The governing rules for determining membership in the Haldimand beneficiary class. Governs HER001 applications.
The instrument
Gazette No. 19 — Citizenship Determination Rules
28 March 2026
Gazette No.: GZT001-260313-000019 [now GZT001-260106-000019]
Register Entry No.: REG001-050300-000019
Tracking Code: AG1201-050000-000019 Status: Perfected / Entered / Fully Effected / Registered and Published
Category / Class: Category 03 — Justice Services · Class 13 — Rule
CITIZENSHIP DETERMINATION RULES
Mohawk Nation of Grand River
Be it known and placed on record:
That the Secretariat of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River hereby enters in the Register the Citizenship Determination Rules as the authoritative constitutional framework by which the citizenship of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River is determined. These Rules codify and give constitutional grounding to the determination framework established under the Birth and Heritage Registrar Directive (SG0300-240102-010001, 2 January 2024). The Register recognizes what has been operative; it does not create it.
FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES
Rule 1 — Citizenship is a matter of descent from the Mohawk loyalist communities who settled the Grand River Territory following the instruments of 1779, 1784, and 1791, including the communities of Canajoharie, Tikondarago, and Aughgugo. These three villages are the named primary parties to the Haldimand Pledge of 1779. The Haldimand Proclamation of 1784 references the Five Nations as “such others,” which is a term of legal significance establishing them as third parties to the transaction, not primary beneficiaries. The Citizenship Determination Rules apply to the posterity of the named primary parties.
Rule 2 — Citizenship is independent of external registration. A person’s citizenship is not dependent upon registration in any band list, Indian Register, or other list maintained by an external government.
Rule 3 — Citizens determined under these Rules constitute the posterity to whom the Crown’s obligations under the Haldimand Proclamation are owed. The Membership and Lineage Registry answers the question: who are the persons for whose use and benefit the Grand River Territory was set apart?
Rule 4 — Citizenship may not be removed except upon a determination by the Registrar General, with the concurrence of the Attorney General, that the original entry was made in error.
THE FOUR INSTRUMENTS AND THE STANDING QUESTION
The question of who holds standing to assert rights under the Haldimand instruments is answered by reading those instruments in sequence:
The 1779 Pledge names three Mohawk villages as the primary parties. The 1784 Proclamation sets apart the Territory for those parties and their posterity, referencing the Five Nations as “such others.” In Kirk v. Morris, 40 Ala. 225 (Ala. 1866), the term “stranger” (or “such other person”) refers to a person not a party to the transaction. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Six Nations Elected Council, constituted under the Indian Act, are not the posterity of the named primary parties and do not hold standing to represent the Haldimand Proclamation interests. The Secretariat formally rejected the HDI’s claimed standing on this basis on 27 September 2022 (see retrospective entry GZT001-050400-000055 [now GZT001-261907-000055]).
Dorchester’s 1789 Order-in-Council established the Mark of Honour (the UE designation) to discriminate the loyalist Mohawk posterity from future settlers. The 1796 Simcoe Proclamation established a heritage registry mechanism so that descendants from the three Mohawk villages could ascertain their standing as true beneficiaries. These instruments created the framework within which UELAC certification now operates as supplementary proof of lineage.
GROUNDS OF CITIZENSHIP
Primary ground: lineal descent, through any line, from a person who was a member of the Mohawk Nation and settled in the Grand River Territory on or after 25 October 1784, particularly from the three villages of Canajoharie, Tikondarago, and Aughgugo. Secondary ground: formal adoption or reception into the Nation under Mohawk law and custom. Citizenship by determination: where grounds are not immediately apparent but credible evidence of connection exists, the Registrar General with the concurrence of the Attorney General may make a determination.
United Empire Loyalist (UELAC) certification constitutes recognized supplementary proof of lineage, as established in the Birth and Heritage Registrar Directive, verifying descent from loyalist members allied with the British Crown who settled in Mohawk territories following the American Revolution. This is the contemporary institutional expression of Dorchester’s 1789 Mark of Honour.
RESIDENT STANDING CATEGORIES
The Secretariat recognizes and formally enters in the Register the following resident standing categories established under the Birth and Heritage Registrar Directive:
RST001 Valid Registered Temporary Resident — visiting the Territory for temporary purposes, registered with expiry date
RST002 Invalid Temporary Resident — overstayed or failed to register
RST003 Valid Resident — permanent residency, has published a Claim of Right
RST004 Valid Foreign Alien — foreign nationals with temporary residency without a Claim of Right
THE UEL STANDARD VS. THE INDIAN ACT STANDARD
The Register of the Nation applies the UEL standard — not the Indian Act standard — for the following reasons, which are constitutional, not merely administrative.
The Indian Act band list registers approximately 6,000 persons as Six Nations band members. That list does not certify any connection to the three villages of Canajoharie, Tikondarago, and Aughgugo. It certifies only that a person was enrolled under the Indian Act. Many band members may not have documented clan affiliations. The band list is a closed and administratively defined universe that does not map onto the posterity language of the Haldimand Proclamation.
The UEL standard operates differently. Dorchester’s 1789 Order-in-Council established the Mark of Honour to discriminate the loyalist Mohawk posterity from future settlers. It applies to all posterity — matrilineal and patrilineal. Unlike the clan system, which is matrilineal by custom and therefore excludes patrilineal Mohawk descendants, the UEL standard captures the full tree of descent. Each generation produces more UE-designated descendants, not fewer. The standard grows exponentially with time.
The practical consequence is significant. Starting from a single UEL ancestor, the cohort of UE-designated posterity expands substantially with each generation across all lines of descent. The 6,000 on the band list represent a subset of this cohort, not the whole of it, and cannot certify the specific village connections that the Haldimand instruments require. The UEL-designated posterity constitute a distinct, verifiable, and substantially larger class of Haldimand beneficiaries than the band list reflects. This is not a matter of preference — it is the direct consequence of reading Dorchester’s 1789 instrument alongside the Haldimand Proclamation’s “posterity” language.
The Secretariat’s citizenship determination framework is built on the UEL standard. The Birth and Heritage Registry, the UELAC certification process, and the Membership and Lineage Registry are designed to capture the full cohort of Haldimand posterity, not to replicate or defer to the Indian Act’s administrative definitions.
Evidential note: A lineage diagram illustrating the exponential growth of UE-designated posterity from a single UEL ancestor, and demonstrating the distinct status of the UE-designated class relative to the Indian Act band list and the matrilineal clan system, has been prepared and is on file with the Registrar General as an exhibit to this entry.
Strategic note: These Rules, together with the Birth and Heritage Registry and the Membership and Lineage Registry, constitute the Secretariat’s answer to the most fundamental question the Haldimand obligations raise: who are the posterity? The four-instrument chain (1779, 1784, 1789, 1796) and the Secretary-General’s own UE lineage to Colonel Joseph Brant demonstrate that the answer to that question is both documented and living.
EXECUTION
Executed under the authority of the Secretariat of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River.
Secretary-General
Date
CERTIFICATION OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL
I certify that this instrument has been duly received, examined, and entered in the Register of the Nation of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River Secretariat.
Gazette No.: GZT001-260313-000019 [now GZT001-260106-000019]
Register Entry No.: REG001-050300-000019
Registrar General
Date of Registration
This instrument forms part of the permanent record of the Secretariat.
Mohawk Nation of Grand River · Grand River Territory
