"Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory serves as the land base for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (Kenhtè:ke Kanyen'kehá:ka) First Nation.
The community takes its name from a variant spelling of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant's traditional Mohawk name, Thayendanegea (standardized spelling Thayentiné:ken), which means 'two pieces of fire wood beside each other'. Officially, in the Mohawk language, the community is called "Kenhtè:ke", an old word, the meaning of which is unclear. The Cayuga name is Tayeda:ne:ge? or Detgaye:da:nege?, "land of two logs."
History
Following the American Revolution, the Mohawk, who were allies of the British Crown, lost their traditional homelands in the Mohawk Valley of what became New York state, when they were forced to cede their lands following the defeat of the British. As compensation for their allegiance, the Crown offered them unsettled land in Upper Canada. A group of Mohawk led by John Deseronto selected the Bay of Quinte because it allegedly was the birthplace of Tekanawita, one of the founders of the original Iroquois Confederacy in the 12th century.
On May 22, 1784, the group of 20 families (between 100 to 125 people) arrived. Nine years later, the Tyendinaga tract of land was officially set aside under Crown Treaty 3½, signed on on April 1, 1793, by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and thereafter known as the 'Simcoe Deed'. This tract of land, measuring 92,700 acres (37,500 ha), was legally accepted by the British Crown, and subsequently by the Canadian Government.
But a wave of Loyalists also settled in the Bay of Quinte area, and the government granted many of whom land in the Tyendinaga Tract. During the period from 1820 to 1843, the Mohawk lost two-thirds of the treaty lands of the Simcoe Deed. Further land loss has left the Mohawk with only 71 square kilometres (18,000 acres) today in this area today. Other groups settled in the Six Nations Reserve, Kahnawake, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne (the latter three were established Mohawk settlements along the St. Lawrence River prior to the war.
Land Claims dispute
Currently the Mohawk of the Bay of Quinte are embroiled in a land claim struggle with the Canadian government over a stretch of land referred to as the Culbertson Tract. The Mohawk allege it was illegally purchased in the 19th century; the terms and conditions for purchasing land from Natives which had been set out in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 required there to be a community vote before the Mohawk could sell the common land to any outsider. Research and documentation has shown that these terms and conditions may not have been followed. Within the Simcoe Deed were provisions for the government of the reserve to remove 'intruders'.
After a stagnation of the land claims process following protests in 2006-2009, the Band Chief Don Maracle in January 2011 announced his intentions to file a suit related to the land claims that month.
Demographics
As of January 2011, the registered population of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Nation is 8,006 members (the third largest band in Ontario), of whom 2,124 live on the Tyendinaga reserve and 5,864 live off reserve.
Education
Tyendinaga is home to First Nations Technical Institute, an educational partner with Canadore College, First Nations University of Canada, Humber College, Loyalist College, Queen's University, Ryerson University, St. Lawrence College and Trent University. FNTI is Canada's only Aboriginal owned and controlled college, offering program in Aviation (in partnership with the Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport), Law, Public Relations, Indigenous Community Health and the Mohawk language.
The reserve also has a primary school, Quinte Mohawk School. For secondary school, on-reserve residents have the option of attending Moira Secondary School in Belleville just to the west of the reserve, or attending the Ohahase Learning Centre, a private secondary school operated by the First Nations Technical Institute. Ohahase means "new road" in the Mohawk language.
The language group Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna organizes a variety of cultural educational programs, including Mohawk language classes. TTO is currently attempting to raise money for Mohawk-language immersion primary school (similar to the one at Akwesasne) called Kawenna’òn:we.
Media
A First Nations community-owned radio station, known as KWE, Mohawk Nation Radio operated on a frequency of 105.9 FM until early 2011, and is re-launching in June 2012 on 89.5 FM in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The station has no known callsign and has no relation to CKWE-FM another First Nations community radio station in Maniwaki, Quebec. The community currently has no newspaper of its own." (
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