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June 2, 2004
TREATY RIGHTS LAWSUIT WITHDRAWN
Friends of Red Hill Valley has been asked to circulate the following message and statement:
The Red Hill Valley treaty rights lawsuit is being withdrawn.
This was, as the Iroquois co-plaintiffs in the Nanfan treaty rights case kept saying when we met with them last night, a totally heart-wrenching decision. This was and remains an important treaty rights and environmental case, but when all of the factors were carefully considered and weighed, this was the right decision.
Larry, Jesse, Shane, Carol, Mike and the others who worked with them to try and make this case happen are extraordinarily courageous and far-sighted people, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude for taking this on as they did, even though they felt they had no alternative to the decision they made last night not to instruct us to withdraw the case. Murray and I are honoured to have worked with them.
Best regards,
Andy Orkin
Please find below the text of a Press Release issued June 1 by Larry Green, Jesse Ireland and Shane Doxtador, co-plaintiffs in the treaty rights lawsuit concerning the Red Hill Valley .
STATEMENT
The Plaintiffs in the 1701 Nanfan Treaty - Red Hill Valley lawsuit against the City of Hamilton announce the withdrawal of their lawsuit: "Our treaty rights exist, and must be honoured. We will assert them at the right time and in the right place."
Ohsweken , ON -- June 1, 2004: The Plaintiffs in the 1701 Nanfan Treaty lawsuit against the City of Hamilton concerning the Red Hill Valley today announced that they are withdrawing their lawsuit.
"We have instructed our lawyers to notify the City of Hamilton that our lawsuit is withdrawn," said Larry Green, who was a Fire Keeper in the Red Hill Valley through 2003 until the Iroquois Roundhouse and Sacred Fire were forcibly removed at the instance of the His Honour the Mayor and City Council of Hamilton.
"Our 1701 Treaty rights exist and have never been extinguished," said Jesse Ireland, co-Plaintiff in the case and an Iroquois hunter. "We, and our heirs and descendants, have the right and freedom, free of any disturbance, to hunt throughout our traditional territory referred to in the Nanfan Treaty. We fully intend to exercise these rights and freedoms, both to hunt and to be free of all disturbances, forever."
"The City's actions in the Red Hill Valley are a clear violation of our treaty rights," said Shane Doxtador, Iroquois hunter and co-Plaintiff. "But we have decided, after long reflection and following a meeting with the Elected Chief and Six Nations Council representatives, that we will assert our rights at the right time, in the right place, and with a good mind and in a strong way. That time is not now and that place is not the Red Hill Valley ."
" Oka, Ipperwash, and Red Hill Valley are all part of an infamous, ongoing Canadian history of the use of force to take Aboriginal lands for our vain and disrespectful use," said Andrew Orkin of Hamilton , co-counsel on the case. "Just because the use of force does not always involve loss of life does not reduce its repugnance. The continuing dispossession of Aboriginal peoples, in violation of solemn promises made to them, is a terrible injustice."
"The Plaintiffs in this case have put their Nanfan Treaty and the solemn covenants it contains back onto the 'political radar'," said Murray Klippenstein of Toronto, co-counsel on the case. "These important rights are binding on non-native governments, and they will ignore them at their, and all of our, legal and moral peril."
The Nanfan Treaty of 1701 was signed in Albany , New York in 1701, by the North American representative of the English Crown, John Nanfan, and many Iroquois Chiefs, and concerns a huge tract of land around Lake Huron and Lake Ontario . The Crown solemnly undertook that " it is hereby expected that wee [the Iroquois] are to have free hunting for us and the heires and descendants from us the Five nations for ever and that free of disturbances expecting to be protected therein by the Crown of England."
A note re funds donated for the Red Hill Valley Treaty Rights Lawsuit (the "Larry Green Case")
As you may have heard, the plaintiffs in the Red Hill Valley - Nanfan Treaty Rights case against the City of Hamilton have instructed their legal counsel, Andrew Orkin and Murray Klippenstein, to withdraw their lawsuit.
A number of people and organizations made generous donations to the RHV Defence Fund. Because Andy and Murray were donating their time, and because we were holding the funds in anticipation of an extraordinary need for future cash expenditures for the case, we estimate that less than one quarter of the funds on hand have been spent to date.
Because the lawsuit is now being withdrawn, donors will be offered a refund of the unspent portion of their donation. All remaining funds will then be passed onto an appropriate organization or cause. After that, the Red Hill Valley Defence Fund (which was constituted for the exclusive purpose of the Nanfan Treaty rights case) will be dissolved.
Kind regards,
Jane Mulkewich Jim Quinn
for the Red Hill Valley Defence Fund
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