This is the Nathan Gage land claim, a 20-acre plot of land on the southwest edge of the Brantford town plot, which the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy say was never surrendered. [1]       In 1830, with their territory being increasingly overrun with non-Native squatters, the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy Chiefs agreed to surrender 600 acres of land to the Upper Canadian government.[2] In exchange, the Upper Canadian government was to remove non-Native squatters from unsurrendered Haudenosaunee territory and relocate them this 600-acre tract of land. As lands that had already been leased out for the limited purposes of hosting a Grist Mill [3], this 20-acre plot was never part of the surrender agreement.       After verbally agreeing to the 600-acre surrender, the Upper Canadian government presented the chiefs with a document stating that 807 acres --and not 600 acres-- would be surrendered. There was no map attached to the document, as was required by Upper Canada's own surrender procedures. Per usual, the chiefs asked that the surrender document be read and explained to them before they signed it; but the Indian Agent present at the time (John Brant) refused to read or explain the document. Instead, the Indian Agent pressured the chiefs to sign the document right away, insisting that it was urgent and the Governor expected it be done and that there was no time for further consideration of the document.       Having made clear their verbal agreement to surrender 600 acres to Upper Canada, twenty-nine Chiefs signed the document on April 19, 1830, believing that the written document reflected their verbal agreement. Besides misrepresenting the acreage specified in the document, the Upper Canadian government neither compensated the Haudenosaunee Six Nations for this land, nor upheld its end of the bargain by removing the squatters from Haudenosaunee Six Nations territory (the whole point of the surrender in the first place). About a decade later (in February 1840), the Crown issued free letters patent to Nathan Gage. The Haudenosaunee Six Nations have never received compensation for this land.       Though the Haudenosaunee Six Nations have ample grounds for challenging the surrender of this 20 acres, the Canadian government denies wrong doing on the part of the Upper Canadian government. However, Canadian government is in agreement with the Haudenosaunee that compensation was never made to the Haudenosaunee for these lands. Despite this admission, Canada has not yet made a serious move to settle the Nathan Gage land claim. More information coming soon...