Levi General (Deskaheh)
Cayuga Chief
In 1923–24, Cayuga Chief Levi General (Deskaheh) of the Six Nations reserve in Ontario spent a whole year in Geneva in hopes of having the case of his small nation heard before the League of Nations and the International Court of Justice. His objective was to have his nation acknowledged as a sovereign entity. At the outset, a dispute arose between the Six Nations and the Canadian government concerning the Indian nation's independence under Canadian law, in particular the Indian Act, which the federal government was endeavouring to impose.
