MOHAWK+GRAND RIVER

Gazette No. 52 — Directive for Reclamation and Preservation of Her Majesty's Chapel of the Mohawks

Be it known and placed on record: That the Directive for the Reclamation and Preservation of Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks is hereby issued, establishing the Secretariat’s institutional programme for the Chapel.

I. The Historical Significance

Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks (1785) is the oldest Protestant church in Ontario. It was built by the Mohawk people who came to the Grand River with Colonel Joseph Brant following the American Revolutionary War. It is one of only two “Royal” chapels in Canada. It stands within the six-mile Haldimand corridor and is a Crown property.

II. The Reclamation Programme

The Secretariat’s reclamation programme for the Chapel is grounded in: (a) the constitutional encumbrance of the Chapel lands under the Haldimand Proclamation as recorded in Gazette No. 65; (b) the historical and cultural significance of the Chapel to the Mohawk people; and (c) the Band Council encounter recorded as Exhibit C67 in the Application for Writ of Mandamus, which placed on the constitutional record the question of who has authority to consent to access on Mohawk national land.

III. The Preservation Mandate

The Secretariat is committed to the physical preservation of the Chapel as one of the most significant physical monuments to the Mohawk presence in the Grand River Territory. Any threat to the physical integrity of the Chapel — by development, neglect, or unauthorized alteration — will be met with formal notice and, if necessary, legal action.