Six Nations at Grand River

Brant decided that he preferred to settle on the Grand River north of Lake Erie. Mohawk of the Upper Castle joined him in settling on the Grand River, as did bands of the other Six Nations. By the Haldimand Proclamation of October 25, 1784, the government granted a tract of land to the Mohawk Nation and Six Nations bands in appreciation of their support for The Crown during the revolution. The Crown had purchased the lands previously from the Mississauga on May 22, 1784 as part of the Between the Lakes Treaty.^[8] Joseph Brant led a large group of Iroquois to settle in what is now referred to as "Six Nations of the Grand River."

A 1785 census recorded 1,843 Natives living on the Grand River reserve, including 548 Mohawk, 281 Cayuga, 145 Onondaga, 262 Oneida, 109 Tuscarora, and 98 Seneca. There were also 400 persons from other tribes, including Lenape, and others from southern territory, such as the Nanticoke, Tutelo, and some Creek and Cherokee.^[9] African-American slaves were also brought to Six Nations and Brantford by Joseph Brant. Brant encouraged members of his family to marry local Blacks, absorbing them into the population on the reserve.^[10][11] From the 1830s to the 1860s many runaway slaves, escaping through the Underground Railroad, were received and absorbed into the population of Six Nations.^[12] Along with the African-Americans who settled largely in the area around Cainsville, Joseph Brant invited several Anglo-American white families to live on the grant, particularly veterans of Brant's Volunteers and Butler's Rangers from New York, who had fought with him during the war. To encourage his loyalist friends to settle there, Brant gave them larger grants than the government had given other loyalists in other areas of Upper Canada. Some Canadians objected to Brant giving such land grants to whites in the reserve area. This was the beginning of attempts to curtail any growth Brant might secure for his people.

As the government did for European Americans, the Indian department provided the Haudenosaunee with some tools and other provisions for resettlement, including such items as saws, axes, grindstones, and chisels. They received help in establishing schools and churches, and in acquiring farm equipment and other necessities. Conditions were extremely difficult in the first years on the frontier, as the government did not provide enough supplies or assistance to any of the resettled loyalists, neither Native Americans nor European Americans. They had to create new settlements out of woodlands. In 1785, the government built the first Protestant church in Upper Canada (now Ontario) on the reserve; it was known as Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks. The Crown maintained its support of this chapel, and it is among only twelve Chapels Royal in the world.

The main town developed at what is now Brantford. It was first called Brant's Town after Joseph Brant, who built his residence there. In 1798, it was described as a large and sprawling settlement. Brant's home was a two-story house, built in a European-American style. In 1797, Brant founded one of the earliest Masonic Lodges in Upper Canada; he achieved the rank of its Worshipful Master.

Governor John Simcoe confirmed the Grant with a limited deed on January 14, 1793. This deed did not extend to the source of the Grand River, territory to which the Six Nations have maintained they were entitled as described in the earlier Haldimand Proclamation. Also, this deed forbade them to sell the land to anyone but each other and the king. Led by Joseph Brant, the chiefs rejected the deed. In 1795, the Grand River chiefs empowered Joseph Brant to sell large blocks of land in the northern section, which the Haudenosaunee were not using at the time. They set terms of no money down because they wanted to take their payment entirely in future years as annual interest. At this time, the population on the reserve was declining; some Haudenosaunee left the Grand River for traditional native communities in New York. After Brant's land sales started in 1795, the population began to increase again. He and the chiefs insisted on annuities to help the Six Nations community survive.

According to the Haldimand Proclamation, the original tract of land stretched from the mouth of the Grand River on the shores of Lake Erie to the river's head, and for 10 km (6 mi) from either bank. However, the grant of land included land around the source that the Crown had not purchased from the Mississauga. A purchase from the Mississauga was later arranged, but not carried out. Between 1795 and 1797, Joseph Brant sold 381,480 acres (1,543.8 km²) to land speculators; the property comprising the northern half of the reserve was sold for £85,332. This was the highest price paid to Haudenosaunee up to this time for undeveloped land.

Chiefs of the Six Nations explaining their wampum belts to Horatio Hale, 1871

Governor Simcoe opposed the land sales. The interest on the annuity promised an income to the people of £5,119 per year, far more than any other Iroquois people had received. The land speculators were unable to sell farm-size lots to settlers fast enough. By 1801, however, all the land speculators had fallen behind in their payments. Because of the lack of payments, Brant was determined to sell more land to make up for the missing payments.

In 1796, Lord Dorchester issued another deed for the land. This empowered the Haudenosaunee to lease or sell their land, provided they offered it first for sale to the government. Brant rejected this deed, partly because the deed named the Six Nations as communal owners of the land. He believed the deed should be limited to the current persons living on the land.

By 1800, two-thirds of the Haudenosaunee had not yet adapted to the style of subsistence agriculture maintained by separate households that the Canadian government encouraged. Brant had hoped that sales of land to European Americans would help them develop the frontier, but conditions were difficult for such agriculture.

In 1828, chief John Brant was appointed resident superintendent for the Six Nations of the Grand River.

The Six Nations people were originally given 10 km (6 miles) on either side of the entire length of the Grand River, although much of the land was later sold. The ongoing Grand River land dispute is the result of disputes over the sale process. The current reserves encompass 184.7 km² (71 sq mi), all but 0.4 km² (100 acres) in Six Nations reserve No. 40.

In the late 19th century, the Scottish doctor Joseph Bell excavated skulls of indigenous people in the six nations. These skulls reached Berlin through the mediation of the doctor William Osler, where they were considered untraceable for decades. In 2020, the journalists David Bruser and Markus Grill, supported by the ethnologist Nils Seethaler, succeeded in finding the skulls in the anatomical collection of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. A return of the skulls to the care of the community of origin was suggested in this context.^[13][14]

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