Mohawk Trilogy

Why was it fraudulent to put Haudenosaunee monies into Great Britain's "General Revenue"?

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Here’s why the fact that the Six Nations’ money was put into “general revenue” is so problematic:

 

🔹1. It Violated Trust and Sovereignty

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The Six Nations Confederacy was promised autonomy and stewardship over its lands and resources when it allied with the British during the American Revolution. This state was formalized in documents like the Haldimand Proclamation (1784), which granted the Mohawk the Grand River lands.

By taking Indigenous money — earned from Six Nations’ own land and timber sales — and placing it in British “general revenue,” the Crown acted dishonourably, a traitor to the very promises it made in the following ways:

 

Treated Haudenosaunee money as Crown property, not Indigenous property.

• Ignored the Confederacy’s right to self-determination — effectively seizing control of its economy.

• Broke a fiduciary duty: Britain had a legal/moral obligation to hold these funds in trust.

• The British government should have set up a separate fund for Six Nations' monies.

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🔹2. “General Revenue” Meant No Accountability

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Once the money went into general revenue:

• Money lost its identity as Six Nations’ money.

• There was no earmarking or accounting for how it was used.

• The British government could legally spend it on any colonial project, including ones that benefited settlers at Indigenous expense.

That’s exactly what happened: it helped fund the Grand River Navigation Company, a speculative canal project designed to start up canal towns and enrich private investors, men like William Hamilton Merritt and David Thompson, — and perhaps, but not likely and no matter anyway, the Six Nations Confederacy.

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🔹3. The Grand River Navigation Company Was a Failure to the Point of Being a Scam, and Certainly a Scandal

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This company:

• Promised prosperity but delivered nothing of value to the Six Nations.

• Enriched a handful of colonial robber barons and bankrupted the First Nation's land owners.

• Left the Six Nations with no funds, while the canal system they paid for opened up their land to exploitation and settler encroachment.

Bruce E. Hill’s research shows funds were diverted into private accounts — an act of outright theft.

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🔹4. There Was No Consent

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The Six Nations did not approve of their funds being used this way. In fact, chiefs

• Protested at the time.

• Wrote letters and hired lawyers to demand redress.

• Were repeatedly ignored, marginalized, and lied to.

This turns what might have been poor governance into a deliberate colonial dispossession.

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🔹5. The Navigation Set a Precedent for Ongoing Injustice

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When a state confiscates Indigenous wealth, uses it for state-building, then fails to compensate or even acknowledge the act, that’s not just history — that's a live issue:

• Without proper consultation or benefit-sharing, the establishment's using Indigenous wealth continues.

• Many Indigenous communities remain underfunded today — they were systematically robbed of wealth they were entitled to.

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🔹"The Navigation Scandal" In Plain Language:

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Imagine if you had a bank account full of money you earned selling your land and trees. You expect that money to be saved or used for your needs. Instead, your banker quietly moves it into their own personal account and spends it on a risky business that fails — and you get nothing.

That’s what happened here — not to an individual, but to an entire Indigenous confederacy.