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The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River
If one seeks to understand Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) history, one must consider the history of Haudenosaunee land. For countless generations prior to European contact, land and territory informed Haudenosaunee thought and philosophy, and was a primary determinant of Haudenosaunee identity.
In The Clay We Are Made Of, Susan M. Hill presents a revolutionary retelling of the history of the Grand River Haudenosaunee from their Creation Story, through European contact, to contemporary land claims negotiations. She incorporates Indigenous theory, Fourth world post-colonialism, and Amerindian autohistory, along with Haudenosaunee languages, oral records, and wampum strings to provide a comprehensive account of the Haudenosaunee relationship
to their land.
Hill outlines the basic principles and historical knowledge contained within four key epics passed down through Haudenosaunee history. She highlights the political role of women in land negotiations and dispels their misrepresentation in the scholarly canon. She guides the reader through treaty relationships with Dutch, French, and British settler nations—including the Kaswentha/ Two-Row Wampum (the precursor to all future Haudenosaunee-European treaties), the Covenant Chain, the Nanfan Treaty, and the Haldimand Proclamation—and details outstanding land claims. Hill’s study concludes with a discussion of the current problematic relationship between the Grand River Haudenosaunee and the Canadian government, and reflects on the meaning and possibility of reconciliation.
In The Clay We Are Made Of, Susan M. Hill presents a revolutionary retelling of the history of the Grand River Haudenosaunee from their Creation Story, through European contact, to contemporary land claims negotiations. She incorporates Indigenous theory, Fourth world post-colonialism, and Amerindian autohistory, along with Haudenosaunee languages, oral records, and wampum strings to provide a comprehensive account of the Haudenosaunee relationship
to their land.
Hill outlines the basic principles and historical knowledge contained within four key epics passed down through Haudenosaunee history. She highlights the political role of women in land negotiations and dispels their misrepresentation in the scholarly canon. She guides the reader through treaty relationships with Dutch, French, and British settler nations—including the Kaswentha/ Two-Row Wampum (the precursor to all future Haudenosaunee-European treaties), the Covenant Chain, the Nanfan Treaty, and the Haldimand Proclamation—and details outstanding land claims. Hill’s study concludes with a discussion of the current problematic relationship between the Grand River Haudenosaunee and the Canadian government, and reflects on the meaning and possibility of reconciliation.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2017
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584 people want to read
About the author
Susan M. Hill
4 books3 followersSusan Hill is a Haudenosaunee citizen (Wolf Clan, Mohawk Nation) and resident of Ohswe:ken (Grand River Territory). She is an assistant professor of Indigenous Studies and Contemporary Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 31, 2021
Grace Lee Boggs once noted that ‘History is not the past, it’s the stories we tell about the past’, which is as good description of my chosen field of work as any. More importantly, it is also a reminder that whose stories we tell, what and whose evidence we use and whose frame of reference we use to make sense of that evidence matters. This is even more so in settlement colonies where not only is there a profound power imbalance, but it is quite likely that the powerful do not recognise as legitimate Indigenous ways of making sense of the world – that is, to not see Indigenous knowledge as legitimate evidence. This marginalisation is compounded further in contexts where colonising powers have changed leading to incomplete records, records based in different legal systems and modes of sense-making and where agreements that underpin relations are nullified by changes in political/occupying authority.
This is very much the case in the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario and flowing into Lake Eire and now the site of the Six Nations Reserve. These formerly contested lands fought over by the French, the English and commercial forces from the USA, are now the homelands of peoples formerly spread across the eastern Great Lakes region and representing all components of the Haudenosaunee federation (the peoples in colonial terms we labelled Iroquois). Susan Hill, in building her history of the area, draws on both Indigenous knowledge forms as well as French and English archives, read through a Haudenosaunee lens: she is also a Haudenosaunee citizen and the Grand River is now her traditional home, meaning that she brings the disciplinary knowledge of an historian and the Indigenous knowledge of the colonised to her analysis.
The broad sweep of her account is well known. Initially the Five Nations (Tuscarora were absorbed in the early 19th century) acted as a space between and mediator of relations with Dutch, French and English and other colonial settlers with trade and other relations as the base of links where, to a large degree, the settlers were the less powerful forces. These circumstances changed as settlers acquired military and economic power, as they built institutions of the state, as Europe’s wars were contested in their colonial satellites, as the American Revolution and subsequent wars shifted relations between settler and Indigenous so that increasingly the Haudenosaunee became the less powerful partner, shunted off to reserves with their integrity as Indigenous nations attacked by new colonial states.
Yet when that story is told (to use Boggs’ term) it is presented either from the colonisers’ point of view as the ones with agency to which Indigenous nations respond (there’s a myth of timelessness wrapped into this, the notion that the time before contact was a time of unchanging pre-history), or as a value-free description of what happened (as I have done in the previous paragraph). What Hill does however is place the Indigenous communities as actors and subjects at the core of her story, showing for instance the ‘Two Row Wampum’, the Kaswentha, of 1613 as a Treaty laying the basis of Haudenosaunee/settler relations even as settler powers changed from the Dutch to the English, while also highlighting the later English invocation of the Covenant Chain developed in the 1670s as laying the basis across generations and across national origins of settlers. These were and remain living foundational documents shaping Indigenous -settler relations, even as settler states consign them to the (no longer relevant) past.
She also shows how attempts to change the terms of those agreements, be they by English, French or American forces or subsequently by Canadian legislation were met with opposition based in traditional forms of leadership and governance, while the settler state pursued a define and rule strategy through things such as Indian Act of 1869, still in force in amended forms. In highlighting these developments after the mid-19th century Hill is also pointing to continuing forces and factors in Indigenous-settler relations. One of the most disturbing aspects of the narrative is the continuing contempt shown for the Six Nations, most notably in the wrangling over where to relocate as states failed to protect the integrity of reserve lands allowing illegal settlements to grow. Once the Grand River was agreed colonial surveying errors meant the Six Nations were promised lands outside the then colony, an error that the colonial state failed to even attempt to rectify.
Crucially, however, this is not just a tale of land tenure and associated disputes, but one also of active attempts by the colonial state to destroy Indigenous governance systems, to undermine forms of authority grounded in networked relationships and to undermine the integrity of a Nation within its borders. Hill draws out these Haudenosaunee approaches using oral sources, traditional knowledge systems and records required by the state, archived and seldom if ever otherwise consulted in historical work on the Six Nations Reserve. In doing so she is able to trace an Indigenous approach, highlighting kinship, clan and other networks that shape and inform the actions of Indigenous residents of the reserve.
It’s a rich and compelling narrative that goes further than ‘looks across the frontier’ to be grounded in Haudenosaunee ways of knowing and sense-making. I’d previously encountered a version of this at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, the reserve’s main town, but as with any museum exhibition that barely scratched the surface. Hill’s local insights combined with her deft engagements with both Haudenosaunee and other archival knowledges takes us across that frontier and into a colonising history told from the perspectives of the colonised as they struggle to build relations with the newcomers while also working to maintain their ways of being. This kind of work is a first step in decolonising history, and building more just ways of being.
It is essential reading for grasping both Canadian and USA histories as well as more widely to explore methods and methodologies in colonial and imperial histories. Simply outstanding.
This is very much the case in the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario and flowing into Lake Eire and now the site of the Six Nations Reserve. These formerly contested lands fought over by the French, the English and commercial forces from the USA, are now the homelands of peoples formerly spread across the eastern Great Lakes region and representing all components of the Haudenosaunee federation (the peoples in colonial terms we labelled Iroquois). Susan Hill, in building her history of the area, draws on both Indigenous knowledge forms as well as French and English archives, read through a Haudenosaunee lens: she is also a Haudenosaunee citizen and the Grand River is now her traditional home, meaning that she brings the disciplinary knowledge of an historian and the Indigenous knowledge of the colonised to her analysis.
The broad sweep of her account is well known. Initially the Five Nations (Tuscarora were absorbed in the early 19th century) acted as a space between and mediator of relations with Dutch, French and English and other colonial settlers with trade and other relations as the base of links where, to a large degree, the settlers were the less powerful forces. These circumstances changed as settlers acquired military and economic power, as they built institutions of the state, as Europe’s wars were contested in their colonial satellites, as the American Revolution and subsequent wars shifted relations between settler and Indigenous so that increasingly the Haudenosaunee became the less powerful partner, shunted off to reserves with their integrity as Indigenous nations attacked by new colonial states.
Yet when that story is told (to use Boggs’ term) it is presented either from the colonisers’ point of view as the ones with agency to which Indigenous nations respond (there’s a myth of timelessness wrapped into this, the notion that the time before contact was a time of unchanging pre-history), or as a value-free description of what happened (as I have done in the previous paragraph). What Hill does however is place the Indigenous communities as actors and subjects at the core of her story, showing for instance the ‘Two Row Wampum’, the Kaswentha, of 1613 as a Treaty laying the basis of Haudenosaunee/settler relations even as settler powers changed from the Dutch to the English, while also highlighting the later English invocation of the Covenant Chain developed in the 1670s as laying the basis across generations and across national origins of settlers. These were and remain living foundational documents shaping Indigenous -settler relations, even as settler states consign them to the (no longer relevant) past.
She also shows how attempts to change the terms of those agreements, be they by English, French or American forces or subsequently by Canadian legislation were met with opposition based in traditional forms of leadership and governance, while the settler state pursued a define and rule strategy through things such as Indian Act of 1869, still in force in amended forms. In highlighting these developments after the mid-19th century Hill is also pointing to continuing forces and factors in Indigenous-settler relations. One of the most disturbing aspects of the narrative is the continuing contempt shown for the Six Nations, most notably in the wrangling over where to relocate as states failed to protect the integrity of reserve lands allowing illegal settlements to grow. Once the Grand River was agreed colonial surveying errors meant the Six Nations were promised lands outside the then colony, an error that the colonial state failed to even attempt to rectify.
Crucially, however, this is not just a tale of land tenure and associated disputes, but one also of active attempts by the colonial state to destroy Indigenous governance systems, to undermine forms of authority grounded in networked relationships and to undermine the integrity of a Nation within its borders. Hill draws out these Haudenosaunee approaches using oral sources, traditional knowledge systems and records required by the state, archived and seldom if ever otherwise consulted in historical work on the Six Nations Reserve. In doing so she is able to trace an Indigenous approach, highlighting kinship, clan and other networks that shape and inform the actions of Indigenous residents of the reserve.
It’s a rich and compelling narrative that goes further than ‘looks across the frontier’ to be grounded in Haudenosaunee ways of knowing and sense-making. I’d previously encountered a version of this at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, the reserve’s main town, but as with any museum exhibition that barely scratched the surface. Hill’s local insights combined with her deft engagements with both Haudenosaunee and other archival knowledges takes us across that frontier and into a colonising history told from the perspectives of the colonised as they struggle to build relations with the newcomers while also working to maintain their ways of being. This kind of work is a first step in decolonising history, and building more just ways of being.
It is essential reading for grasping both Canadian and USA histories as well as more widely to explore methods and methodologies in colonial and imperial histories. Simply outstanding.
May 17, 2021
In The Clay We Are Made Of, Hill analyzes Haudenosaunee land tenure from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. To do so, Hill utilizes Haudenosaunee teachings on creation and philosophy, language, oral stories, archeological evidence, and European sources. For European sources, Hill applies a decolonizing lens to ascertain information hidden between the lines or within the record's silences. Through these sources, Hill places the Haudenosaunee’s treaties with the Europeans within a broader context of their history with the land. This provides Haudenosaunee agency rather than framing Haudenosaunee choices as reactions to European decisions.
The analysis of traditional Haudenosaunee epics and creation stories provides a basis for Haudenosaunee politics generally but specifically describes women's roles and importance in the political sphere. For example, The Great Law of Peace, which acts as a legal system, recognizes women as leaders of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and identifies the importance of their consideration for the land’s future use. As Clan Mothers, women held the responsibilities of taking care of the land and leading families in partnership with men. Hill emphasizes how vital women’s positions were in Haudenosaunee politics.
Despite their importance, European sources rarely mentioned women. Sources from the seventeenth century mainly come from Jesuit missionaries, who harshly critiqued Haudenosaunee women. Jesuit comments on women's role in society were biased and inaccurate due to their European expectations. Eighteenth-century treaty negotiations made more mention of women as meditators. However, women received little notice or attention by name unless they married a European man. Overall, most European sources unsuccessfully described women’s role in Haudenosaunee politics and society. However, in applying Indigenous sources, Hill provides evidence that challenges European narratives which represented Indigenous women as either overbearing matriarchs or burdens. To counter the misrepresentation of Haudenosaunee people, Hill utilizes Indigenous sources, narratives, and traditions. While Hill connects women's roles to Haudenosaunee land use, she also reveals women's continued existence and participation within, from the Eurocentric viewpoint, the domain of male-dominated politics.
Hill’s exploration of the Haudenosaunee also demonstrates the continuity of intellectual tradition. Specifically, it provides evidence that the Haudenosaunee women held an important political and societal role before European arrival. For example, Haudenosaunee women used traditional laws to support rebuilding their communities in the wake of warfare and disease which European colonization brought about. In this case, women based their role on Haudenosaunee's historical precedent to rebuild, rather than their role simply being a reaction to European interaction. Women involved themselves with treaty-making decisions as per women’s right to protect the land for future generations. European's written documents mentioned women's statements on land negotiations, demonstrating women exercising their right to participate in such decisions. Through a combination of Indigenous sources such as the oral tradition of the Great Law and European documents, Hill demonstrates the continuity of women's political involvement.
The analysis of traditional Haudenosaunee epics and creation stories provides a basis for Haudenosaunee politics generally but specifically describes women's roles and importance in the political sphere. For example, The Great Law of Peace, which acts as a legal system, recognizes women as leaders of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and identifies the importance of their consideration for the land’s future use. As Clan Mothers, women held the responsibilities of taking care of the land and leading families in partnership with men. Hill emphasizes how vital women’s positions were in Haudenosaunee politics.
Despite their importance, European sources rarely mentioned women. Sources from the seventeenth century mainly come from Jesuit missionaries, who harshly critiqued Haudenosaunee women. Jesuit comments on women's role in society were biased and inaccurate due to their European expectations. Eighteenth-century treaty negotiations made more mention of women as meditators. However, women received little notice or attention by name unless they married a European man. Overall, most European sources unsuccessfully described women’s role in Haudenosaunee politics and society. However, in applying Indigenous sources, Hill provides evidence that challenges European narratives which represented Indigenous women as either overbearing matriarchs or burdens. To counter the misrepresentation of Haudenosaunee people, Hill utilizes Indigenous sources, narratives, and traditions. While Hill connects women's roles to Haudenosaunee land use, she also reveals women's continued existence and participation within, from the Eurocentric viewpoint, the domain of male-dominated politics.
Hill’s exploration of the Haudenosaunee also demonstrates the continuity of intellectual tradition. Specifically, it provides evidence that the Haudenosaunee women held an important political and societal role before European arrival. For example, Haudenosaunee women used traditional laws to support rebuilding their communities in the wake of warfare and disease which European colonization brought about. In this case, women based their role on Haudenosaunee's historical precedent to rebuild, rather than their role simply being a reaction to European interaction. Women involved themselves with treaty-making decisions as per women’s right to protect the land for future generations. European's written documents mentioned women's statements on land negotiations, demonstrating women exercising their right to participate in such decisions. Through a combination of Indigenous sources such as the oral tradition of the Great Law and European documents, Hill demonstrates the continuity of women's political involvement.
September 27, 2017
I highly recommend this work to all who would appreciate understanding of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) from origin stories and philosophy through modern times. I found this to be quite accessible as a non-Native learner about our present-day neighbours on Grand River. This was a fascinating introduction to the Haudenosaunee cultures, and at the same time a shocking dose of realism concerning the racist, colonialist actions of the Canadian government and British government before it.
Susan M. Hill covers the history from pre-contact, through contact and treaties with the Dutch, British/Colonial War of Independence and loss of traditional home lands in what is now New York state, re-settlement in their traditional hunting grounds along the Grand River in Ontario, additional loss of lands due to Crown fraud and negligence in the face of settler theft, further Canadian racist assimilation and loss of autonomy, a discussion of the current problematic relationship with the Canadian government, and finally a reflection on the meaning and possibility of reconciliation. Although parts are difficult to read due to the subject matter, all parts are grounded in clear expository text with footnotes.
As I continue learning about colonization as a destructive worldview today, and the destruction it has inflicted over the many years, I feel this book will be an important step toward understanding and imagining where we might collectively go from here.
Susan M. Hill covers the history from pre-contact, through contact and treaties with the Dutch, British/Colonial War of Independence and loss of traditional home lands in what is now New York state, re-settlement in their traditional hunting grounds along the Grand River in Ontario, additional loss of lands due to Crown fraud and negligence in the face of settler theft, further Canadian racist assimilation and loss of autonomy, a discussion of the current problematic relationship with the Canadian government, and finally a reflection on the meaning and possibility of reconciliation. Although parts are difficult to read due to the subject matter, all parts are grounded in clear expository text with footnotes.
As I continue learning about colonization as a destructive worldview today, and the destruction it has inflicted over the many years, I feel this book will be an important step toward understanding and imagining where we might collectively go from here.
July 5, 2017
An extremely enlightening overview of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) world view, and how that world view influenced some of the original treaties between Indigenous people and what would ultimately become the Canadian state.
The book covers events leading to the loss of the traditional Haudenosaunee village lands and their settlement in their hunting grounds at what is known as Six Nations on the Grand. It further chronicles how the British and Canadian states increasingly encroached on Haudenosaunee sovereignty.
A great road map for those asking "How did we get here?" with suggestions as to "Where do we got from here?"
Niá:wen Susan M. Hill!
The book covers events leading to the loss of the traditional Haudenosaunee village lands and their settlement in their hunting grounds at what is known as Six Nations on the Grand. It further chronicles how the British and Canadian states increasingly encroached on Haudenosaunee sovereignty.
A great road map for those asking "How did we get here?" with suggestions as to "Where do we got from here?"
Niá:wen Susan M. Hill!
September 20, 2017
A well-researched account of important Indigenous history from Six Nations scholar Susan M. Hill. Accessible to those who know next to nothing about the subject.
June 25, 2020
'The Clay We Are Made of' teaches the reader much about Six Nations history in Canada, as well as the endurance of Haudenosaunee philosophy. More to the point, Hill demonstrates how the relationship between the Haudenosaunee and their homelands forms the foundation of their political identity, which binds the five original and later sixth nation within what historians have long called the Iroquois Confederacy. Not only is respect for one's homeland fundamental to maintaining communal harmony, but also a respect for one another based on kinship and gender equality. When the French and English begin occupying Haudenosaunee lands, Hill examines how the relationship between the two peoples metamorphoses over the generations, as from the Indigenous point of view trade turns into treaty, and treaty into colonization, and colonization into resilience. Most importantly, Hill's work has implications for Canada First Nations legal affairs, as she convincingly challenges the historical premises on which Canadian Indian law is based with a thoroughly researched account of the Haudenosaunee account of "first contact."
November 18, 2021
This was an excellent read, and a really comprehensive historical account of Haudenosaunee land tenure, as promised by the title. It provides a great account of how the intergovernmental relations between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the British Crown, and later the Canadian government, manifested and transformed over time, and insights into the broader political constellation of the era. The more detailed historical aspects are well rooted in an understanding of Haudenosaunee social, economic, spiritual and political culture prior to "contact" with European societies, and how Haudenosaunee culture and values have shaped the nation's response to "contact" and beyond. Easy to read (aside from some of the longer colonial-era quotes. so much creative spelling!) and very well structured.
March 1, 2023
This text was critically informative of the history of Haudenosaunee relationships to land, to the settler-colonial and colonial governments they interacted with, and with other Indigenous nations that live alongside them. Any person who wants to have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of ongoing land tenure struggles or who wants to address reconciliation should read this book at least once. Although this is a recommended academic text at the third year level of university, I believe that the writing style and language would be manageable for most adult readers.
March 13, 2019
Useful documentation of the political and social history of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, especially their dealings with the British Crown and their settlement on the Grand River. Fascinating and important reading.
September 16, 2019
Essential reason for anybody who lives (or has lived) within the Haldimand Tract.
April 15, 2020
Diss.
April 28, 2021
Essential reading.
January 1, 2022
Invaluable resource for helping me learn more about life on the Haldimand Tract and beyond.
November 28, 2025
Great book, amazing to learn about the Haudenosaunee's history and its continuity by its community
June 14, 2024
If you are looking for a place to start educating yourself in indigenous studies (particularly as an American/Canadian), this book is a good place to start.
This book primarily deals with the relationship of the Haudenosaunee people and their relationship to land. So, by necessity, it also deals with their relationships with the settler-colonialists they encountered (and continue to encounter) on their land.
I have a video talking about my thoughts on this book (and sharing a short passage) here.
This book primarily deals with the relationship of the Haudenosaunee people and their relationship to land. So, by necessity, it also deals with their relationships with the settler-colonialists they encountered (and continue to encounter) on their land.
I have a video talking about my thoughts on this book (and sharing a short passage) here.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews