Mohawks take control of disputed property near Deseronto

A group of Mohawks has taken control of land previously slated for a housing development near Deseronto, Ont.

About 20 Mohawks from the nearby Tyendinaga Territory held a demonstration at the property Wednesday alongside some supportive residents of the town of Deseronto, which is about 80 kilometres west of Kingston.

Shawn Brant, as spokesman for the Tyendinaga Elders Council, said the demonstrators wanted to communicate to the government and the community their claim to the property.The Mohawkssay they never officially surrendered theland to the federal government.

"The message was clear from the community: not one more shovel in the ground until the issue's resolved,"Brant said.

A Kingston developer originally intended to start construction Wednesday, but that plan has been suspended indefinitely while the chief of the Tyendinaga Territory negotiates the land claim with Canada's minister of Indian and northern affairs.

Norm Clarke, the incoming mayor of Deseronto, said he hopes the negotiations will resolve the situationquickly.

"It has serious implications for Deseronto," he said. "If there's a holdup in development, that affects our being able to raise taxes."

Brant said the Tyendinaga Territory Mohawks did not assert their claim earlier because Deseronto, a town of about 2,000, does not have a very vibrant economy and the Mohawks had never worried about construction on the property.

But once the development was announced, Brant said, "we felt it was necessary to make it clear not just to the developer but to the community … that in fact they were living on and attempted to develop land that belongs to us."

Thoughts of Caledonia

Initially, the land claim dispute raised fears thatthe situationcouldescalate intoone similar to that in Caledonia, Ont., where, since February, Six Nations protesters haveoccupied land that was also originally slated for a housing development.

However, the Tyendinaga Territory's chief of police, Larry Hay, said peace will likely continue in Deseronto, provided the federal government works quickly toward a resolution.

He added that Wednesday's demonstration, which began mid-morning, was mostly uneventful except for a brief period of time in the early afternoonwhen a Canadian Forces convoy approached and demonstrators mistakenly thought it was targeting them.

"Members of the community surrounded the vehicles," Hay said, but he said tensions subsided quickly when the demonstrators realized the convoy was part of a military training exercise.

"It was a brief interruption of traffic. That was very quickly resolved."