Six Nations members voting today for new chief of elected council
CBC
Polls open Saturday morning in Six Nations of the Grand River, where members can vote for elected chief and council, but Sherlene Bomberry has no plans to cast a ballot.
The Cayuga woman and Wolf Clan member has never voted.
"I go to the longhouse … the ceremonies are my guides," Bomberry, who is also a residential school survivor, told CBC Hamilton on Thursday.
That's a reference to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC), the traditional leaders of the Haudenosaunee people, who many see as the representatives of the community.
They're separate from the elected council, also called the band council, a governance system created under the Indian Act and imposed by the federal government.
Voter turnout in the 2019 election was low, with 1,716 ballots cast for chief (that doesn't include spoiled ballots), or roughly seven per cent of the community.
There are over 25,000 band members in Six Nations and over 12,000 live in the community — about 40 kilometres south of Hamilton — making Six Nations the most populous First Nations reserve in Canada.
Its territory includes the Haldimand Tract, an area of land around the Grand River granted to Six Nations in 1784. Today, 38 municipalities in southern Ontario sit on lost Six Nations lands.
While it's unclear how many people will vote this year, the 2023 election is especially consequential — members will get to vote for a new chief and 12 councillors, three more than last election in 2019.
Mark Hill, 33, announced on Sept. 23 he wouldn't run for a second term as chief of the elected council. He's been on the council since he was 19 and was elected as chief in 2019 with 700 votes.
Most of his time a chief took place during the pandemic, where he and the elected council responded to COVID-19 in the community.
Hill could not be reached for comment.
There are two candidates running to be the next elected chief, according to Dorothy Patterson, the chief electoral polling officer who was appointed just a month before the election.
Sherri-Lyn Hill is a current councillor and is a certified First Nations addictions counsellor with Native Wind Consulting.
