Tue, 20 Oct 1998

My name is Steve Gronda, a Wyandot Indian, appointed to protect the graves and traditions of our once Indigenous homeland.  The Wyandot were in the region for centuries, before anyone can remember, and we still exist today.

The Wyandot Reservations were left to us, on both Canadian and United States shores, by the British, prior to the US and Canada becoming separate countries.   Good will abounded back then with gifts and promises, in return for our protection and native know-how in surviving a "hostile" wilderness.

The Wyandot were forcibly removed from the traditional land in Michigan by the use of guns and chains.  Legislation was passed that allowed the settlers to push into Indian lands.  Wyandot removal was a forced compliance.  It was stated in the Indian Removal Act circa 1835, as being by ones own desire to move West or stay.  But the Wyandot were not allowed to stay as stated in the Treaty of Brownstown, "Forever as long as they shall occupy their land."

Forced removal was a black mark on the history of the United States then, as it remains today.  Non-payment...non-compliance and 366 broken Indian Treaties later, it shows that is was by false promises and empty hopes....and lead a nation to genocide.

Some Wyandot stayed in Anderdon, Ontario and others found refuge in points further North and East, away from the reach of hostile intentions to remove them. Others suffered at the hands of the colonists and were moved west by force, to points in Kansas and Oklahoma.

The Wyandot are known as a peaceful people who would treat others with respect and concern.  They were leaders of a vast Indian Community.  The Wyandot led the Indian Confederacy to sign peace documents with the Untied States Government thereby ending the Indian Wars (sic. in this area).  The colonizers felt threatened by the organizational abilities of the Wyandots and could see great benefit in their removal.

After the War of 1812, it took only another 20 years for the United States Government to disperse the native people, and the control of all the territories once held in perpetuity.  The Wyandot in Brownstown, the Huron Reserve in Huron Township, and Wyandot County in Northern Michigan, were taken away by an act of the Michigan Legislature.

The land between the Canadian and the United States shores is our indigenous home.  Our families live here today, just as we always have.  We have  a right to be heard on these issues.  The support that is being gathered by many groups in opposition to this development is in the true interest of the environmental and historical preservation of a land and a culture that is ancient.

The removal of the small Indian cemetery at West Jefferson and Gibraltar Road in 1964 and 1965 to its present site at Our Lady of Hope Cemetery by unknown persons was an atrocity.  This cemetery was there in Brownstown while the village and Council House were there.  We believe those graves were the graves of Indian families as well as white settlers.

Wyandot descendants feel that is is our responsibility to protect the grave sites of our ancestors.  Several other locations exist in the Downriver area.  We believe that there are burials in the Humbug Marsh area as well as in other parts of the Gibraltar area .  The removal of Indian graves along South Gibraltar Road by Carlson High School students and their teacher some years ago is well known to the residents.

It is our wish to see this area protected in a manner in keeping with Indian tradition and to see the earth treated with dignity and respect.  Native people are of one mind on the graves issue.  Native Americans, all citizens and future generations will be the ones to lose if we are denied a look into a natural system left intact to enrich all our lives.

Respectfully submitted by concerned descendants of the Wyandot of Anderdon

Re: Humbug Marsh Defense Statement Grave Yard Issue
Brownstown
Approved by Council 9-10-98