Mohawk Nation of Grand River
The So-Called Reserves
A reserve can be made only on land the Crown holds. The Crown does not hold the Tract.
The Grand below Brantford on the Nation’s own map. Tap any part of a reserve: plum inside the Tract, red outside it. The dashed lines are the 1791 straight lines; the figure walks the six miles from the bank to the line.
What could be a reserve
Tap any part of a reserve on the map to read its acres.
Why a reserve can lie only outside the Tract
| The Indian Act, 1876, s. 3(6) | “The term ‘reserve’ means any tract … set apart … for the use or benefit of … a particular band of Indians, of which the legal title is in the Crown, but which is unsurrendered.” The Crown can set apart only what it holds, and only what has not been surrendered. |
|---|---|
| 1784 | The Crown gave the Tract by deed of gift, six miles deep from each side of the Grand, to the class and its posterity, “to enjoy for ever”. |
| Not a band | The Proclamation gave the Tract to persons, “some of the Mohawks” of three villages, and their posterity: no band, no body politic, no collective. The Mohawk Loyalist posterity is not a band, and the Mohawk Nation of Grand River is not a band. A reserve under the Act is for a band; the class’s land cannot be one. |
| 1867 | By s. 109 the Province took its lands “subject to … any Interest other than that of the Province”. The Union of 1841 never held the Tract. |
| No surrender | The class has never surrendered, and cannot: its posterity runs to the unborn. |
| So | A reserve can be made only outside the six-mile line. |
The Act’s three tests
| A band? | No: the Proclamation named persons and their posterity, not a band. |
|---|---|
| The Crown’s title? | No: the Crown gave it away by deed of gift in 1784. |
| Unsurrendered? | Yes: the class never surrendered. |
| So | Two of three fail: the class’s land cannot be a reserve. |
The surrender ledger
| 15 January 1798 | 381,480 acres to be granted in fee simple; signed by Joseph Brant, as Sachem and Chief Warrior of the Six Nations. The class, person by person? No. |
|---|---|
| 5 February 1798 | Portions of the 1784 lands, by “the Chiefs, Warriors, and people of the Mohawk Nation”, recorded as 302,707 acres; signed by Joseph Brant. The class? No. |
| 1841 | The general surrender of the lands outside the reserve, by chiefs of the Six Nations in council. The class? No. |
| Since | Surrenders of parts of the reserve by Six Nations band councils. The class? No. |
Three roads from 1779
Press next to walk the roads stage by stage, or play to see them all; tap anything on the drawing to read about it below. Everyone starts in gold; those who take a Crown deed turn red. One among the red is of the posterity too. Diamonds are surrenders; empty rings are surrenders never made. At the end, an open lock or a closed one.
The three roads, in words
| The Bay of Quinte | Accepted its deed of 1793, Treaty No. 3½: a band under the Act. |
|---|---|
| The Six Nations, at the Grand | Took up the Simcoe Patent of 1793, which Ontario lists as Treaty No. 4 and labels “Signed on 1793”: a band under the Act, and a reserve. |
| The Mohawk class, at the Grand | Refused the Patent and kept the Proclamation: six miles from each bank, never surrendered, outside the Act. |
| Why not the same land | The Crown gave the Tract in 1784; having given it, it held nothing inside the six miles to give again in 1793. What the Patent could carry lies outside the class’s six miles: about 1,420 acres. |
Who signed the Patent?
Press sign: the Great Seal goes on, then the only two signatures it bears, both the Crown’s. The line where a Mohawk would have signed stays empty.
The record, on paper
| Jones’s plan of the upper Grand, about 1801 (LAC NMC-3109) | A straight “Center line of the 12 miles”, and “The five Nations Lands Continues up the main branch to its source.” |
|---|---|
| Ridout’s plan, 2 February 1821 (LAC NMC-3115) | The Crown’s survey: “about 674,910 Acres”, straight-sided, stopped at the purchase line short of the source. |
| Ontario’s treaty map | The Tract labelled “Crown Grant to the Six Nations”, “Signed on 1793”, “Treaty #4”. |
| Who signed the Patent | Only the Crown: John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor, and William Jarvis, Secretary, under the Great Seal (Indian Treaties and Surrenders, vol. 1, pp. 9–10). No Mohawk signed it. |
| Ontario’s list of surrenders | It runs from No. 3 to No. 5: the Patent surrendered nothing, so it is not there. |
The 1791 straight lines
| What they are | A survey agreed before the Land Board of Nassau on 1 February 1791: a straight centre line from the easterly bend near the mouth to the Mohawk Village, and limits six miles either side of it. |
|---|---|
| What they show | The reserve’s long sides run along them: it was laid out on the straight-line survey, not on the river. |
| The Nation’s position | The Proclamation’s own measure, six miles from each side of the river, is what s. 109 carried into the Constitution; a survey convention could not lessen a grant owed “without any diminution”. |
| Measured by them | Both reserves lie wholly inside the Tract. |
The Tract, shrinking on paper
Step through the Crown’s own account, to scale by area: the Tract as given, the dashed squares as it was cut down, the reserve today in plum, and the part outside the six miles in red. One more press shows the reserves themselves, close up. The class’s right is the whole first square throughout.
The acres
| Six Nations | about 45,580 acres: 44,160 inside the Tract, 1,420 outside |
|---|---|
| New Credit | about 6,130 acres: 1,650 inside the Tract, 4,480 outside |
| How measured | Reserve limits from Natural Resources Canada, Aboriginal Lands of Canada Legislative Boundaries, version 2.189 (Six Nations to 2 m, New Credit to 10 m); the Tract and six-mile line from the Nation’s map; equal-area, rounded to ten acres. |
| Glebe Farm | No. 40B at Brantford, about 100 acres, lies wholly inside the Tract. |
In eight lines
- The rule. The Indian Act, 1876: a reserve is for a band, on land whose title is in the Crown, unsurrendered.
- The grant. In 1784 the Crown gave the Tract by deed of gift, to persons and their posterity: no band.
- The Patent. The Simcoe Patent of 1793, listed by Ontario as Treaty No. 4, was signed by the Crown alone; the Mohawk class refused it.
- The Constitution. In 1867 s. 109 took the Province’s lands subject to the class’s interest; s. 52 has held it since 1982.
- No surrender. The class never surrendered, and the Crown holds no title in the Tract to set apart.
- Six Nations. On Canada’s own limits, about 45,580 acres: 97% inside the Tract, about 1,420 acres outside.
- New Credit. About 6,130 acres: 27% inside the Tract, about 4,480 acres outside.
- So. A reserve can lie only outside the six-mile line; by the 1791 straight lines, nothing of either lies outside.
The printed poster
Download the poster as printed, A3, full quality: the-so-called-reserves.pdf