Six Nations Defenders Resist Ontario Cops' Invasion

Ontario Cops Attack Six Nations People
Cops Retreat When Hundreds of Natives Respond

Protest now has 'national implications', one protester says
Apr. 20, 2006. 02:08 PM
PETER EDWARDS
STAFF REPORTER -TORONTO STAR
CALEDONIA, Ont. - A confrontation between native protesters and police escalated this morning hours after Ontario Provincial Police staged a pre-dawn raid at an occupied Caledonia construction site, southwest of Hamilton.
Around 5 a.m., dozens of officers stormed the Douglas Creek Estates to evict native activists who'd occupied the site for almost two months.

By mid-morning, hundreds of native people from across the province and as far away as Manitoba had poured into the area. They said their numbers would rise if efforts to remove occupiers increased. "We’re here and we’re not going anywhere," said Hazel Hill of the nearby Six Nations reserve.

The protesters argued that the site was part of a large land grant back in 1784, but the provincial and federal governments say the land was surrendered in 1841 to help build a major highway.