Native groups camp out in High Park
Posted May 17, 2011 10:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, On. -Two red Mohawk Warrior flags, attached to tree limbs, fly over the tents of the Native groups who have set up camp in a section of Toronto land.
The groups are protecting land in the south east corner of High Park, and are calling the grounds sacred.
Rick MacRae, 51, who is also known as Northern Medicine Wolf, said Native people have raised concerns about the site with the city for years.
“The city knows for a fact that this is a burial ground, but they won’t admit it. The most they’ll say is it is a sacred site. We know from thousands of years of oral tradition, and aside from that we wouldn’t come to places like this,” he said.
Members of the Iroquois Confederacy said the land is a sacred ancestral burial ground and the site of spiritual significance for Native people.
There are concerns among Native occupiers in the area that the land is being destroyed by off-road cyclists, who have carved jumps into the ground for BMX biking.
The Natives said they will continue their occupation of the land until the bikers are gone, and until the terrace can be levelled out and restored.
Toronto Police are continuing to monitor the situation; however, they said it is extremely peaceful, and they do not label the Native people who have come out as protestors.
