A group of Six Nations protesters who want a council of traditional chiefs recognized as the territory's official government say they have no idea who stole documents and personal items from the elected council's office.

Colin Martin, speaking on behalf of a group of Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) supporters, said the group camped out for 63 days in front of the administrative office. But, he said, it didn't steal anything.

"No one had access to the building except the three times SNEC (Six Nations Elected Council) employees entered the building, emerging with bags full of items," Martin said at a media conference Thursday.

"We had nothing to do with (it)."

The HCCC supporters protested in front of the elected council office from May 27 to July 29, setting up tents and food stations. The protest blocked the elected council — a body Ottawa instituted in 1924 — from entering the building. The group demanded elected council give the HCCC official governance of Six Nations. It also wanted to discuss a range of issues, including taxes and alleged corruption.

Elected council said it met with the HCCC at the Sour Springs Longhouse on June 5 and agreed to a joint working group. But it wouldn't sign a document recognizing the HCCC as the governing body.

Meanwhile, elected council got a court injunction ordering the protesters off the property. The council and its employees returned to the property July 29. Six Nations Police escorted them, and elected council supporters stood by and applauded.

Upon entering the building, police say, they discovered the offices ransacked, and that various papers, files and personal items had been stolen.

Police are investigating.

For the group's part, Martin said they have no immediate plans for further action.

"We're going to take a little break," he said. "Relax our minds." But "this fight is not over. It's been going on almost 100 years now with the imposition of the elected council on our territory."

Elected council said in a statement this week that it will keep talking with the HCCC.

"The current governance issues we face were inherited by us from the previous generations," the statement said. "We did not create this situation."

"As individual community members, we have a responsibility to reflect on the legacy we are leaving for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We now have the opportunity to begin dialogue on how we as a community can move forward in a respectful and inclusive way."

The confederacy council, which the HCCC describes as being in place "since time immemorial," is comprised of the six nations — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora. Each nation maintains its own council with chiefs chosen by clan mothers. The grand council deals with issues that impact all six nations.

Elected council, meanwhile, is elected by Six Nations members, with two councillors representing each of its six districts.

The home of one of those councillors, Melba Thomas, was recently destroyed in a fire police say is suspicious. The Ontario Fire Marshall is investigating.