Mennonites and Six Nations

The topic of Mennonites and Six Nations is not a new one. It's an uncomfortable one in some ways. Mennonites are implicated in the broken relationships that developed during the period following the early 1800s migration to the Waterloo region in particular.

To my knowledge there has been little systematic study of the interactions and relationships between various First Nations groups and Mennonites during the War of 1812. What I've found in my research indicates that some Mennonites had startlingly amicable relations with First Nations while some others were thornier. There are some fantastic tales and some embarrassing ones, for those us of who identify with Mennonite heritage and are prepared to recognize the benefits we derived from an unequal relationship between our ancestors and First Nations.

At the Grand River Heritage workshop (I referred to in a previous blog) the key highlight for me was Rick Hill, a First Nations historian. He spoke of a message of peace and socio-political separatism from the imperial societies in which First Nations lived.

At times I thought he could have been talking about Mennonites when he discussed First Nations' attitudes toward the colonial empire. Like Mennonites they didn't really identify with the war as Britain-vs-United States; in many ways they had been seeking peace yet they were being asked to wage war on their relatives across the border. Some of their “warriors” were simply paid mercenaries; in fact there were Mennonites who did join the militia and received financial compensation for it – it was incredibly meager, but still.

What Rick Hill presented was more of a “people's history”, one which is very hard to access from the available sources, since so many First Nations leaders whose identities survive were the very ones who seem to have done more to help the colonizers than the First Nations peoples themselves. He noted that whenever he sees a monument to a First Nations leader erected by Europeans it's usually because those particular people helped whites to achieve their goals, which usually had negative consequences for the First Nations more generally.

It is a complicated history, some of which we're only starting to sort out amid the hype of today and the historical perspectives of yesteryears. Rick Hill's presentation also mentioned the issue of healing through historical study, something that First Nations peoples are longing for, as are many Canadians.