Heritage White Oak Tree in Cambridge

- Sergeant Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

While many of us may be familiar with the designation of built heritage properties under the Ontario Heritage Act, recently municipalities have been using the Ontario Heritage Act to designate individual trees as heritage trees.  Municipalities like Burlington, Pelham, Thorold, Cambridge, and most recently Brant, have designated individual trees under the Ontario Heritage Act.

First enacted in 1975, the Ontario Heritage Act enables municipalities to pass by-laws designating individual properties as having cultural heritage value through Part IV of the Act.  This designation provides some protection for the property from demolition, as well as regulates potential alterations to the property to maintain its heritage value.  Larger areas can be designated under Part V of the Act as Heritage Conservation Districts.

In recent years the definition of cultural heritage resources covered under the Ontario Heritage Act has been expanded to include not only the commonly understood Built Heritage Resources, defined as “one or more significant buildings (including fixtures or equipment located in or forming part of a building), structures, earthworks, monuments, installations, or remains that have cultural heritage value,” but also Cultural Heritage Landscapes.  Cultural Heritage Landscapes are defined as a “geographical area that human activity has modified and that has cultural heritage value.”  These areas can include “one or more groupings of individual heritage features, such as structures, spaces, archaeological sites, and natural elements, which together form a significant type of heritage form distinct from that of its constituent elements or parts…villages, parks, gardens, battlefields, mainstreets and neighbourhoods, cemeteries, trails, and industrial complexes of cultural heritage value.”  The addition of Cultural Heritage Landscapes as well as other amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act made in 2005, have included natural landscape features, such as trees, as integral parts of cultural heritage landscapes and built heritage properties that should be protected.

With these changes in the understanding of cultural heritage, municipalities began designating individual trees under the Ontario Heritage Act.  In 2008 the City of Cambridge passed a by-law to designate a 130 year-old White Oak tree under the Ontario Heritage Act.  This tree survived a disastrous flood of the Grand River in 1974.  Several one-hundred year old workers’ cottages in the vicinity of the tree had to be demolished after the ’74 flood, with the construction of a levee system along the banks of the Grand River and the raising of the grade of the land by five feet.  At that time John Kingswood, forester for the City of Cambridge, decided to save the then 100 year old White Oak Tree on the grounds.  He constructed a well around the tree and a system of drainage pipes to feed the tree’s root system.  Today the heritage designated White Oak tree is a center-piece of the Cambridge Sculpture Garden on the banks of the Grand River in downtown Cambridge.  At the time of its designation, Cambridge’s White Oak was only one of ten heritage designated trees in Ontario.

The most recent heritage designated tree in Ontario is a massive Black Walnut tree located in Brant County.  Estimated at more than 150 years old, the tree may have originally been planted as a cultivated nut-bearing tree on a country estate.

While there are few examples of preserved built heritage in Ontario dating back over 200 years, there are at least two heritage designated trees that have been standing for over 250 years.  Oakville has designated a 250-year old White Oak that was narrowly saved from being cut down for a road expansion project in 2006.  Nearby Burlington designated a 300 year-old White Oak, that for hundred of years appeared on surveyors’ maps as a significant landmark distinguishing borders like Brant’s Block, and the border between Burlington and Aldershot.

The designation of these trees and others in Ontario speaks to a growing realization that cultural heritage isn’t just about old buildings and quaint downtowns, but the preservation of diverse elements of our landscape, including natural heritage and trees, that capture our human history and the history of our environment.

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However, just how the War of 1812 should be commemorated, and what this war actually meant to Canadian history, is being actively contended in the pages of the Globe and Mail.  According to the Department of Canadian Heritage, the War of 1812 was a pivotal event that ultimately shaped the nation that became Canada.  Many point to the “happy aftermath” of the war: the 200 years of peace with the United States, as well as the Rush-Bagot agreement of 1817 that limited military activities on the Great Lakes.  Others argue that the war “was among the dumbest ever fought,” and charge the Harper Government with attempting to use the bicentennial as “contemporary nationalistic propaganda.”  Alan Taylor’s recent book, The Civil War of 1812, also muddies the waters concerning why the war was fought and who was fighting it.  Taylor argues that “national” identities and borders were fluid, and the war shouldn’t be seen as simply an American invasion repelled by the British military and Canadian militia.

While the argument rages about how and why the War of 1812 should be commemorated, there remains a serious silence in the national dialogue concerning the role of the First Nations allies in the war.  As detailed in Carl Benn’s The Iroquois in the War of 1812, “the War of 1812 was a critical event in Iroquois history.” The Iroquois allies were pivotal to British victories in major battles such as Queenston Heights, Beaver Dams, the blockade of Fort George and Crysler’s Farm.  Benn concludes that the outcome of the war, the successful defence of British territory, “could not have been achieved without aboriginal support of the king’s cause.”  Taylor reiterates this point stating by “intimidating American troops, the warriors had done more to foil the invaders than had the Canadian militia, but a postwar myth glorified the militia and degraded the Indians.”  Like they had during the American Revolution, warriors from the Six Nations allied themselves to the British cause.

John “Smoke” Johnson, grand-father of the poet Pauline Johnson, was one of these Six Nations warriors.  He left the Grand River at 21 years old to join Isaac Brock.  Johnson fought at Queenston Heights, Lundy’s Lane and Stoney Creek.  He also claimed to have set the fire that burned Buffalo in December 1813.  The iconic photograph taken in 1886 shows ninety-three year old John “Smoke” Johnson (right) with two other Six Nations veterans of the War of 1812, Jacob Warner (left) and John Tutlee (centre).

While Canadians today view the War of 1812 as a victory for Canada, and two hundred years of peace with the Americans, there was far less of a “happy aftermath” for Britain’s Six Nations allies.  During the war the Six Nations found themselves fighting against their Iroquois kin at battles like Chippawa.  Following the war, despite promises from the Indian Department not to interfere with their affairs, the Six Nations of the Grand River found their territory increasingly threatened by white squatters, and their finances mismanaged by white officials.  In the 1840s the Six Nations of the Grand River were forced to abandon the majority of their territory and were moved into a small reserve along the Grand River.  The two hundred years that followed the War of 1812 was not a time of peace and prosperity for the Six Nations, but marked the end of their independence as allies of Britain, and decline in their sovereignty and territory.

While the Canadian government treats the War of 1812 as a defining moment in Canadian history that led to the creation of the nation of Canada, for the Six Nations of the Grand River the war has very different meaning.  The Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford is planning an exhibit to raise awareness about the role of the Six Nations Confederacy in the War of 1812.  With all the attention that is being focused in Canada on the bicentennial of the war, hopefully some people will take the time to look beyond the militaristic and nationalistic propaganda to learn more about the important role that Britain’s allies, the Six Nations and other First Nations, played in repelling the American invasion.

This year’s History on the Grand Local History Symposium is being held on Saturday October 22^nd, at Cambridge’s Historic and LEED Gold-certified New City Halls.  The theme “People and Place” explores the history of immigration and migration to Southwestern Ontario, and the ethnic and cultural groups that make up our communities.  Participants will enjoy presentations about different aspects of our local history, as well as presentations and projects by local school children.  The complete program and registration forms are available on the City of Cambridge website.  Local history and heritage groups will have displays and materials for participants to enjoy.  The lunch hour will also feature a walking tour of historic downtown Cambridge,  the resurgence of which was recently covered in  an article in the Globe and Mail.

“It’s a great way for people to learn more about the history of our communities,” says organizer Karen Dearlove, “and the contributions made by different ethnic and cultural groups to the diversity of our region.”

 Registration for the symposium, including refreshments and lunch, is available for $10.00 until October 14^th, and $15 at the door.  Participants can register in advance at the Clerk’s office at City Hall.  For more information contact Lynn Griggs at Cambridge Archives Email: griggslynn@cambridge.ca Phone: (519) 740-4680 ext. 4610 Fax: (519) 623-0058.

History on the Grand: People and Place is sponsored by the City of Cambridge, organized by the City of Cambridge Archives Board and the Waterloo Historical Society, and supported by the Waterloo Region Museum and ActiveHistory.ca.

For media interviews contact Dr. Karen Dearlove: kldearlove@hotmail.com or 519-621-6374

All these “surplus” buildings served the local communities in one use or another: school house, community centre, daycare, township hall, local museum and archives.  They served as significant meeting places for these rural communities.  They helped to create and maintain a sense of community in areas with little centralized infrastructure and facilities.  Longtime residents of these communities, as well as the organizations currently using these buildings quickly voiced their concerns with the county’s plan to sell these buildings.  In St. George, community members accused the county of disrespecting the war veterans to whom the St. George Memorial Hall is dedicated.  Others expressed concern that without a gathering place for residents, the rural areas would lose their sense of community.  And lose their history.  The South Dumfries Memorial Hall and Harley/Burford Township Hall house significant collections of local history artifacts and archives, maintained by volunteer-run historical societies.  Members of the Burford Township Historical Society feared that without the building to house their collection, their valuable local history could be lost.  Supporters of the Harley Museum vowed to fight the county over the sale of their building.

Etchings on the exterior bricks of Langford School made by past students.

Supporters of the Langford School also began to organize and formulate plans to save the old school.  For nearly a century the handsome brick one-room building served as the local school for children from the area around the village of Langford.  After the school closed in 1964, the building was used as a community centre for the area’s residents.  Throughout its history the Langford School was also the meeting place for the local Women’s Institute, which among other activities faithfully preserved the history of the local families.  The history of these students and families is etched into the exterior bricks of the old one-room school house.  For the residents of Langford, the bricks of the Langford School were a significant historical record of the community.  They feared that if this building was sold by Brant County, the land would likely be bought up by foreign landholders that have been purchasing huge tracts of farmland in the area for development.  If this were the case, the old Langford School would like be demolished to make room for new subdivisions.  Supporters of the Langford School created a group, Friends of Langford School, and a Facebook group.  They worked with a non-profit group in the area, Sustainable Brant, to manage the building, and approached Brant County for a lease on Langford School.  The Friends of Langford School also consulted with the Ontario Heritage Trust and approached the  Brant County Municipal Heritage Committee about designating the old school as a heritage building.  They proposed re-opening the Langford School as a community centre, and operated as a non-profit organization.  After months of negotiations with the Brant County council recently voted to give the Friends of Langford School a five-year lease on the building, allowing the group to pursue grants from organizations like the Ontario Trillium Foundation, for capital expenses and program funding.

With the City of Brantford’s decision to demolish 41 buildings in its historic downtown last year, the decision to save Langford School is very good news for those who feel that preserving built heritage is an important part of preserving local history.  For now the bricks of Langford School will remain to tell the stories of all the students that spent there.

Outdoor swimming hole in Soper Park.

Growing up in Cambridge next to Soper Park, the park became an extension of my backyard.  I spent many days exploring the park, wading in the creek, catching crayfish and racing home-made boats.  As a child the creek seemed mysterious and ancient.  It was dammed with stone and concrete dams, and walled in with massive stones, broken by sets of concrete stairs that led down into the water.  I used to image they were ancient ruins.  Only as I grew older did my father tell me that the creek had been dammed and walled as an outdoor swimming hole, which he used to visit as a child.  Under the silt of thirty years, you could still uncover the concrete floor of the swimming hole.

Today the ruins of the swimming hole in Soper Park have been replaced with a vibrant, naturalized creek, which has become a thriving ecosystem for significant species such as the brown trout.  Between 1995 and 2001 the City of Cambridge undertook a naturalization of the creek in Soper Park in an effort to bring the creek back to life from a “sterilized” swimming hole, to a cold water creek.  The stone walls of the creek were largely removed, and where the creek had been straightened and dammed, the project attempted to return the creek to a more natural and historical route.  Indigenous grasses, trees and shrubs were planted alongside the creek to prevent erosion and provide habitat for animals.

Outdoor informational sign in Soper Park.

For the City of Cambridge the rehabilitation of the creek was undertaken within a balancing act of public opinion.  Many people were concerned that by returning the creek to a more “natural” state, the well-known heritage features of the parks, including the stone embankments around the creek, would be lost.  While retaining heritage is often the “greenest” choice, in the case of restoring natural heritage in public parks choices have to be made between retaining certain heritage features over restoring the natural environment.  The City of Cambridge explained the process and publicized the work through public meetings, newspaper stories, outdoor informational signage at the park, and a Cambridge Natural Heritage Tour booklet available for free.  A “Friends of Mill Creek” organization was formed providing volunteer services to maintain the health of the rehabilitated Soper Park creek.

This latest chapter in the history of Soper Park represents a more modern approach to urban public and green spaces, to restore these areas to their “natural” state.  Throughout its history Soper Park has undergone many different phases of development and redevelopment.  The land was once known as “Jackson’s Field” and as a site where traveling circuses that regularly visited the area would pitch their tents and water their animals.  The land was purchased by the Town of Galt (which later became Cambridge) in 1905 for use as a public park.  The newly formed Galt Parks Commission hired renowned landscape architect Frederick G. Todd to form a plan for the park.  Todd’s plans called for the creek to be kept “as natural as possible,” but admitted that other “natural” areas, like the swampy land in the north end of the park, was “neither pleasing to look at nor is it pleasing to walk through.”  In this area Todd suggested that the creek be deepened and the banks lined with boulders to alleviate its natural swampy tendencies.

Peony Garden in Soper Park

Todd’s plans for the park were endorsed by the town, but work was slowed by a lack of funds and the First World War.  In the 1920s a local citizen whose house overlooked the park, Dr. Augustus Soper, personally took on further improvements to the park.  While Soper built on Todd’s plans, he made many extensive changes to the parks “natural” areas.  The creek was completely enclosed with stone embankments, and three dams were built to create the outdoor swimming pools.  A frog pond was filled to create the largest lawn bowling green in western Ontario, and the cedar swamp in the north end of the park was drained.  Soper constructed field-stone gates at the entrances to the park, which were dedicated as memorials to the community’s war dead from the First World War.  Laneways were constructed throughout the park to make it accessible to the automobile.  Other additions to the park included an impressive Peony Garden, Galt Arena Gardens – the oldest continuously used enclosed ice-rink in Canada, a miniature golf course, tennis club, and an outdoor public pool.

Naturalized creek in Soper Park today.

Today Soper Park is an impressive example of establishing a balance in a public park between public recreational uses and the restoration and protection of natural heritage.

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But by the end of 1988 Brantford had lost two of its most significant industries, and unemployment in the city sky-rocketed to 24%.  Throughout the 1990s Brantford suffered the effects of industrial decline and decay.  Over 88 acres within the city were now abandoned and contaminated post-industrial sites or brownfields.

The Greenwich Mohawk site represents this history, from booming industrial hub to abandoned contaminated factory site.  At 52 acres it is the largest of Brantford’s brownfields.  For twenty-five years the Greenwich-Mohawk brownfield has loomed large in the community’s conscience as a horrible memory of Brantford’s industrial decay, and as a symbol of Brantford’s current problems and difficulties in moving forward.  In many ways the Greenwich Mohawk site represents the intersections between industrial history and environmental history, and how both shape a community’s understanding and appreciation of its own past and its current self-image.

Brantford’s economic development was spurned by the opening of the Grand River Navigation Company’s canal that linked Brantford by water to the Welland Canal and important cities like Buffalo.  In 1832 the Grand River Navigation Company began work on a system of canals, dams and locks along the Grand River in order to make the river navigable from Brantford down to Dunnville.  The “Brantford Cut” or “Brantford Canal” was the final part of the system to be built and opened to great fanfare in 1848.  This canal brought freight and passengers right into Brantford’s downtown and increased trade and attracted new businesses to the area.  Beginning in the 1850s Brantford was also quickly incorporated into the maze of rail-lines that soon linked it to places like Hamilton, Toronto, Port Dover, London, Buffalo, and Detroit.

Brantford’s industrial development began in earnest in the 1850s with a host of new industries including foundries, stone ware factories, stove factories and various mills.  From the 1870s to the 1890s Brantford became home to several significant agricultural implement manufacturers.  It was during this period that the agricultural implement giants Massey-Harris and Cockshutt were established in Brantford.  Starting in the early 1900s several of Brantford’s industries built larger new factories on what became the Greenwich-Mohawk site.  Industries on this site included: the Verity Plow Company (an affiliate of Massey-Harris, later Massey-Ferguson); Adams Wagon Company (an affiliate of Cockshutt that would later become the Canada Carriage and Body Co., then Brantford Coach and Body, and finally Trailmobile); Sternson Chemicals and the Cockshutt Plow Company.  Cockshutt built a new office and factory on the site in 1903.

These industries covered the entire 52 acre site.  Thousands of people worked in these industries daily.  And all around the site, in an area known as Eagles Place, a working class neighbourhood of charming brick cottages was quickly established.

The Greenwich-Mohawk site was a bustling industrial hub in what was a booming industrial city.  But this all changed in the 1980s.   Between them Massey-Ferguson and Cockshutt/White Farm Equipment employed over 7,000 workers in the early 1980s in a city of only 80,000.  But in 1985 Cockshutt/White Farm closed its doors in Brantford.  And in 1988, Massey-Ferguson also shut down its factories in the city.  After Massey-Ferguson, most of Brantford’s other major industries closed their doors throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.  Besides the social and economic problems of de-industrialization in Brantford there was also an environmental legacy: brownfield sites.  Brownfields are defined as “abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.”

Greenwich Mohawk Brownfield site today

In Brantford the fifteen worst brownfield sites cover over 88 acres.  But the massive 52 acre Greenwich-Mohawk site represents to the citizens of Brantford the story of industrial decline and decay.  For residents of the adjacent Eagle Place area, once a thriving working-class neighbourhood, the Greenwich Mohawk brownfield is a daily reminder of all the lost factory jobs, and the social and economic consequences associated with this loss.  For the residents of Eagle Place the abandoned industrial site is also an environmental and public health danger.

There have been several dangerous fires on the site.  While the major industries on this site left in the 1980s and 1990s, other companies used the site in the interim.  In 1992 there was a disastrous explosion and fire at a recycling facility on the site.  Five years later there was a fire produced from 7,000 burning tires at an illegal tire dump on the site.  On account of the carcinogens benzene and toluene released from burning tires residents of Eagle Place had to be evacuated from their homes.  Several other fires occurred on the Greenwich side of the site in 2002, 2004 and 2008.

As with other post-industrial sites the Greenwich-Mohawk brownfield is contaminated with a variety of substances.  As early as 1976 there were reports of “oil-like” substances in the storm sewers and run-off from the brownfield site.  The Greenwich Mohawk brownfield is less than a kilometer from the Grand River.  There have been numerous environmental assessments and studies of the Greenwich Mohawk site starting in 1994.   Soil sampling and ground water sampling found several types of contaminants: Petroleum hydro-carbons from gas/diesel and heavy industrial oils; heavy metals like lead; xylene used in solvents and paints; toluene from paints and adhesives; polyaromatic hydrocarbons produced from boilers and generators; PCBs used in transformers, fluorescent lights, and capacitors; asbestos; and benzene produced as exhaust and in chemical manufacturing.  All these substances have lasting environmental impact on the soil and groundwater, and most of them are known to cause cancer and genetic damage in humans.  The sources of most of these contaminants can be traced back to the industries that operated on this site for decades without environmental oversight.  According to one of the environmental studies, “test holes dug over a large area of the plant show the soil is virtually saturated with oil.  A former employee of the Cockshutt Company testified that the company “disposed of waste oil and paint products on the soil.”  Other sources of contaminants include foundry sand, lead paint, and inground dip tanks.  Since the closures of the major industries in the 1980s, the Greenwich Mohawk site has gone from the industrial heart of the city, to an abandoned and toxic site, and a potential danger for all those living in its vicinity.

How can the city of Brantford and its citizens reconcile the history of this site with its redevelopment and future use?  Many in Brantford want to erase the physical remnants of the city’s industrial history, past greatness and more recent failures.  This sentiment was evident in the city’s recent decision to expropriate 41 buildings on Colborne Street, the main street of Brantford’s downtown.  According to many, these buildings represented the longest stretch of pre-Confederation buildings left in Ontario.  Despite a public and professional outcry in Brantford and beyond, the city last year demolished over 3 blocks of historic buildings in its downtown.

1903 Cockshutt Plow Company Office Building today

Many have expressed a similar desire to demolish all that’s left of Brantford’s industrial history.  In 2002 the 1903 Cockshutt Office Building, all that remains of the massive Cockshutt Plow Company factory, was threatened with demolition.  The Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre successfully fought the demolition and had the building designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.  However, five years later the new owners of the building, the City of Brantford, tried to remove the heritage designation to make way for the building’s demolition.  The Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre again fought to preserve the Cockshutt building, and successfully saved its heritage designation.

For nineteen months the city of Brantford worked on negotiating a deal with the development company Terrasan, which would see the remediation of the Greenwich Mohawk site and its redevelopment into housing, commercial space, and parks and green space.  The Terrasan plan also included the adaptive reuse of the heritage designated Cockshutt office building into an industrial heritage centre that would preserve and promote Brantford and Canada’s industrial history.

However, Brantford’s city council recently voted to end negotiations with Terrasan, leaving the future of the Greenwich Mohawk site and the Cockshutt building in limbo.  Once again there have been various calls to demolish everything on the site, including the heritage designated Cockshutt building, and eradicate the physical remnants of Brantford’s industrial history and the painful reminders of the city’s deindustrialization.  While heritage advocates in Brantford have raised the alarm over the Cockshutt building on the Greenwich Mohawk site, one only needs to look at the empty three blocks along the south side of Colborne Street in Brantford’s downtown, to be worried about the future of heritage in Brantford.

Chiefswood from the Grand River

August is laughing across the sky,
Laughing while paddle, canoe and I,
Drift, drift,
Where the hills uplift
On either side of the current swift.

- “The Song my Paddle Sings,” E. Pauline Johnson

From Brantford’s downtown the Grand River meanders lazily, coming back on itself through a large ox-box, before reaching the tiny community of Newport.  Just past Newport the south shore of the Grand River forms the boundary of the Six Nations reserve.  From Newport the Grand River next flows through the town of Onondaga, and just a few kilometers past that, the river flows past a large white house on a hill.  This is Chiefswood.

George Henry Martin Johnson, a Mohawk chief, constructed the house from1853 to 1856 using walnut trees from the surrounding area, as a present for his English-born wife, Emily Susanna Howells.  The impressive home has two “front doors” – one facing the river welcoming those traveling by canoe, and another facing the road.  These two doors are key to the original function of Chiefswood and its significance today.  George Johnson’s family and Chiefswood represented a bridge between the two worlds of the Six Nations, and white settlers and authorities.

George Johnson’s grand-father Jacob was born in the Six Nations’ traditional territory in Upper New York State.  After the American Revolution and the destruction of Six Nations’ villages, Jacob followed Joseph Brant to the Haldimand Tract, the land on either side of the Grand River granted to the Six Nations’ by the British Crown in recognition of their loyalty during the American Revolution and in compensation for their lost lands.   George Johnson’s father, John “Smoke” Johnson, was born in the Haldimand Tract just outside of what would become Brantford.  Smoke Johnson fought in support of the British in the War of 1812, and became an influential figure in both the Six Nations’ community as well as neighbouring white settler communities.  Like his father, George Johnson also acted as an intermediary between the Six Nations’ and white settlers and authorities.  Fluent in Mohawk and English George worked as an interpreter for the Anglican mission on the reserve and later for the British Government.  With his marriage to English-born Emily Howells, George and his family bridged the two worlds.

Chiefswood was a physical bridge between the two worlds.  Here members of the Six Nations landed their canoes to visit and seek assistance or advice from Chief George Johnson.  Here also white settlers and government representatives stopped from their travels on the road to meet with George Johnson and gain his valuable services as a diplomat and interpreter between the two communities.

Pauline Johnson

Chiefswood is also significant as the birthplace and childhood home of E. Pauline Johnson.  Pauline Johnson came to fame across Canada, the United States and England as a writer and performer in the late nineteenth and  early twentieth century.  Pauline Johnson was proud of her Six Nations’ heritage proclaiming, “My aim, my joy, my pride, is to sing the glories of my own people.”  Yet Pauline was aware of her mixed heritage and her ability to bridge the two worlds through her art.  During her stage performances Pauline would alternate between her “native” dress of buckskin and bear-tooth, and fashionable “English” dress.  Pauline retired from the stage to Vancouver, and died in 1913 from cancer.  Her ashes were buried in Stanley Park where a monument to her still stands today.

Chiefswood still stands today as a testament to the Johnson family and their roles as intermediaries between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures and communities.  Recognized as a National Historic Site since 1953,  Chiefswood has operated as a museum since 1997.  While the site was damaged by water from frozen pipes last winter, it will soon open again soon to share its unique history as a bridge between two worlds.

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Approaching the Past is a workshop series that brings together teachers working in middle and high schools, universities and museums to discuss teaching history.  Approaching the Past is organized by The History Education Network (THEN/HIER) and ActiveHistory.ca.

Please RSVP Samantha Cutrara at rsvp.approachingthepast@gmail.com by April 21 to attend.

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Six Nations' protest at Caledonia

It’s been five years since members of the Six Nations began their protest and occupation at the site of the Douglas Creek Estates housing development in Caledonia.  The events at Caledonia garnered national attention and caused heated confrontations between both sides.  Five years later the land is vacant expect for one finished house, a burnt-out tractor trailer and Haudenosaunee flags, remnants of the Six Nations occupation.  The Ontario Government has purchased the land from the housing developer and provided financial assistance to residents of Caledonia affected by the protest and occupation.

But little has been settled.  On the five year anniversary members of the Six Nations, including the three women who started the protest, returned to the site, the land which they call Kanenhstaton or “The Protected Place.”  Many residents of Caledonia are still angry about the ongoing native land dispute, and only a few days ago took their message to Ottawa.  The recent book by Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford about the Caledonia protest and occupation, Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us, has been dogged by controversy.  Last November Blatchford’s scheduled appearance at the University of Waterloo was canceled after protesters took to the stage claiming that Blatchford “does not explore issues central to the aboriginal occupation, such as historic land claims and treaties.” The ongoing land dispute at Caledonia, and other outstanding land claims in the Grand River Valley, as well as elsewhere in Canada, speaks to the significance of history and what Laurier Brantford’s Program Coordinator for Contemporary Studies Peter Farrugia calls “the immanence of the past in the present.”

A few weeks ago the University of Waterloo was the site of a very different talk.  Professor Roger Epp, a political studies professor from the University of Alberta, gave two public lectures at the University of Waterloo’s Conrad Grebel College.  Epp talked about his book, We Are All Treaty People: Prairie Essays, which addresses settler-aboriginal relations in the prairies.  Yet for people like myself, living in the Grand River Valley, Epp’s assertion that “we are all treaty people, by inheritance, by virtue of living where we do,” has a contemporary meaning and resonance.

Haldimand Tract

I was born and raised in Cambridge, Ontario, a city built along the banks of the Grand River and its tributary the Speed River.  Growing up I learned bits and pieces of my hometown’s history: Cambridge was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of the communities Galt, Preston and Hespeler; Galt, where I live, was founded in 1816 by the Scottish immigrant William Dickson and his business partner Absalom Shade.  What I didn’t learn was that Cambridge, along with all the land and communities within six miles of either side of the Grand River, from its source near Dundalk in Grey County, to Port Maitland, where the river empties into Lake Erie, is within the Haldimand Tract.  The lands of the Haldimand Tract were granted to the Six Nations by the British Crown in 1784, in recognition of their loyalty to the British during the American Revolution and in compensation for lands they lost in Upper New York State.  The proclamation by Frederick Haldimand, Governor of the Province of Quebec, granted the lands to the Six Nations “which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever.”

“For ever” lasted only 57 years.  By 1841 the Six Nations’ lands had been diminished from approximately 950,000 acres to 46,000 acres, less than 5% of the original Haldimand Tract, as they were relocated to the site of the present-day Six Nations Reserve.  Local histories are vague as to why and how this happened.  Brantford: Grand River Crossing by Janet Kempster and Gary Muir, explain the formation of the town plot of Brantford from Six Nations’ land in 1830: “Conscious that they occupied Indian territory, and uncertain of the legalities of their land transactions, the settlers managed to obtain formal titles for their properties from the authorities.  Furthermore, the Six Nations Indians were induced to surrender 807 acres to the Crown as a town plot.” (p.26)  Local history in Brantford tends to downplay, if not ignore the settler-aboriginal story.  The Brant Museum and Archives is the local museum in Brantford housed in a Victorian home.  The museum has been open since the 1890s, and the majority of its exhibits and artifacts reflect life in late 19^th century Brantford.  There is little mention of the Six Nations or the Haldimand Tract.

Sketch of the Mohawk Village on the Grand River with the Mohawk Chapel, ca. 1793

Brantford is also home to two other local history sites that present a very different view of Brantford’s history: the Woodland Cultural Centre and the Mohawk Chapel.  The Woodland Cultural Centre is situated on the site of the Mohawk Institute, a residential school that operated from 1828 to 1970.  Since 1972 the Woodland Cultural Centre has served as a First Nations’ educational and cultural centre.  Just down the road from the Woodland Cultural Centre is the Mohawk Chapel.  Built in 1785 the Mohawk Chapel is the oldest Protestant church in Ontario, and is the only remaining building from the original Mohawk Village on the Grand.

But the history presented at the Woodland Cultural Centre and the Mohawk Chapel appears to run parallel to that of the Brant Museum and Archives, what Epp calls the two solitudes of settler and aboriginal communities.  Brantford is a mere 25 km from the centre of the Six Nations Reserve, but the two seem worlds apart.  While many living today in the Haldimand Tract would like to keep it this way, with little or no reference to the history of settler-aboriginal relations in the Grand River Valley, the on-going land dispute in Caledonia brings this very history to the forefront.

The Caledonia land dispute is one of 28 outstanding land claims filed by the Six Nations against the Government of Canada between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s.  The Douglas Creek Estates property in Caledonia is part of the Plank Road/Port Dover Claim originally filed in 1987.  These claims document the alienation and erosion of the Six Nations’ lands in the Grand River Valley through the actions of white squatters, dubious land sales and titles, and the unscrupulous actions of the Six Nations’ government-appointed trustees.  According to the Six Nations these 28 outstanding land claims represent hundreds of billions of dollars.  But the Canadian Government has set a limit of $150 million for specific land claims.  The Six Nations recognizes that the Canadian Government cannot financially settle their land claims, and instead calls on the Canadian Government to uphold the spirit of the treaties to provide for the “perpetual care and maintenance” of the Six Nations.  Today, there is very little progress being made towards the settlement of the Six Nations’ land claims in the Haldimand Tract.

From living in the Haldimand Tract, working in Brantford, and visiting the Six Nations Reserve, the history of settler-aboriginal relations in the Grand River Valley resonates in my everyday present life.  It is a history that not only informs our present but needs to be reconciled with our present and future.  I now understand that I am a treaty person.  But we as Canadians, inside and outside of the Haldimand Tract,  need to recognize that we are all treaty people.

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LEFT HISTORY 15.1 Table of Contents

WHAT IS ACTIVE HISTORY?

Jim Clifford, “What is Active History?”
Tom Peace, “The Call of Passive History.”
Joy Parr, “The Terms of Engagement: Elements from the Genealogy of Active History.”
Victoria Freeman, “What is Active History?”

REFLECTIONS ON ACTIVE HISTORY

Stuart Henderson, “Disappointment, Nihilism, and Engagement: Some Thoughts on Active History.”
Craig Heron, “Workers of the World, Give Me a Call!”
Karen Dearlove, “Community History, Active Historians and Activism.”
Tim Groves, “Historical Plaques: Images from the Missing Plaques Project.”

ARTICLES

Nick Witham, “Kolko and the Functions of Revisionist Historiography during the Reagan Era.”
Ian Hesketh, “Weapons of Another Kind: Henry Thomas Buckle and the Case of Thomas Pooley.”
Wendy Cheng, Laura Barraclough, and Laura Pulido, “Radicalising Teaching and Tourism: A People’s Guide as Active and Activist History.”

ACTIVE HISTORY LOOKING FORWARD

Geoffrey Reaume, “Psychiatric Patient Built Wall Tours at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, 2000 – 2010.”
Joel T. Helfrich, “On Being an Active Historian and the Usefulness of History: The Case of the Ongoing Struggle for dzi? nchaa si’an (Mount Graham).”

REVIEW ESSAYS

Bryan D. Palmer, “The Democratic Revolutionary: Reviving Lenin.”
Michelle A. Hamilton, “Canadians and their Pasts.”

PLUS TWENTY-FOUR BOOK REVIEWS.