This cartoon depicted a duo of camouflaged men raiding the fridge of what appears to be an elderly woman. The caption read: “Environmental Monitors’ Getting Brazen.” The cartoon was obviously an attempt by the cartoonist and others to make a derogatory remark aimed at the people of the Six Nations of the Grand River who have a valid treaty with the Crown to hunt and harvest wild game throughout a large portion of southern Ontario.
A story appeared recently in several area newspapers after some hunters alleged to be Iroquois from Six Nations were noticed hunting in the Iroquois Heights Conservation Area in Ancaster. One of the camouflaged men in the cartoon is telling the woman he has legitimate claim to her food (deer living in the fridge?) due to the wording of the Albany Treaty of 1701 between the British government in North America and the Five Nations of Iroquois who resided then and now in the lower Great Lakes region. In the agreement negotiated between the Five Nations and the British Crown, the Iroquois deeded to the Crown a certain area of land around the lower Great Lakes while maintaining the right to hunt, fish and harvest wild life in the area laid out in the treaty. The Iroquois Heights Conservation Area is located within the boundaries of the treaty; therefore, the hunters in question were within their rights to be harvesting wild life in the area. In hindsight, the cartoonist should have carried out some historical research on the treaties which Canada has with the Iroquois before he or she decided to depict the Iroquois hunters as irresponsible law breakers.
D. Whitlow, Ohsweken
Actually the cartoon was aimed at the two guys who were hunting for deer on park land used by the public. Two guys who felt they could go unannounced, shooting bows and arrows and do what ever they want using the terms of a treaty signed in 1701. To me it doesn’t matter what race they’re part of because every race has its numskulls. -Graeme MacKay