General Urban Cambridge Updates and Rumours

[tomh009]

Just remember what you built this country on. Genocide, slavery, cultural assassination, eugenics, rape. Keep in mind that currently you're living on land that isn't yours - it's part of the Haldimand Proclamation Tract. We're building all of this on land that belongs to a group of Indigenous people that have no power to stop it, even though they own this.

Just about every place on earth has these things in its past, or in some cases present.

Re: the land, almost every piece of land on earth has been stolen at some point in the past. That doesn’t mean my title isn’t valid.

That's right. Look at a place such as Poland, for example, which has been conquered dozens of times in its history. Who does it belong to? Who are the rightful owners? And why?

After WW2, the victorious allies wanted to put an end to these centuries of war and grudges over who should own or control any given territory, and essentially everyone in Europe has accepted that "the music has stopped" and there will be no more border changes.

Re: the Haldimand tract, I would appreciate any pointers you might have to resources on this. My understanding of the history is that it was first stolen (or at least claimed) by white people working for the King of Great Britain (edit: I just looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haldimand_Proclamation and apparently it was bought from the Mississaugas of the Credit; but then there is some messy stuff about just what was bought and granted); then later “given” (OK, if purchased, then actually given, not “given”) to the Haudenosaunee. Then later I’m a bit unclear; how did it get lost? Somewhere I read something about a court battle in which the Haudenosaunee (or at least their agent) argued they should be able to sell the land and the government argued they couldn’t. But then apparently the German Company bought Waterloo Township from Joseph Brant acting on behalf of the Haudenosaunee. Was that a coerced sale, or maybe Brant was a crook who took the money and ran? (Note: not an accusation; I really don’t understand what happened; I’m just saying that the basic facts as available to me make it look like the land was purchased, not stolen)

Joseph Brant was an Iroquois war leader (though not a hereditary chief, as I understand it) and had negotiated a land grant with the British in 1775 un exchange for Iroquois support in the war. This is what was finally resolved by the Haldimand Proclamation.

Brant subsequently sold large parts of this grant; a significant part was sold to Richard Beasley, who in turn sold a chunk of it to the German Company. And this where the Waterloo Region is today. How this worked within the governance of the Iroquois Confederation at the time is something that I have never seen a description of, but I have not seen any disputes as to the legality of those sales.