MNN. Feb. 17, 2010. The Indian Act is Canada’s policy. The goal is assimilation until there are no Indigenous left. When we object to this, we are called racist.
Who stands to gain from this forced removal of non-natives from Kahnawake by the band council, followed by the forced removal of us?
These evictions are initiated by the government. Why is the media blaming Indigenous for creating the Indian Act and calling us racist?
Certain colonial political parties are making major deals with the US. Quebec has sold our water rights to the US under NAFTA. To ship our water south they must go through Mohawk communities. We will oppose this.
Ontario-Quebec-Canada-New York State-WashingtonDC are trying to cut off Mohawk initiatives, economic self-sufficiency and the viability of our communities. They are threatening people who do business with us.
The band council and Canadian government launched a smear and disinformation campaign to turn off the public. The band council is alienated from the Great Law. They are getting the public mad at us. Then the military can come in and occupy us. The public is being conditioned to think we had it coming!
In 1973, 2,600 non-natives were illegally living here. The people wanted them to leave. The traditional Longhouse passed it in council and carried it out. The band council opposed it and brought in the Quebec Provincial Police to attack us. We defended ourselves.
These outsiders came in through the Indian Act, not to seek shelter under the Great Law. Racism is being used to twist the issue.
In the 1980s the People passed the Mohawk Membership Law. Non-natives married to Mohawks could not live here. The band council did not stop them until now.
We refuse to be caught in the middle.
Starving Europeans arrived here. We took care of them, fed them, helped them raise their children and learn to survive.
Adolph Hitler studied the Canada-US-British genocide model that killed over 100 million of us in the Western Hemisphere. After WWII, South Africa patterned Apartheid on the Indian Act. Ottawa is looking at the Australian genocide strategy.
The newcomers occupy most of our homelands though all of Great Turtle Island is ours. We have a duty to maintain our territory for the future generations of our people.
We see these colonists every day. We deserve a refuge from them.
We don’t impose our ways, laws or beliefs on them. We keep our ways in our canoe. They keep throwing their garbage off their ship into our canoe and polluting our water.
The band council can’t use Kaianerehkowa/Great Law to back up their argument. They are putting one foot in the canoe and the other in the ship. They want benefits from both without respecting their responsibility to their people.
Now they’ve painted themselves into a corner. The Longhouse will not be sucked into this. It’s like the bully picking a fight, pulling back and getting his brother to take the beating. The band council always does this to the Longhouse.
Just because the Europeans washed up on our shores doesn’t mean all these squatters come under our shelter. We have to fulfill our responsibility to our children. The women must protect the blood lines. The men must support the women and children.
A Mohawk elder had the same dream several times. She saw men suddenly arriving in Kahnawake dressed in cream-colored naval-like apparel wearing Nazi German-like helmets. They arrived by water and surrounded us. We have not interpreted what this means.
Kahentinetha, MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books on Mohawk issues and to sign up for MNN newletters, please go to www.mohawknationnews.com
