30th Anniversary of the Brutal Military Assault on the
Mohawk at Kanehsatà:ke

For Nation-to-Nation Relations and an End to Genocide of Indigenous Peoples

- Fernand Deschamps -

Thirty years ago, at dawn on July 11, 1990, about 100 heavily armed officers of the Sureté du Québec (SQ) attacked members of the Kanien'kehá:ka of Kanehsatà:ke (Mohawk nation, member of Haudenosaunee Confederacy) who had set up a blockade on a dirt road leading to a sacred Indigenous burial site to oppose the expansion of a golf club on Mohawk territory located close to the town of Oka, Quebec. For the project to proceed, the forest known as the Pines, as well as the Pine Hill Cemetery, the community of Kanehsatà:ke's graveyard, would have to be bulldozed. To prevent this destruction, people of Kanehsatà:ke erected a barricade on a small, secondary dirt road through the Pines, as early as March 1990.

The July 11 SQ raid came after an ultimatum, in the form of a court order that the mayor and municipal council of Oka had sought which supported the expansion of the private golf course on stolen Indigenous land: the Kanien'kehá:ka of Kanehsatà:ke had to bring down their barricade by July 9 or else face the full force of the law.

During the July 11, 1990 assault by the police force in full military combat gear, the SQ used tear gas and concussion grenades on the people at the barricade.

After the SQ started shooting, a firefight broke out between them and the Mohawk Warriors and SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay was shot and killed in the melee.

The SQ abandoned their vehicles and retreated to the bottom of the hill to Oka. The warriors used the abandoned vehicles to build and fortify a new barricade on Highway 344, while the SQ erected a barricade of their own to try to prevent Mohawk reinforcements from coming to Kanehsatà:ke. As a show of solidarity, the Mercier Bridge, one of the five bridges/tunnel linking Montreal to the South shore of the St. Lawrence River, was shut down in Kahnawà:ke by the Mohawk community there. The events are recalled in the 1993 National Film Board documentary entitled Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, directed by Alanis Obomsawin who was in Kanehsatà:ke when the confrontation took place in 1990.[2]

The standoff in Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke included thousands of soldiers of the Canadian Army with tanks and helicopters ordered by the Mulroney government at the request of the Bourassa government. It lasted until September 26 when the members of the Onen'to:kon Treatment Center in Kanehsatà:ke decided to walk out of the encirclement after 78 days of resistance.

Oka 1990

The Unsettled Issue of Land Claims

March marks 25th anniversary of Oka uprising, July 11, 2015.

Although the siege ended, the land issues that were at the core of the dispute persist to this day. The land issue in Kanehsatà:ke dates back 300 years, when the Sulpicians began the slow process of dispossessing the Mohawk Nation of Kanehsatà:ke of their lands.[3]

"Nothing has changed," Kanehsata'kehró:non Ellen Gabriel said earlier this week, reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the start of the Kanehsatà:ke siege, or what many refer to as the "Oka Crisis." She was part of those who resisted during the 1990 siege and participated during that period in negotiations with the Quebec and federal governments to settle the land claims.

"How can Reconciliation have failed, if it never even started?" Gabriel asked. In a previous statement she said, "Reconciliation includes reparations and restitution."

What she was referring to is that after 30 years the federal government has failed to find solutions to Kanehsatà:ke's land dispute. Gabriel said a nation-to-nation relationship means meeting with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

The Demand for a Moratorium on the Sale of Land

Press conference about illegal pipeline expansion on traditional Kanien'kehá:ka Territory,
September 28, 2017.

In a news conference almost a year ago, on August 21, 2019, Ellen Gabriel, on behalf of the People of the Longhouse in Kanehsatà:ke, said that she wanted the federal government to stop the development and sale of over 689 square kilometres of the ancestral territory located 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

"We caution anyone who decides to purchase land in Kanehsatà:ke, Kanien'kehá:ka homelands, or Oka and its surrounding municipalities of buyer beware, as this whole area remains contested land," said Gabriel.

She added that the federal government has long neglected her community's land grievance, which resulted in the 1990 Oka Crisis.

"The prime minister is allowing land fraud to continue," said Gabriel.

"Reconciliation means a genuine commitment to change, to honestly engage and re-conceptualize relationships to create a future of peace, justice and renewed hope."

In an earlier interview with CBC during that same month, Serge Simon, grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kanehsatà:ke, said, "The federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to all First Nations people, and here what you see is the lack of fiduciary responsibility."

The unresolved land dispute at the heart of the "Oka Crisis" 30 years ago prompted one Ojibway man from Shoal Lake, Ontario to start a two-week hunger strike on October 11, 2019 with one of the key demands that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau place a short-term moratorium on all land development on Kanien'kehá:ka homelands in Kanehsatà:ke.

"The longstanding historical land dispute which was the crux of the 1990 Kanehsatà:ke Siege, or Oka Crisis, has never been resolved," the Longhouse in Kanehsatà:ke said in a statement the same day. This point was emphasized by Longhouse member Ellen Gabriel, that a moratorium on all development within the area under dispute must be put in place until the land claim is resolved. She said more land has been developed in the area in recent years than what they opposed in 1990.

"Let's settle the land dispute that was promised during the negotiations in 1990, so people can get on with their lives and we don't have to keep worrying," she said.

"It's the first stage. The ultimate goal is to live in peace."

The Comprehensive Claims Policy as a Means to
Divide Indigenous Peoples

The Mohawk community's claim to the land known as the Seigneury of Lake of Two Mountains was first filed with the federal government in 1975. After being rejected and refiled a number of times, a part of the claim referred to as the "small commons" was officially accepted under Canada's Specific Claims Policy for formal negotiations in 2008.

However, the policy allows only band councils to file a claim, not the age-old traditional forms of governance established by the Indigenous peoples themselves.

Joe Deom, a representative of the Mohawk Nation in Kahnawà:ke, said women hold the title of the land under their constitution -- the Kaianere'kó:wa or Great Law of Peace -- which precedes European arrival in North America.

"All of this land that surrounds us here really comes under the jurisdiction of the women of the Longhouse and not the band councils, not the federal government and not the province," he said.

Also, the lack of information available about ongoing specific claim negotiations was one of many issues on which the people of Kanehsatà:ke felt a lack of confidence in their band council.

Gordie Oke, a former council chief, said that's because of a confidentiality clause the band council had to sign when entering the negotiation process for the claim.

"It bothered me because we always have to consult our people about any type of issues coming forward by the feds," said Oke.

Marc Miller, then parliamentary secretary to Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and now Minister of Indigenous Services, in answer to the fact that First Nations are not consulted in this process, said "[Negotiations] are confidential. One major reason is it offers the sides a forum to have face-to-face discussions and not have a process where you're negotiating in the public domain through media." For someone who likes to boast about his knowledge of Mohawk language, he should look up how the word "transparency" translates in Mohawk traditions.

Peter Di Gangi, a board member at the First Nations-led research centre, Yellowhead Institute, said the confidentiality agreements are an issue: "The claims are against the federal government. At the same time, it controls the negotiation process, controls the funding. It controls just about every aspect of the process," said Di Gangi.

"That has an impact on the ability of First Nations to feel that they have an opportunity to have their claims addressed in a fair and open manner."

In places like Quebec, underlying Aboriginal title to the land also complicates situations when the federal government seeks a "release" with regard to the claim when a settlement is reached.

"For some communities, it's viewed as a form of extinguishment," said Di Gangi.

"If you have underlying Aboriginal title and are sitting at the table with the government to resolve a specific claim, why would you want to release your underlying title just to settle a reserve claim?"

A year ago, the federal government attempted to introduce what they called "new comprehensive land claims and inherent rights policies."

As TML Weekly pointed out at that time "The National Day of Action [...] oppose(s) what has been dubbed 'Trudeau's White Paper 2.0.' This includes Bill C-86, an omnibus budget implementation bill that contains amendments to legislation, including the First Nations Land Management Act and the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. With the changes the government is introducing come plans to replace policies dealing with modern treaties (which it refers to as comprehensive claims) and self-government (which it calls its Inherent Right Policy). Due to the opposition expressed by First Nations chiefs, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett backed down from the scheduled June introduction of these changes, which are a blatant violation of the hereditary rights of all Indigenous peoples."

"APTN News reports:

"Canada won't be introducing new comprehensive land claims and inherent rights policies just yet, Crown-Indigenous Relations [Minister] Carolyn Bennett told the Assembly of First Nations" on May 2.

[...]

"Speaking about the national day of protest and regional protests, Okimaw Henry Lewis, Chief of Onion Lake Cree Nation on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, said: 'We are working with a network of nations chiefs across the country to alert our people about what's happening, and to tell the government that they can't continue to proceed unilaterally in the development of law policies and agendas that directly attack our inherent and treaty rights, and sovereign jurisdiction.'

"Lewis clearly set the record straight: 'Canada has never stopped trying to implement their 1969 White Paper policy, which is meant to domesticate our international treaties, turn us into municipalities and remove us from our lands,' adding 'We must stand in unity as chiefs and peoples to fight off this agenda for our children and future generations.'"[4]

To commemorate the 30th anniversary, the Kanehsatà:ke Longhouse will be holding a rolling blockade on Saturday, July 11, starting at 10:00 am.

Notes

1."Recognition of the Hereditary Rights of Indigenous Peoples Must Come First," by Pauline Easton, TML Weekly, October 3, 2017. 

2. Extracts of the documentary entitled "Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance."

3. "At the Woods Edge: An anthology of the History of the People of Kanehsatà:ke -- The reality of Kanehsatà:ke and the Myth of 1721," by Brenda Katlatont Gabriel-Doxtater and Arlette Kawanatatie Van den Hende, Kanesatake Education Center, 1995, pp 20-23. 

(With files from: TML Weekly, The Eastern Door, Iori:Wase -- News from the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation, CBC, Radio-Canada. Photos: public domain, K. David, E. Gabriel)

This article was published in

Volume 50 Number 25 - July 11, 2020

Article Link:
30th Anniversary of the Brutal Military Assault on the : For Nation-to-Nation Relations and an End to Genocide of Indigenous Peoples - Fernand Deschamps

    

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