in Southern Ontario, Western New York State, and great chunks of land  stretching to the Mississippi including present day jurisdictions like parts of Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. In return the English promised hunting rights in this territory in perpetuity. Sweet deal. Indeed it's so sweet the Six Nations of the Iroquois rely on it to this day to bamboozle our authorities.
Recently one of those authorities, the Hamilton Conservation Authority closed the Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area to the citizens of Greater Hamilton because a native hunter was spotted with a crossbow  searching for deer. For four days while the HCA consulted with their contacts on the Six Nations Reserve signs were posted warning every day taxpaying citizens to stay out. No jogging. No biking. No walking the dog. No doing anything in this area all because one person believing he has the legal right to hunt anywhere at anytime waving the Nanfan as proof of his legitimacy chose to do so. Indeed right now and through the month of December an unknown number of approved native hunters will be beating the bushes hunting deer to a total of fourty in an area North of Jerseyville Rd. The HCA in it's releases and on it's website states these hunts are legal because of recognized treaty rights. That's Nanfan folks in action as agreed to by the Provincial Minister responsible Chris Bentley three years ago.  I put it to you that not only was the 1701 signing of this treaty bogus but Mr. Bentley's interpretation of three years ago was politically motivated at best and a gross cock-up at worst. How so Doug?
Let's go back in time to show just how airy fairy Nanfan was and remains.
During the 17th Century the Iroquois admittedly one of the most powerful native confederations in the America's fought with the expanding colony of New France and it's native allies. It was an economic war based on the sale of beaver pelts to Europe. The Iroquois in that century raided far and wide creating a power vacuum in Southern Ontario whilst  scattering, murdering, and enslaving the Tobacco, Neutral, Petun and Huron Nations. But well before Nanfan there was a new player in town, the Ojibway led by the Mississauga who pushed the Iroquois out of Southern Ontario.
Indeed for a Confederation who  wave Nanfan in our faces when they want their own way, be it in Conservation Areas hunting deer or consulting on native bones found in Red Hill or when they occupy construction sites in Caledonia there is a collective amnesia regarding other treaties and factual events and happenings that they were party to.
Examples?
In the year 1700 one year before Nanfan was agreed upon (but not ratified until 1726) the Iroquois had ceded control of Southern Ontario to the Mississauga, allies of the French. Indeed  in 1700 the Iroquois were not only dealing with the English Governor but also were agreeing to a preliminary deal with the French.
In fact in 1701 mere months after doing their Nanfan deal the Iroquois along with 39 other native representatives were doing the Great Treaty of Montreal recognized to this day by historians as unique in the annals of treaties anywhere in the world. After that treaty the French took control of not only Southern Ontario but expanded throughout the Great Lakes area establishing forts and trading posts at Detroit, Oswego (on the border of the traditional Iroquois settlements in New York State) Toronto and Niagara.

As you can see the Iroquois were pretty smart traders. They gave away rights to land they did not control. They received rights from the English in areas that the English did not control. They then made peace with everyone so they could resume their role as middle men in the fur trade. Thus Nanfan is bogus.
The Iroquois would not see Ontario again until 1784 when the Governor of Quebec Frederick Haldimand purchased a tract of land extending for six miles on either side of the Grand River from the Mississauga (how ironic eh?) for those Iroquois who remained loyal to and fought for the British in the American War of Independence. The Iroquois under Joseph Brant believed this grant of land acknowledged the Confederacy's sovereignty. But the British Crown never acknowledged that claim. Indeed going back to Nanfan the Iroquois agreed, although they would argue it to this day, to a document that made them subjects of the English Crown forfeiting all claims and rights to the land except those hunting rights in perpetuity. Yikes.
As Forrest Gump might say, "bogus is what bogus does".

The facts are clear. The Iroquois did not have the legal right to give away lands they did not possess nor occupy having agreed just the year before that the Mississauga were in control.
In 1784 the Mississauga ownership of the lands was confirmed with the purchase by Haldimand and the Crown. In fact a year ago as the Federal Government settled a land claim with the Mississauga regarding Toronto and it's environs the fact regarding ownership since 1700 was driven home.
Now back to the beginning. Why did Ontario cave over Nanfan?
Because it wanted no more confrontations with Six Nations or any other group of militant aboriginals.
Politically the Liberals  had staked a claim to conciliation after the Ipperwash incident during the tenure of Mike Harris.
No more police shootings of natives would happen on the McGuinty watchIpperwash. Since that time and with that approach other authorities have had to fall in line and negotiate instead of doing what many in the general population would like to see happen. And that is Doug?
Arrests.
If anyone is dumb enough to hunt deer in a public place which Iroquois Heights is, out of season no less they should be incarcerated not coddled. Of course we all know that will never happen until some biker, jogger or birdwatcher is wounded or killed by a crossbow and then it will be their fault. I would suggest that on behalf of the taxpayers of Hamilton the local Conservation Authority should make it their business to inform the public to swarm onto public lands endangered by callous native hunters. Lots of people with bells, whistles and horns working their way along trails and deer tracks should be enough to discourage hunters who as we have shown, have no right being there.

Doug Farraway

Sources; Wikipedia re Nanfan and the Great Treaty of Montreal
and
Historical Atlas of Canada, volume 1