The People of the Six Nations will know that self-determination happens before self-government. Here’s how I see some changes that should happen to break the impasse at Six Nations:
1. Democratic Reform: remove the district system and replace it with a system where 12 of the 13 bands select by consensus their representative to sit on the council, and then the smallest band selects the Chair and Executive Officer to get the decisions done. Everyone of the 27,000 people on the list have a band number – even the hardcore longhouse people. The role of this council is to manage and administer the $70-million (+/-) of the $700-million in tax/leakage money taken from Six Nations people that Canada returns to us for infrastructure, education, health, and social services funding. Anyone working in this system is a public servant of the People of the Six Nations.
2. Ratifying a 25 year, 50 year, 100 year plan that builds consensus across the community. The legal basis of our existence is protected by the remnants of the Great Law league and their council and clan fires (judiciary); every agency on Six Nations is headed by women and has been for the past 20 years, easily visible fires that are running the Nations’ affairs (executive); there are many stakeholding groups at Six Nations in sports, leisure, culture, business and each of these fires have a voice in the Nations’ affairs (representative). In other words the three areas of the Great Law governance are actually in place at Six Nations, but not talking to each other.
3. Economic diversity: we need to increase the capacity of our People to work in a diverse economy; we could develop agricultural capacity in crops for food production, ethanol production, and reforestation; develop a railcar production and recycling operation; produce electricity from high-tech waste incineration, solar, wind, and hydro-electricity; design eco-villages; supply clean water; and much more. Our future generations will have more interesting things to do than sit around playing XBox all day.
4. International Justice: Canada is complicit and a direct agent of genocide against the People of the Six Nations and they will be charged with the Crime of Genocide for murdered and missing women, residential schools, conditions of life, and inciting acts against our People. Many families know that there has been violence against our People and this needs to stop. We will only accept the $700-billion owed for rent in the Grand River valley, and the $2.5-trillion (1988 DIA estimate) for southern Ontario.
Breaking the impasse begins with recruiting stakeholders to think up new ways of doing things.
