AIR PRODUCTS & CHEMICALS INC. WASTE TO BE DUMPED INTO ST. LAWRENCE RI.

MNN. THE FOLLOWING REPORT WAS READ ON KRK1:30 RADIO KAHNAWAKE @ 12:35 PM MON. FEB. 5/24. 

“Feb 5, 2024: as read on K103 Radio, Kahnawake at 12:35

Time Sensitive: Let’s talk about Air Products & Chemicals Inc. 

Nine years ago, I began working in Akwesasne as a family physician. One of the strong currents underlying the health of Akwesasro:non is that the environment is heavily polluted and that many of the people are sick. The high levels of PCBs, lead, mercury, benzene, fluoride, dioxins, arsenic, and cyanide have been documented in many research studies in Akwesasne and are felt to be responsible for the elevated levels of cancers, diabetes, mental health illnesses like dementia and depression, developmental disorders in children, and endocrine and autoimmune disease.

The corporations responsible for this air, water, and soil pollution have done extensive remediation to decrease these chemicals in the environment. But it is never enough. People are still asked to eat only a small amount of fish, garden in soil that is brought from elsewhere, not pick medicines in certain areas, and of course not to drink untreated water from the Kaniatarawenen:en, or the St. Lawrence River. We have a responsibility to be on constant vigilance, stewarding the lands against further damage, so that our ‘Coming Faces’ will be able to live in a healthy environment.

In July 2022, the United Nations officially recognized that a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right. Both Canada and the United States have also recognized this right. At the same time, to mitigate Climate change, both countries are looking for energy solutions that do not emit carbon into the atmosphere. One company, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., aims to make hydrogen fuel in a facility that will be built in Massena, NY, adjacent and upriver from Akwesasne. I have read all the available documentation.

Specifically, Air Products & Chemicals Inc., will take water from the St. Lawrence River, clean this water using treatment chemicals called ‘biocide’, and then subject it to an electric current, called ‘electrolysis’, and break the water molecules into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen will be released into the atmosphere, and the hydrogen will be dried, liquified, stored in tankers, and then driven by trucks 500 miles away to be used in the travel industry as clean fuel. It is considered clean because the energy used to make the hydrogen is hydroelectric. The effluent, or waste from the plant, will consist mostly of water, and at 90-degree F will be disposed of into the nearby Grasse River via the Massena Canal. Right now, Air Products & Chemicals Inc., are applying for aState Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) Permit to discharge this waste into the river.

There are concerns about many aspects of this project: there are wetlands to be disturbed, trees to be clear cut, and the homes of endangered species like the Northern Long Eared bat and the Monarch butterfly may be affected. Would 90 degrees F water cause thermal pollution to the Grasse River? Would the armoured and sediment cap that has been placed over the riverbed of the Grasse River, sequestering the previous pollution, be affected, and breached? Is it safe to drive hydrogen fuel through our community? Are there truly no archeological sites in the area? The documents that I have read are very detailed, and using science and regulations, Air Products & Chemicals Inc. have done their due diligence and answered most of these questions.

However, we should have a persistent concern. Air Products & Chemicals Inc plans to send its effluent into the Massena Canal. The Massena Canal was built in 1893, flows into the Grasse River, previously provided hydroelectricity to the Alcoa plant, and is no longer in use. The Massena Canal was NOT part of Alcoa’s remediation plan. Will this effluent from the Air Products & Chemicals Inc. discharged into the Massena Canal disrupt the sediment on the canal’s bottom? What is the depth and the flow rate of the canal waters? What does its sediment contain? Does this sediment contain high levels of PCBs that will then be carried to the Grasse River, over the riverbed armoured cap, right to the waters of Akwesasne?

The Air Products report says, “No significant socioeconomic impacts are expected, and the proposed project is not anticipated to result in disproportionately high or adverse impacts to low income and/or minority populations. Subsequently, no mitigation measures are proposed”. The proposed site is also described as ‘previously undeveloped with no history of industrial activity’. These statements are not true. We are downwind and downstream of three Superfund sites in the adjacent areas of this proposed project. There are many research studies that have shown the deleterious effects of contaminants from these Superfund sites on the health of the people of Akwesasne. Superfund sites are polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up their hazardous non-usable material. The Grasse River remediation project was only completed in 2021, but the area has never been remediated to its natural state.

Akwesasne was not listed as a special interest group. Akwesasne was not officially invited to any information and consultation sessions. Notices were only posted in the Watertown and Massena newspapers. Akwesasne community members who attended the July 12, 2023, meeting were reassured that Air Products & Chemicals Inc. would hold an information session in Akwesasne later. Despite many attempts to contact Air Products & Chemicals Inc., this meeting never happened, and the information was eventually obtained through a freedom of information application to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

Given that we are downstream, adjacent to Massena, and have a very public, historic, ongoing, adverse, distrusting relationship with the corporations responsible for the three Superfund sites, we wonder why our people were deliberately kept out of the plans for this project. We became substantively aware of this project two weeks ago. We have until February 8, 2024, to make our concerns known to the DEC who evaluate the SPDES Permit of Air Products & Chemicals Inc.

I would add at this moment that we, as stewards of our mother, as Okwehonwe — we don’t rip apart the molecules of our mother’s water. We protect the water, give thanks to the water- industrialism no matter how it’s advertised as being “green”, it’s painted, and is about money. They will always have the underlying desire to separate us from the relationships we have to the air, water, and plant life. We must make our voices heard and protect ever acre of wetlands we have. We must make our voices heard and not allow the sleeping waters that contain the contaminated sediment to be awakened.

As it stands, the SPDES permit must be denied or at least delayed. Your voice matters. Please- write, email, or call the DEC and urge them to deny Air Products & Chemicals Inc. the SPDES permit. 

Miranda Gilgore, NYSDEC Region &  Headquarters

State Office Building – 317 Washington St, Watertown, NY 13601

Phone: (315) 785-2245

Email: DEP.R6@dec.ny.gov

 

Ojistoh Horn, MSc, MD, CCFP”

 

Deep Purple sang about this. “Smoke on the water”. “We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline to make records with a mobile. We didn’t have much time. “Frank Zappa and the Mothers” were at the best place in town. Until some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground. Smoke on the water, fire in the sky. Smoke on the water, fire in the sky… 

thahoketoteh@ntk.com

MohawkMothers.ca

kahnistensera@riseup.net

mohawknationnews.com 

box 991, kahnawake, quebed canada. J0L 1B0

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SPITTING BEARS – COUNTDOWN TO OCT. 25, 2024 ‘FINAL SOLUTION’

The Red-X.  His eyes are black cavernous void leading directly into the 5th demension.

MNN. Feb. 5, 2024. The Red X is reminding us of the finalization on October 25, 2024 of the “final solution to the Indian problem”.  

Framework Fraud – Part 2 is an MNN reprint of March 3, 2019 of the plans of the colonial settlers of Canada for the “final solution of the indian problem”. The indigenous people who have been placed on turtle island by creation will be eliminated as the original people of this land by the stroke of the colonial invader’s pen to be forced to become “canadiens” [squatters on our land]. The “100 year business plan” was set in place by Prime Minister Duncan Campbell Scott on October 25, 1924, who is the author and executioner of this insidious plan. The final day of our existence as the natural people is planned for October 25, 2024, the date of the Indian Lands Acts. 

The Red X from the fifth dimension gives his opinion on the “The Framework Agreement” from the Fifth Dimension where he comes from. “Let the sunshine. Let the sunshine in. The sunshine in. Come on everybody. Just sing along and let the sunshine in. Open your heart. Let it shine on in. You got to feel it. Open up your heart and let it shine on in.  

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fifth+Dimension+%22Let+the+sunshine+in%22
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fifth+Dimension+%22Let+the+sunshine+in%22 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Fifth+Dimension+%22Let+the+sunshine+in%22

Now open up the following PDF and read about the settler colonialists’ “business plan” for us:

mohawknationnews.com/blog/2019/03/framework-fraud 

Thahoketoteh@ntk.com Court Communications

MohawkMothers.ca

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

mohawknationnews.com 

box 991, kahnawake que. canada J0L 1B0

kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

 

DENY “AIR PRODUCTS” PERMIT BY FEB. 8/24.

MNN. January 31, 2024. There are questions about “Air Products”. We need to know if their product is safe. Please post & distribute this. niawen kowa. MNN.

“Air Products in Massena – the SPDES permit must be denied.

Akwesasro:non have been largely unaware of the plans to open an Air Products and Chemical Incorporated facility in Massena, NY. Massena is located a few miles upstream of Akwesasne on the St. Lawrence River, or Kaniatarawenen:en.

Air Products is advertised as a ‘green’ hydrogen facility. It will use subsidized hydroelectric energy of the Moses Power Dam to run an electrolysis reaction to divide water molecules into their oxygen and hydrogen components. The hydrogen will be stored in tankers, transported by trucks, and sold to large commercial entities as an alternative energy source. This is described as a ‘green’ climate change solution. The facility is currently applying to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for its State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) Permit.

These are important details of Phase one of the Air Products Massena facility:

Once operating, the facility will consume 3 million gallons of water daily from the St. Lawrence River.

In its SPDES permit application, the facility is requesting to discharge water at 90 degrees Fahrenheit into the Grasse River. Will this cause thermal pollution?

Hydrogen is highly flammable (recall the Hindenburg transport balloon?) and an estimated 25 trucks per day will transit east to Interstate Highway 87, straight through Akwesasne Territory.

An undisclosed type and amount of Biocide and Disinfectant will be discharged into the Grasse River, which flows downstream into the St. Lawrence River. What will happen to the plants that were placed in the Grasse River for remediation?

Approximately 80 acres of forestry and wetlands behind Alcoa will be clear-cut – a process that has already begun. These wetlands currently house endangered animals and plant life.

Additionally, the wetlands filter water and their roots strengthen the soil, preventing erosion. These wetlands are in proximity to Alcoa West’s Potliner Disposal Sites, lagoons and landfills containing fluoride, cyanide, PAHs, PCBs, and metals. Destroying these wetlands risks the integrity of our natural ecological barrier between these industrial waste zones and the Kaniatarawenen:en. 

The chemicals listed underlie the incredible contamination of the lands, waters, air, plants, medicines, trees, animals, and fish surrounding Akwesasne. In the 1970’s, Maclean’s magazine described Cornwall Island, a district of Akwesasne, as an island “Unfit for Man or Beast”. Many studies have linked this pollution to serious health problems in the people in Akwesasne. There are anecdotal high rates of cancers, autoimmune, liver, endocrine, diabetes, mental, and other health issues seen by the health workers of the community. These wetlands are integral to our health, as well as those of endangered species of wildlife, plants, insects, and fish. We have a responsibility to steward these forests and wetlands. Chemicals and thermal pollution are not safe for our fish, wildlife, or plant life. We have not been reassured that the integrity of the caps over the Grasse river bed will not be damaged by this proposed industry.

The community of Akwesasne has not been consulted about Air Products’ plans. If this is Phase 1, then what is Phase 2? There has NOT been free, prior, and informed consent of our people to this project. We have a right to know what is happening in proximity to our territory. We should not have had to get this information by a Freedom of Information process. We have a responsibility to steward the land, water, and the air. We must ensure that the historical impact of industrialization does not happen again. We need more information to make informed decisions for the future of ‘The Coming Faces’ and our environment.

As it stands, the SPDES permit must be denied. The due date is February 8, 2024.

Please- write, email, or call the DEC and urge them to deny Air Products the SPDES permit.

Miranda Gilgore,                                                                                                                                                                                  NYSDEC Region 6 Headquarters,                                                                                                                                                            State Office Building – 317 Washington St., Watertown, NY 13601                                                                                                  Phone: (315) 785-2245, Email: DEP.R6@dec.ny.gov

Ojistoh Horn, MSc, MD, CCFP

 

Sarah McLachlan and Robbie Robertson englightened us.  [World on Fire] “Hearts are worn in these dark ages. You’re not alone in this story’s pages. The light has fallen amongst the living and the dying. And I’ll try to hold it in, yeah I’ll try to hold it in. The world is on fire, it’s more than I can handle. I’ll tap into the water, try to bring my share. I’ll try to bring more, more than I can handle. Bring it to the table, bring what I am able. I watch the heavens but I find no calling. Something I can do to change what’s comin’. Stay close to me while the sky is falling. I don’t wanna be left alone, don’t wanna be. alone. The world is on fire, it’s more than I can handle. I’ll tap into the water, try to bring my share. I’ll try to bring more, more than I can handle. Bring it to the table, bring what I am able. Hearts break, hearts mend, love still hurts. Visions clash, planes crash, still there’s talk of Saving souls, still the cold is closing in on us. We part the veil on our killer sun. Stray from the straight line on this short run. The more we take, the less we become. The fortune of one man means less for some. The world is on fire, it’s more than I can handle. I’ll tap into the water, try to bring my share. I’ll try to bring more, more than I can handle. Bring it to the table, bring what I am able. The world is on fire, it’s more than I can handle. I’ll tap into the water, try to bring my share. I’ll try to bring more, more than I can handle. Bring it to the table, bring what I am able.”

 

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MASS MACABRE MUSEUM INC.

MNN. JAN. 29, 2024. All North American museums depict lies  and “genocide” of the onkwehonwe, the original people of turtle island. We want back everything that was taken from us such as the wampum records that were hidden or destroyed as if we never existed. Stop displaying our skulls for profit such as Apache Geronimo’s skull stolen and being filled with whiskey for the “Skull and Bones” ritual of the graduating elite at Yale University. We want all the museum buildings so we can display the truth of the evil practices that destroyed the people of the great peace to create the U.S.”Republic of War”.

Our “hanging tobacco” have been in the shadows doing their work. The truth must be shown such as the residential school death camps, the MKULTRA experiments by the CIA and Canada, the murders of our children whose remains are now being found. 120 million original people of the Western Hemisphere were murdered by the settler colonialists. The whole truth must be displayed! Grave robbing must end! Canada must step up to the plate immediately to enact a Graves Protection Act to help us find our people. Canada’s reaction to the mass graves found in 2021 was to create the Office of the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children. Their mandate will finish next summer. We need a permanent permanent  independent onkwehonwe office for investigating the murders of our children. Although Canada has admitted genocide, there are no laws as in the US to protect our heritage?  

Leading Museums Remove Native Displays Amid New Federal Rules

https://www.yahoo.com/news/leading-museums-remove-native-displays-183325697.html

NEW YORK — The American Museum of Natural History will close two major halls exhibiting Native American objects, its leaders said on Friday, in a dramatic response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before displaying or performing research on cultural items.

Professors use actual skulls of murdered Indians to teach.

The halls we are closing are artifacts of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” Sean Decatur, the museum’s president, wrote in a letter to the museum’s staff on Friday morning. “Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others.”

The museum is closing galleries dedicated to the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains this weekend, and covering a number of other display cases featuring Native American cultural items as it goes through its enormous collection to make sure it is in compliance with the new federal rules, which took effect this month.

Museums around the country have been covering up displays as curators scramble to determine whether they can be shown under the new regulations. The Field Museum in Chicago covered some display cases, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University said it would remove all funerary belongings from exhibition and the Cleveland Museum of Art has covered up some cases.

But the action by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which draws 4.5 million visitors a year, making it one of the most visited museums in the world, sends a powerful message to the field. The museum’s anthropology department is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the United States, known for doing pioneering work under a long line of curators including Franz Boas and Margaret Mead. The closures will leave nearly 10,000 square feet of exhibition space off-limits to visitors; the museum said it could not provide an exact timeline for when the reconsidered exhibits would reopen.

Some objects may never come back on display as a result of the consultation process,” Decatur said in an interview. “But we are looking to create smaller-scale programs throughout the museum that can explain what kind of process is underway.”

The changes are the result of a concerted effort by the Biden administration to speed up the repatriation of Native American remains, funerary objects and other sacred items. The process started in 1990 with the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, which established protocols for museums and other institutions to return human remains, funerary objects and other holdings to tribes. But as those efforts have dragged on for decades, the law was criticized by tribal representatives as being too slow and too susceptible to institutional resistance.

This month, new federal regulations went into effect that were designed to hasten returns, giving institutions five years to prepare all human remains and related funerary objects for repatriation and giving more authority to tribes throughout the process.

We’re finally being heard — and it’s not a fight, it’s a conversation,” said Myra Masiel-Zamora, an archaeologist and curator with the Pechanga Band of Indians.

Even in the two weeks since the new regulations took effect, she said, she has felt the tenor of talks shift. In the past, institutions often viewed Native oral histories as less persuasive than academic studies when determining which modern-day tribes to repatriate objects to, she said. But the new regulations require institutions to “defer to the Native American traditional knowledge of lineal descendants, Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.”

We can say, ‘This needs to come home,’ and I’m hoping there will not be pushback,” Masiel-Zamora said.

Museum leaders have been preparing for the new regulations for months, consulting lawyers and curators and holding lengthy meetings to discuss what might need to be covered up or removed. Many institutions are planning to hire staff to comply with the new rules, which can involve extensive consultations with tribal representatives.

The result has been a major shift in practices when it comes to Native American exhibitions at some of the country’s leading museums — one that will be noticeable to visitors.

At the American Museum of Natural History, segments of the collection once used to teach students about the Iroquois, Mohegans, Cheyenne, Arapaho and other groups will be temporarily inaccessible. That includes large objects, like the birchbark canoe of Menominee origin in the Hall of Eastern Woodlands, and smaller ones, including darts that date as far back as 10,000 B.C. and a Hopi Katsina doll from what is now Arizona. Field trips for students to the Hall of Eastern Woodlands are being rethought now that they will not have access to those galleries.

What might seem out of alignment for some people is because of a notion that museums affix in amber descriptions of the world,” Decatur said. “But museums are at their best when they reflect changing ideas.”

Exhibiting Native American human remains is generally prohibited at museums, so the collections being reassessed include sacred objects, burial belongings and other items of cultural patrimony. As the new regulations have been discussed and debated over the past year or so, some professional organizations, such as the Society for American Archaeology, have expressed concern that the rules were reaching too far into museums’ collection management practices. But since the regulations went into effect on Jan. 12, there has been little public pushback from museums.

Much of the holdings of human remains and Native cultural items were collected through practices that are now considered antiquated and even odious, including through donations by grave robbers and archaeological digs that cleared out Indigenous burial grounds.

This is human rights work, and we need to think about it as that and not as science,” said Candace Sall, the director of the museum of anthropology at the University of Missouri, which is still working to repatriate the remains of more than 2,400 Native American individuals. Sall said she added five staff members to work on repatriation in anticipation of the regulations and hopes to add more.

Criticism of the pace of repatriation had put institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History under public pressure. In more than 30 years, the museum has repatriated the remains of approximately 1,000 individuals to tribal groups; it still holds the remains of about 2,200 Native Americans and thousands of funerary objects. (Last year, the museum said it would overhaul practices that extended to its larger collection of some 12,000 skeletons by removing human bones from public display and improving the storage facilities where they are kept.)

A top priority of the new regulations, which are administered by the Interior Department, is to finish the work of repatriating the Native human remains in institutional holdings, which amount to more than 96,000 individuals, according to federal data published in the fall.

The government has given institutions a deadline, giving them until 2029 to prepare human remains and their burial belongings for repatriation.

In many cases, human remains and cultural objects have little information attached to them, which has slowed repatriation in the past, especially for institutions that have sought exacting anthropological and ethnographic evidence of links to a modern Native group.

Now the government is urging institutions to push forward with the information they have, in some cases relying solely on geographical information — such as what county the remains were discovered in.

There have been concerns among some tribal officials that the new rules will result in a deluge of requests from museums that may be beyond their capacities and could create a financial burden.

Speaking in June to a committee that reviews the implementation of the law, Scott Willard, who works on repatriation issues for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, expressed concern that the rhetoric regarding the new regulations sometimes made it sound as if Native ancestors were “throwaway items.”

This garage sale mentality of ‘give it all away right now’ is very offensive to us,” Willard said.

The officials who drew up the new regulations have said that institutions can get extensions to their deadlines as long as the tribes that they are consulting with agree, emphasizing the need to hold institutions accountable without overburdening tribes. If museums are found to have violated the regulations, they could be subject to fines.

Bryan Newland, the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs and a former tribal president of the Bay Mills Indian Community, said the rules were drawn up in consultation with tribal representatives, who wanted their ancestors to recover dignity in death.

Repatriation isn’t just a rule on paper,” Newland said, “but it brings real meaningful healing and closure to people.”

c.2024 The New York Times Company

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is an illustration of how scared our innocent  and unaware youngsters must have been after being kidnapped and placed in the residential schools of horror run by the settler colonialists and the churches:

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CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTIES @ RVH/MCGILL UNIVERSITY

MNN. Jan. 24, 2024. Please Post & Distribute.

A cool young kanienkehaka [Mohawk] McGill student wrote this. Pictures were added by MNN:

TITLE: “A Landscape of Contested Sovereignties: Fissure Points Arising from the Archaeological

Investigation at the Old Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec

 by Dallas Karonhianoron Canady

ID: 260987251

Dr. Peter Johansen

ANTH 450: Archaeology of Landscapes

10 December 2023 Canady 1

TIME FOR INDIGENOUS TRUTH

We shall resist by every means any aggression, any violation of the treaties, any disturbance of our people in the free use and enjoyment of our land, any usurpation of our sovereignty, any encroachment and oppression. We pledge that the noise will be heard from one end of the world to the other.” — Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (2023:167)

“[The] — David M. Schaepe (2009:244)

Ohèn:ton Tsi Karihwatéhkwen, Matters Before All Else

It is the summer of 2022. I’ve just finished my third year of undergraduate studies in anthropology at McGill University, but any sense of accomplishment I could have experienced was done away with following the death of my father on Easter Sunday. I’ve been bombarded with the responsibilities of handling his estate as his only child, just twenty-one years old. I spend most of my days at home, enraptured in a violent cycle of reminiscing on what used to be and catastrophizing about what my life could possibly become. Somehow, I managed to pick up a job working as a research assistant despite all of this. A professor in my department tasked me with reviewing and annotating some thirty-years worth of archaeological publications as it concerned the discipline’s engagement with Indigeneity, Indigenous peoples, and the concept of reconciliation. I finished my work in August, and it was around this time that I was put in touch with the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera– also known as the Mohawk Mothers. They were preparing to file an injunction in Quebec’s Superior Court to stop a construction project that was going to take place on the northwestern sector of McGill’s downtown campus (Mohawk Nation News 2022).

Canady 2

Figure 1. A screenshot of a model of the Société québécoise des infrastructures (2023) buildings of the Old Royal Victoria Hospital complex.

Known as the New Vic Project, this endeavor is framed as a collaborative effort between McGill University, the City of Montreal, and the government of Quebec to refurbish the shell of a hospital in the downtown core that has been partially abandoned since 2015. “Classic patient wards and medical facilities will be reimagined and completely reinvented,” notes the university’s website (McGill 2023), as classrooms, dormitories, research labs, restaurants and green spaces. The former Royal Victoria Hospital is considered a cultural heritage property (un immobilier de patrimoine culturel) belonging to the settler state. Further, the land that the hospital was built upon– in fact the entirety of what is now called Mount Royal– is itself considered a heritage site (Culture et Communications Québec 2023). Pursuant to Quebec’s Loi sur le patrimoine culturel (2011), this means that any and all construction taking place was to be subject to, and only to, provincial oversight.

Canady 3

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera raised three potent issues in their application for an injunction: 1) that the land encompassing the Royal Victoria Hospital and Mount Royal fell under Mohawk jurisdiction; 2) as such, in accordance with the Kaianereh’ko:wa (Great Law of Peace) the Kahnisténsera are endowed with the responsibility of protecting the land for the future generations; and 3) also in accordance with the Kaianereh’ko:wa, the Kahnisténsera are entrusted with protecting any and all children of the past, present and future– dead or alive. They came forth with hundreds of articles of evidence detailing horrific crimes that took place at the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital throughout the 20th century, including the now infamous CIA-funded MK-Ultra brainwashing experiments (Burton 2023). Most damning is eyewitness testimony provided by a former patient, Lana Ponting, who alleges that she was institutionalized alongside Indigenous children at the hospital’s psychiatric institute and had reason to believe some of them were buried on the grounds (Annable 2020). In calling for a halt to construction, the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera also demanded that there be an Indigenous-led archaeological investigation to protect any potential unmarked graves on the site.

The role of archaeology in this situation is a complex one. The investigation itself sits on a fragile border between historic and forensic, raising the question of how far in the past must a crime be committed in order to be considered archaeological and not punishable under state law. It is also unique in that it is the first search for unmarked graves of Indigenous children within the province of Quebec, in addition to the fact that this search is taking place at a hospital and not a former residential school site, as is the case elsewhere in Canada (Cooper 2023). But what I will focus on for the remainder of this paper is the way in which the Royal Victoria Hospital– as an archaeological site– has acted as a medium through which contested sovereignties are articulated, imagined and reified. I argue that in mobilizing the concept of, as well as legislation

Canady 4

relating to cultural heritage, the settler-colonial state of Quebec is in fact making a claim to territoriality and political legitimacy. This is consistent with the historic weaponization of archaeology against the Mohawk nation, which has and continues to be used as a means to usurp our authority and belonging to Land.

A History of Archaeology in Quebec

There are very few scholarly publications concerning themselves with the history of archaeology of Quebec, as compared to the plethora of literature available on the history of archaeology within Canada as a whole. This is despite the fact that the oldest archaeological collection in Canada consists of slate arrowheads found by early 18th-century laborers near Trois-Rivières, Quebec in the town of Bécancour (Clermont 2001:1079). What research does exist primarily concerns itself with the recent development of commercial archaeology in the province (Arpin and Bergeron 2006; Zorzin 2010; Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017; Gates St-Pierre 2018). These academics have largely endorsed the view that there was simply no formal discipline in the province prior to the secularization that took place during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3; Clermont 1999:8-9). Prior to this, it is argued that archaeology was an intellectual domain restricted to the interest of Catholic clergymen (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3-4), anglophone elites and foreigners (Martijn 1998:165-168).

A pillar in the history of archaeology in Quebec and Canada generally, is the re/discovery of the historic Indigenous settlement of Hochelaga in downtown Montreal circa 1860. Named the Dawson site after John William Dawson, a trained geologist and then-president of McGill University, archaeology was mobilized in this instance to “search for traces of […] Jacques Cartier’s voyage up the St. Lawrence River in 1535-1536” (Waselkov 2009:617). The existence of Hochelaga, and whether or not Cartier encountered Hochelaga or another site, have been

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debated at-length since the 19th century. Adding another degree of complexity to the Dawson site is the fact that Samuel de Champlain allegedly found, upon his return to the island of Montreal in 1603, that the village Cartier identified as Hochelaga “had disappeared entirely, leaving no trace of [its] existence” (Hale 1894:2). Dozens of archaeologists, over more than a century, have devoted exorbitant amounts of time and energy in an attempt to identify the ethnic identity of Hochelaga’s inhabitants. Unable to agree on any singular interpretation, this resulted in the creation of the mythic “St. Lawrence Iroquoians” (Trigger 1968). This ethno-historical label describes a group of Indigenous peoples who share traits with contemporary Indigenous nations, but indeterminately so. As described by James F. Pendergast (1975:50):

“[…] There was a large group of Iroquoians in the St. Lawrence River Valley above Hochelaga, present-day Montreal, who were not Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Huron, or any of the other historic Iroquoian tribes to which they have been attributed. It is postulated that this distinct group of Iroquoians, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, are the result of an in-situ development in the upper St. Lawrence River Valley during the period A.D. 1250-1575 [emphasis added].”

This narrative profoundly usurps any kind of modern-day claims to political authority and belonging to land made by Indigenous peoples, particularly as it concerns the Mohawks who have insisted that much of the St. Lawrence Valley was known and inhabited by our ancestors (Hall 2023; Gabriel-Doxtater and Van den Hende 1995; Delaronde and Engel 2015). By establishing the St. Lawrence Iroquoians as an entity separate and distinct from contemporary First Nations, and therefore non-existent in the present, archaeologists have created an imagined landscape. This landscape can be understood as res derelictae– that is, abandoned by its original inhabitants. Unoccupied territories fall under the domain of the Doctrine of Discovery: “the legal means by which Europeans claimed rights of sovereignty, property, and trade in regions they allegedly discovered” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 2015:192). This blatant, yet unchallenged denialism has formed the roots of archaeological theory and practice in the

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province of Quebec, and beyond. In the next section, I will outline the ways in which archaeology has affirmed the authority of the settler-colonial state following its absorption into the Quebec government post-Quiet Revolution.

Archaeology, Colonialism, and the Codification of Heritage

Due to time and page constraints, I’m unable to discuss the particularities of the Quiet Revolution. However, there are two primary outcomes of the Revolution that are relevant to my endeavor here. The first of which concerns secularization and the centralization of public services under the provincial government, and secondly, the rise of Quebecois ethnonationalism. Both of these factors were influenced, in part, by growing anxieties about Quebec’s ability to determine its own place within Canada and an increasingly globalized world. It is within this socio-political milieu that archaeology came to be seen as an exploitable resource, one that politicians in particular needed to draw upon were they to advance their claims of a culturally distinct and/or sovereign Quebec (Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017:415-16). Additionally, the government’s investment into archaeology as an institution manifested as a form of ‘speaking back’ to the minority of anglophone elite that dominated in the realms of politics and the economy since Quebec came under the jurisdiction of the British Crown in 1763. In many ways, the Quiet Revolution signaled the commitment of a majority of Quebecois to securing the right to self-determination.

1961 saw the establishment of a provincial archaeological regime in the creation of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and its Service d’archéologie et d’ethnologie (Martijn 1998:150). L’Université de Montréal and McGill University founded their departments of anthropology soon thereafter, in 1961 and 1968, respectively (Gates St-Pierre 2018:3). The first piece of legislation to be passed concerning archaeology and cultural heritage in Quebec was the Loi sur les Biens

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culturels (“Cultural Property Act”) in 1972. This, alongside the concurrent Loi sur la qualité de l’environnement (“Environmental Protection Act”) mandated developers in the private and public sectors to investigate the archaeological potential of sites prior to construction or demolition, and report their findings back to the Minister of Cultural Affairs (Zorzin and Gates St-Pierre 2017:414). This included the newly incorporated infrastructure conglomerate, HydroQuébec. In fact, commercial archaeology largely developed in response to the overwhelming number of hydroelectricity projects taking place in Northern Quebec throughout the 1960s and 70s– projects that the provincial Service d’archéologie et d’ethnologie was ill-equipped to finance (Martijn 1998:171). Ultimately, archaeologists working in the province throughout the late 20th century were tasked with identifying and protecting aspects of cultural heritage while navigating the intense infrastructural demands associated with nation-building and modernization.

How exactly is cultural heritage defined under the provincial legislation? Under the Loi sur les Biens culturels, there was no definition of cultural heritage per se. Rather, a bien culturel (literally, “cultural good”) was defined as “a work of art, a historic property, a historic monument or site, an archaeological property or site, or a cinematographic, audiovisual, photographic, radio or television work” (1985 [1972]:3). In contrast, the act that succeeded the original 1972 legislation, the Loi sur le patrimoine culturel (2011) elaborated on several heritage-related terms. An objet patrimonial is classified as “a movable property […] that has archaeological, artistic, emblematic, ethnological, historical, scientific, social or technological value, in particular a work of art, an instrument, furniture or an artifact” (2011:5). Further, paysages culturels patrimonials (“cultural heritage landscapes”) are defined as lands “recognized by a community for [their] remarkable landscape features […] and are worth conserving and, if applicable, enhancing because of their historical or emblematic interest, or their value as a source of identity” (2011:5).

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It is never explicitly stated whose heritage or culture is being referred to in the act. Legally speaking, objects and sites of cultural heritage themselves are stated to “belong to the owner (whether private or public) of the land where they are found” (Gates St-Pierre 2018:5). This is a reflection of the Quebec government’s disengagement with the management and implementation of archaeological practice since the 1990s, wherein it has relegated more and more power to municipalities and private corporations. This does not, however, reflect a diffusal of Quebecois ethnonationalism or a disinterest in cultural heritage. Rather, I would argue that Quebec’s release of much of the control it originally allotted itself in the Loi sur les Biens culturels signifies two things– one being a certain comfortability/air of stability with narratives surrounding Quebec’s history and Quebecois identity, and the other being the implication of private entities in the protection/enforcement of the province’s authority and claims to territoriality. In other words, neither colonialism nor archaeology have disengaged from their reliance on each other– their relationship has merely transformed to fit the demands of capitalist settler-colonial realities.

Kahentinétha et al. vs. Société Québécoise des Infrastructures et al. (2023)

My historical overture of archaeology and heritage law in Quebec serves as a framework that one can use to understand in greater depth the situation that has arisen at the site of the Old Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, which I described briefly in the introductory section of this essay. Here, I aim to dig into the specificities that make this archaeological site a landscape of contested sovereignties. Given that the parties involved remain in court and fieldwork is on-going, my analysis should be taken with a grain of salt, insofar that the situation could develop significantly from now (December 2023) onwards. The case brought forth by the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera is precedent-setting in the context of Quebec, and even more so

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for First Nations across Canada who are engaged in on-going searches for missing and murdered Indigenous women, children and two-spirit folks. As the New Vic Project is taking place within a site registered as a heritage property (the Old Royal Victoria Hospital), which itself sits within the context of a greater heritage landscape (Mount Royal), it is subject to the oversight of the government of Quebec. This includes the Ministry of Culture and Communications, which is responsible for approving archaeology and construction permits, as well as the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), an intergovernmental entity that acts as a property manager for the province. Under the Loi sur le patrimoine culturel, public and private institutions alike have no requirement to notify or consult Indigenous peoples about infrastructure work, archaeological investigations, or changes to heritage legislation/status. Rather, the Minister of Culture and Communications is merely entrusted with the power to “enter into agreements […] with a Native community represented by its band council” should such an agreement lead to the development of “knowledge of cultural heritage and protect, transmit or enhance that heritage” (2011:26). This framework is problematic for several reasons: 1) it establishes the acknowledgement of Indigenous presence and authority as optional; 2) the only Indigenous political body that could possibly be acknowledged or collaborated with is the federally-imposed band council system, and; 3) such agreements should only be drawn up if they are perceived as being beneficial to the settler state.

McGill University (2023), as a party leasing land from the SQI for its portion of the New Vic Project, alleges that it “engaged Indigenous communities” as early as 2019, in an effort towards “making the New Vic welcoming and culturally safe for the entire Montreal community.” This included, among other things, notices sent to the three Mohawk band councils surrounding the island of Montreal– but no notice was sent to the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera,

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whom I will reiterate are the traditional title holders under the Kaianereh’kó:wa (Hall 2023; Hill 2017). In my personal experience working with the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera, I’ve come to conclude that Indigenous involvement in the New Vic Project was either an afterthought, or a thought given very little critical attention. For example, McGill University, the SQI and its contracted archaeological firm Arkéos, proceeded with archaeological fieldwork during the two days that the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera’s motion for an injunction was being heard in Quebec’s Superior Court in October 2022 (CBC News 2022).

Only after the judge mandated collaboration did McGill and SQI enter into negotiations to do so. This resulted in the creation of a settlement agreement between the parties in April 2023. A legally enforceable contract, the agreement outlines the nature of the parties’ collaboration as well as the parameters that the archaeological investigation must follow. Crucially, this included the following: 1) the investigation must be Indigenous-led; 2) must conform to Indigenous laws and protocols; 3) must be in accordance with archaeological best practices, as outlined by the Canadian Archaeological Association; and, 4) must be undertaken in the spirit of reconciliation (Falconers LLP 2023a). Additional safeguard measures were put in place by the settlement agreement to ensure these articles were followed, including the establishment of a third-party expert panel of archaeologists and a body of Indigenous cultural monitors to survey fieldwork as it progressed.

A degree of collaboration took place in the summer of 2023, especially after the allegations of unmarked graves were verified by historic human remains detection dogs in June (Fournier 2023a) and ground-penetrating radar in July (Grewal 2023). However, any trust that existed between the parties was shattered after the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera and Indigenous cultural monitors were assaulted on-site by an SQI-hired security guard in July (Fournier 2023b).

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Tensions were further exacerbated that same month when McGill University and the SQI signaled their intent to dismiss the expert panel and most, if not all, of their recommendations for best practices (Falconers LLP 2023b). Additionally, throughout my time working as a cultural monitor at the New Vic site, I either experienced firsthand or witnessed service providers’ (archaeologists, GPR technicians, among others) open hostility to any questions or concerns raised about their methods and/or analyses. Then in October 2023, the SQI stated that they were no longer going to allow the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera to be present on the site, regardless of whether or not archaeological digs were taking place. With the safeguards they had fought so hard for made void by McGill University and the Société québécoise des infrastructures, they turned once more to the court for help. On November 20th, 2023, a judge once again ruled in their favor, finding McGill and SQI in breach of the settlement agreement (Falconers LLP 2023b). But no degree of punishment or enforcement of the law has been seen since, even as archaeological work has increasingly given way to full-on construction and demolition efforts.

Conclusion

What the case put forth by the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera does in this instance is disrupt the normative assumptions that Quebecois political authority and territoriality are inherent, unquestionable and absolute; and further, that a landscape or aspects of a landscape are ‘things’ that can be owned. In demanding to not only be consulted but to lead the archaeological investigation, the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera are asserting Mohawk sovereignty and their unrelinquished title to land. The inability of colonial institutions such as universities and governments to recognize Indigenous political authority outside of the band council system, and therefore, the inability to recognize Indigenous authority as existing beyond the confines of the reserve system, reflects an inability to accept Indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination

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and sovereignty. These profound disconnections, notes David Schaepe (2009:244), “remain as points of contention and conflict” so long as the same relational dynamic exists between colonial and Indigenous bodies, and/or as long as one continues to assert an existence that negates the life of the other. At the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital, divergent understandings of landscapes and sovereignty has resulted in an almost complete divergence from the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnisténsera’s mandate: to find and protect the unmarked graves of children.

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Arpin, Roland and Yves Bergeron 2006                                                                                                                                        Developing a Policy on Cultural Heritage for Quebec. Museum International 58(4): pp. 70-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0033.2006.00585.x.

Burton, Orisanmi 2023                                                                                                                                                                                  New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners. Truthout, June 22nd, 2023. Accessed December 7th, 2023. https://truthout.org/articles/new-docs-link-cia-to-medical-torture-of-indigenous-childrenand-black-prisoners/.

CBC News 2022                                                                                                                                                                          Kanien’kehá:ka Elders Win Fight for Injunction to Stop Work at Montreal’s Old Royal Victoria Hospital, October 28th, 2022. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6632734.

Clermont, Norman 

1999 Archéologie: La préhistoire québécoise. In Québec 2000. Multiples visages d’une culture, edited by Robert Lahaise, pp. 57-75. Éditions Hurtubise: Montreal.

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Falconers LLP 2023a                                                                                                                                                                           Historic Deal in Search of Indigenous Children: Mohawk Mothers Succeed in Holding McGill and Quebec Accountable. Webpage, accessed December 10th, 2023. https://falconers.ca/historic-deal-in-search-of-indigenous-children/.

2023b McGill/SQI Found in Breach of Court Ordered Settlement for Firing Expert Panel at Royal Vic Redevelopment. Webpage, accessed December 10th, 2023. https://falconers.ca/mcgill-sqi-found-in-breach-of-court-ordered-settlement-for-firing-exp ert-panel-at-royal-vic-redevelopment/.

Fournier, Emelia 2023a                                                                                                                                                                          Cadaver Dogs Sniff Out Potential Human Remains Near Old Royal Victoria Hospital Site. Webpage, accessed December 10th, 2023. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/cadaver-dogs-sniff-out-potential-human-remainsnear-old-royal-victoria-hospital-site/.

2023b Video Shows Security Guard Confronting Mohawk Mothers at University Site in Montreal. Webpage, accessed December 10th, 2023. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/video-shows-security-guard-confronting-mohawk-mothers-at-university-site-in-montreal/.

Gabriel-Doxtater, Brenda K. and Arlette Kawanatatie Van den Hende 1995                                                                                           At the Woods’ Edge: An Anthology of the History of the People of Kanehsatà:ke. Kanehsatà:ke Education Center: Kanehsatà:ke.

Gates St-Pierre, Christian 2018                                                                                                                                                          Quebec Archaeology. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Claire Smith, pp. 1-9. Springer Publishing, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2632-1.

Government of Quebec 1985 [1972] Loi sur les biens culturels. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/B-4.

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Grewal, Jasjot 2023                                                                                                                                                                                McGill Reports Nine Potential Grave Zones at New Vic Site a Week After Security Verbally Assaulted Mohawk Mothers. Webpage, accessed December 10th, 2023. https://www.thetribune.ca/news/mcgill-reports-nine-potential-grave-zones-at-new-vic-site -a-week-after-security-verbally-assaulted-mohawk-mothers-04092023/.

Hall, Louis Karoniaktajeh 2023                                                                                                                                                          Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival, eds. Philippe Blouin, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny and Kahentinetha Rotiskarewake.. Between the Lines Ltd., Toronto.

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Hale, Horatio 1894                                                                                                                                                                                      The Fall of Hochelaga: A Study of Popular Tradition. Journal of American Folklore 7(24): pp. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.2307/532956.

Hill, Susan 2017                                                                                                                                                                                          The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg. https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1027127440.

Martijn, Charles A. 1998                                                                                                                                                                              Bits and Pieces, Glimpses and Glances: A Retrospect on Prehistoric Research in Quebec. In Bringing Back the Past: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Archaeology, edited by Pamela J. Smith and Donald Mitchell, pp. 163-190. University of Ottawa Press: Ottawa.

McGill University 2023                                                                                                                                                                                The Site: The New Vic Project. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.mcgill.ca/newvic/site.

Mohawk Nation News 2023 Mohawk Mothers File Case August 25th, 2022. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2022/08/27/mohawk-mothers-file-case-aug-25-22/.

Pendergast, James F. 1975                                                                                                                                                                          An In-Situ Hypothesis to Explain the Origins of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Ontario Archaeology 25(1): pp. 47-55.

Schaepe, David M. 2009                                                                                                                                                                      Identity and the Cultural Landscape of S’ólh Téméxw. In Be of Good Mind: Essays on the Coast Salish, edited by B. G. Miller, pp. 234-259. UBC Press, Vancouver.

Société québécoise des infrastructures 2023                                                                                                                      Requalification du site de l’ancien Hôpital Royal Victoria. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://projetroyalvictoria.com/.

Trigger, Bruce 1968                                                                                                                                                                        Archaeological and Other Evidence: A Fresh Look at the ‘Laurentian Iroquois.’ American Antiquity 33(4): pp. 429-440. https://doi.org/10.2307/278594.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada 2015                                                                                                              Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Library and Archives Canada: Ottawa.

Waselkov, Gregory A. 2009                                                                                                                                                                    French Colonial Archaeology. In International Handbook for Historical Archaeology, edited by Teresita Majewski and David Gaimster, pp. 613-628. Springer Publishing, Cham.

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Zorzin, Nicolas 2010                                                                                                                                                                      Archéologie au Québec: portrait d’une profession. Archéologiques 23(1): pp. 1-15. https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=t rue&db=ahl&AN=56518674&scope=site.

Zorzin, Nicolas and Christian Gates St-Pierre 2017                                                                                                                                The Sociopolitics of Archaeology in Quebec: Regional Developments within Global Trends. Archaeologies 13(1): pp. 412-434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-017-9328-4.”

This is celebration time. So come on. Bring the good times.  Stand up and move your feet with Kool and the Gang: 

mohawknationnews.com

MohawkMothers.ca 

kahnistensera@riseup.net

kahentinetha2@protonmail.com POBox 991, kahnawake Que.  Canada. J0L 1B0

EVERYBODY KNOWS

 

Please post & distribute.

 

 

MMN. Jan, 1 2024. Everybody knows and agrees that the defendants violated the judge’s order. If there is no more agreement, then the case reverts to the original mandate. The judge can force the defendants to obey his order of October 27th 2022. In our way, if two indigenous people work out an agreement, and one  violates it, then there would be some kind of serious confrontation. According to all parties, “this was agreed to so that the differences could be resolved in a nice way”. The plaintiffs did all they could to fulfill the agreement. We’ve never withheld any information. Now they lost another argument and have appealed it. 

Finding our children is our destiny. Our three issues are: finding our children, who killed them, and who is accountable. We are unfamiliar with the white man’s court system. We know our system of justice, the kaianerekowa. These children were brought here to McGill and its institutions and they died here. We must find them. Those responsible must be held accountable. Everybody knows murder is a crime. We want proof. Our murdered children are being found all over turtle island. Obviously the institutions do not want to be charged or held accountable. 

The corporation of Canada and its institutions are concerned about money. Their investors want to keep McGill going to make military and mental hardware. They don’t appear to be concerned about students. Quebec Premier Legault wants a French Quebec Republic on indigenous land! Impossible! Mcgill wants to keep everybody at bay. We came to this court because it is their way of law. We have our own justice system with checks and balances that far outweigh the colonial corporate construct of Canada. Since they appear not willing to follow our justice system, the only appellant court we will recognize is the World Appellant Court in The Hague.  

Remember, this is a crime scene. Everybody knows no one is suppose to contaminate a crime scene. If the victims were other than indigenous, nobody would tolerate such tampering of evidence. It is not in McGill’s interest for the truth of the crime to be revealed. 

Sections 35 and 52 of the Constitution Act of Canada 1982 states clearly that Section 35 recognizes the indigenous culture and principles; and Section 52 acknowledges the supremacy of the indigenous way on mother earth. All other laws are null and void. We must find our children. Even Prime minister Trudeau vowed, “We’re going to find those bodies”. 

The judges of the appeal court are appointed by the Prime Minister. So there is a bias here. Our great peace does not recognize the white man’s system. The colonial Constitution Act of 1982 provides that Canada has recognized aboriginal rights which lays the groundwork for the supreme court of Canada to deal with this issue. This ground breaking precedent applies throughout turtle island. McGill and SQI are trespassing on turtle island of which we are the caretakers since time immemorial to the end . We cannot give it up as we belong to the land. Today we are imprisoned in reserve compounds throughout turtle island.  

The appeals court judges must become acquainted with us to understand our natural position on our motherland. We are constantly being bashed with procedural rules from a foreign system of lawyers who take oaths to foreign entities. They create procedural swamps of foreign sewage. 

They try to erase the reality of the murders of our children to stops us from saying anything. They make it like nothing ever happened by putting the genocide into foreign concepts.

The same entity sets up the courts, appoints the judges, makes up those biased laws to cover up their crimes and also carry out the crimes without impunity. This is a “stacked deck”. Like las vegas the house always wins. The “house” is the court of appeal. 

The kasatstensera kowa soiera is the ‘great natural power’ that provides us with the ‘way’ that we are to live, according to the instructions of creation with all our brothers, sisters, families, which includes the natural world of which we are a part.  

No one ever asked us if we agreed to their reservation system or their Admiralty Court system. The citizens of Canada today have never been asked if they agree to be ruled by a Governor General and Privy Council mocking a foreign autocrat.  We wonder what is wrong with the Canadian people who do not event think of these things. The shareholders of the company of Canada don’t ever want their corporate property/citizens to vote on any constitution.

Leonard Cohen says that “Everybody knows”:

Thahoketoteh@ntk.com. Court communication

MohawkMothers.ca

kahnistensera@riseup.net

mohawknationnews.com. box 991 kahnawake que. canada J0L 1B0

kahentinetha2@protsonmail.com

MCGILL MAMBO APPEALS JUDGE’S ORDER

 

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MNN. Jan, 1, 2024. The McGill Mambo is very similar to the Toronto “two-step” where the provincial and federal governments dance amongst each other while absolutely ignoring the indigenous ways and court procedures.

McGill is not following the rules of the court. Judge Moore’s direction is being ignored. Also they are not giving us the data on their excavations of the Indigenous-owned McGill landscape. We must investigate every shovelful they take looking for our babies.

It is now over a month since the judge of the Quebec Superior Court made the order to restore the Expert Panel to find our murdered children, the victims of MKUltra and other experiments. McGill pays no attention. They fired the expert panel on July 6, 2023.

We have worked very hard to bring this application to the court and how duplicitous are McGill and SQI. In court on December 1 they said they were not applying it. In fact, they were appealing it! We want a court order to stop all work right now or they will land in jail!

McGill is taking the tuition fees of the students to stop us from finding our murdered children.

This investigation must be put back on track as soon as possible. This situation Is chaotic and shameful. They show no respect for us indigenous women.

It looks like they will do anything to stop the investigation and to prevent the expert archaeological panel from investigating.  We won the appeal. We have no money nor lawyers to deal with this. Breaking the court order indicates to us that they are delaying any legal procedures that would delay their renovation of our lands, Mount Royal, Montreal and McGill University.   

It’s detrimental for them to continue their ‘denialist’ approach. They dismiss what the search dogs found. Then they used mechanical sifters to break up the soil so that the bones could not be identified so it cannot be established as to whether they are human or animal. The material is now too fine to identify.

We have to go to court again on January 16, 2024.

Nobody has ever heard of this kind of treatment of human remains except for Jimmie Rodgers who was out in the field looking to get mules to skin for his family: “Good morning, Captain. Good morning to you, son.  Do you need another mule skinner out on your new mud line. yodelayhee”…..[Sing along with Jimmie, “mule skinner blues”]:

Mule Skinner Blues Jimmie Rodgers with Lyrics

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Thohoketoteh@ntk.com Court Communications

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box 991. kahnawake que. canada J0L 1B0 kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

UNREST IN THE COURT DEC. 1, 2023

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Mister Justice, the Kahnistensera made a submission regarding that motion on Case Management, as follows:

MNN. Dec. 1, 2023. “Shekon Judge. I unfortunately have to remind you of a very grave matter about the Defendants TOTAL DISRESPECT for the law. There have been some exchanges between the Special Interlocutor, the Defendants and us since the latest Court Order that you issued.. unrest in the courtMr. Justice, on November 20th 2023, these exchanges are EXTREMELY concerning.  One comes to wonder whether the Defendants consider themselves to be bound by the law as everyone else is in Canadian society.  We wrote to the SQI and McGill immediately after we received your judgment, proposing that we write a joint message to the Expert Panel to share the Judgment and prepare updated information on the archaeological interventions that took place on the site since the Panel was wrongfully disbanded. 

The Defendants responded on November 23rd 2023, that they were “currently studying Judge Moore’s latest decision”, and that “excavation work can continue without interruption”. The language is similar to the email McGill sent to all its students and faculty on November 21st 2023, where they said, “We will study the decision and its implications more fully in the days to come. In the meantime, as per the court’s decision, the work at the site may continue”. The main decision within the Judgment to reinstate the Panel was not mentioned.

Ten days after your Judgment was rendered, we still haven’t heard back from the Defendants. I don’t know how much time it will take them to study the 12-page Judgment you issued, Mister Justice. It took us a couple of hours, without any lawyers to help us. It might take them a few months, or a few years, after the New Vic Project is completed, to actually read the Judgment and contemplate ways to implement it! They seem to have all the time they needed to plan and execute excavation work on the site, which continued ceaselessly.

The patch in front of the Hersey Pavilion McGill where the dogs detected the scent of human remains has now become a huge hole. Ethnoscop produced a report regarding the investigation of the dog alert. They say they didn’t find a burial. More precisely, they say that they sifted 150 bone fragments most of which are too small to determine whether they’re animal or human, and ended up suggesting that they must be animal because of the “archaeological context”, not even explaining what the context was. As far as we know, the context is that search dogs smelled human remains there. 

We recall the Defendants had decided to move the piles of soil excavated where the dogs smelled human remains to another location so they could start their project there. We opposed this because we feared that it would damage any bones contained in that soil.

So the piles were moved elsewhere against our consent. They were sifted using a huge machine normally used for mining.  After being moved around and sifted in a huge machine, all that was left of the bones were fragments that are impossible to identify. This report was written on November 22nd, 2023 two days after the Court Ruling that reinstated the Expert Panel. But the Defendants were too busy to implement it. They just let everything continue in the meantime. 

On November 21st, the counsel for the Special Interlocutor shared a letter with all parties suggesting to “work together to enable the Expert Panel to resume its work” by setting a meeting “to outline draft contracts for the Expert Panel” and to discuss whether to replace Justine Bourgignon-Tetrault or to continue with a two-person panel, in accordance with your suggestion, Mister Justice. What did the Defendants do? They never responded. Were they too busy rereading the Judgment? Your Judgment was clear, Mr. Justice, in stating that continuing the work without the oversight of the Expert Panel creates irreparable harm. It’s written in black and white. 

So it’s obvious that if anyone receives a Court Order to have supervision of your excavation work by a Panel of Experts, your priority is to respect that Court Order and reach out to the Panel.  

It’s now been 11 days since the Court Order was issued, and nothing was done to implement it. That’s in addition to the month that passed since the hearing on October 27, 2023, which was in addition to the almost two months that passed since the Expert Panel was unilateraly fired by the Defendants, transforming this investigation into a blatant insult to our intelligence. The Defendants proved these last 11 days, including the three months before, that they have no intention whatsoever of respecting our concerns and even respecting the law. 

They now want to get rid of the Special Interlocutor to leave us without any oversight from any qualified person committed to the sacred work of protecting unmarked burials. The Special Interlocutor and her attorneys played an essential role in allowing the settlement agreement to happen and to bring some sort of agreement and legibility to this mess.

We’re sorry that it comes to that point, but we have no choice but to ask this court to act upon its own rulings and to compel the defendants to respect its decisions. The Court Order issued on November 20th clearly acknowledged the irreparable harm caused by the Defendants’ refusal to abide by the recommendations of the Expert Panel. Eleven days after the Court Ruling was issued we’re still at the same point. The Panel hasn’t even been told that it’s been reinstated because the Defendants keep postponing the very first step which is to announce the Court Ruling to them. It appears their bad faith is such that they won’t do anything cooperative if it’s not directly ordered in black and white.

If the Judgment doesn’t say that the Panel has to be contacted by the specific date, they’ll just never tell them that they’re reinstated! And during that time, we are being hurt and hurt and hurt every single day the excavation moves forward.

Here’s a story. We’re in the desert and we have a gallon of water for two people, and the court orders that we should share the water. But I actually have the water bottle, and when I learn about the court order I start saying that I have to read and re-read it and think about it. But, in the meantime I actually end up drinking the whole gallon of water. What would that mean? To me it’s crystal clear. It means that the law is breached. That’s all there is to it. 

That’s all I have to say”. Kahentinetha of the Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers.

Ted Nugent, the Motor City Madman, exclaims: “Sabotage on the downtown streets. Police cars overturned. Can’t do nothing to beat the heat. And if you don’t, you’ll get burned. Sleek women behind every door. Cost more money than you got. You best be up if you want some more cause if you don’t, you’ll be shot. Dog, dog eat dog. [4 times].

Kamikaze from the 100th floor, swan dive to the street. He couldn’t handle this mad house no more. He craved that sweeter meat. Yeah, dog, dog, dog eat dog…..”

thahoketoteh@ntk.com MNN Court Correspondent

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MohawkMothers.ca

mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

INCONSISTENT ACCESS TO INFO FOR MOHAWK MOTHERS

 

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MNN. Dec.2, 2023. In the “Admiralty law of the seas” the judge is the Captain of the ship, which is the courtroom, and the banker, who decides who will pay what to who. He decides who will be overthrown or put in the brig. On Friday he told everybody to “Figure it out” and left the ship. Everybody was put on “shore leave”!  See Mohawk Mothers Statement.

On Nov. 1, 2023, the Mohawk Mothers went to Montreal Quebec Superior Court to ask the judge to help get the files on the genocide of the indigenous supposedly commissioned by McGill University and the province of Quebec. These documents are being kept in top secret vaults by the supposed perpetrators. The few who survived one of the biggest holocausts in all humanity are being grossly studied. Indigenous were given numbers, their names changed, they were moved all over, experimented on and “disappeared”. Now the state and its institutions whick are in charge do not want the indigenous to have this information. Shouldn’t the indigenous decide who can have this information about themselves? The so called perpetrators and their lawyers presently have total control!

The indigenous want to go into these vaults to review what is left in the stored boxes. Confidentiality clauses were enacted to allow only certain researchers they permit to see them. The indigenous never consented to their children being taken and never seen again. Now the perpetrators hide behind their confidentiality laws to create books and papers about the indigenous people.

The trauma only becomes worse with each betrayal. Each time Mohawk Mothers make agreements these promises are broken so the genocide continues to be hidden. 

The historians and politicians of the corporation of Canada have been trying to wipe out the indigenous from their history. The land and resource owners, placed on onowarekeh, turtle island, by creation, just don’t fit into their ideological needs of the evolving ‘national’ identity of Canada. Free indigenous are not to be part of the public and educational memory. They are to remain hidden deep in the ground, never to be seen or thought of. The historian’s mission is to organize the historical information in a new way – without the indigenous. 

Maybe we should be looking ahead like Zager and Evans:

In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may findIn the year 3535Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lieEverything you think, do and sayIs in the pill you took todayIn the year 4545You ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyesYou won’t find a thing to chewNobody’s gonna look at youIn the year 5555Your arms hangin’ limp at your sidesYour legs got nothin’ to doSome machine’s doin’ that for youIn the year 6565You won’t need no husband, won’t need no wifeYou’ll pick your son, pick your daughter tooFrom the bottom of a long glass tube
In the year 7510If God’s a coming, He oughta make it by thenMaybe He’ll look around Himself and sayGuess it’s time for the judgment dayIn the year 8510God is gonna shake His mighty headHe’ll either say I’m pleased where man has beenOr tear it down, and start again
In the year 9595I’m kinda wonderin’ if man is gonna be aliveHe’s taken everything this old earth can giveAnd he ain’t put back nothing
Now it’s been ten thousand yearsMan has cried a billion tearsFor what, he never knew, now man’s reign is throughBut through eternal night, the twinkling of starlightSo very far away, maybe it’s only yesterday
In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may find

 thahoketoteh@ntk.com court reporter

mohawknationnews.com

kahnistensers@riseup.net

MohawkMothers.ca

#991, kahnawake que. J0L 1B0 kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

MOHAWKS SHOOT THE RAPIDS Press Release

 

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate publication

 

 

We indigenous are part of mother earth who continue to be targets of this ongoing genocide by foreigners. 

“Mohawk Mothers Win Superior Court Judgment.

McGill and SQI Ordered to Comply With

Settlement Agreement and to Reinstate Expert Panel”

Tio’tia:ke [Montreal]. After obtaining, one year to the day, a precedent-setting injunction halting excavation at the former Royal Victoria Hospital site to search for the unmarked graves of the victims of medical experiments, the Mohawk Mothers, also known as the Kahnistenaera, have won their bid for a safeguard order they presented at the Superior Court of Quebec on October 27, 2023.

On November 20, 2023, Justice Gregory Moore issued a judgment ordering McGill University and the Societe quebecoise des infrastructure [SQI] to abide by the Settlement Agreement they had signed with the self-represented Indigenous plaintiffs on April 6, 2023, and to respect the recommendations of the Expert Panel of archaeologists they had jointly selected. 

Justice Moore’s statement that the SQI’s and McGill’s position ending the Expert Panel’s mandate “does not set a term for the Panel’s mandate on July 17th is “too restrictive,” as the settlement agreement “does not set a term for the panel’s  involvement in the on-going search for unmarked graves” [para. 34]. According to the Judge, “The delay and costs of the overall project cannot justify the SQI’s and McGill’s unilateral reduction of their obligations under the settlement agreement, especially when doing so will cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs” [para. 39].

For Mohawk Mother kahentinetha, the Judgment is a relief. “We’ve fought so hard for two years to search for these missing children.  Our community was targeted for genocide and our children were used as guinea pigs in these horrific experiments by the CIA to see how to kill the Indian in them.  But since  McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel we had no way to keep track and trust the results of the investigation, which was now being controlled by the perpetrators of crimes against our children.  The point in signing of the Settlement Agreement was to allow the Experts to do their job, and we were betrayed. We had to do it all alone without lawyers, facing such powerful institutions. It wasn’t easy but we made it. The Judge understood that the only way this can go is in a professional way, with independent experts to oversee everything and make sure our community is informed”. 

The Mohawk Mothers submitted that McGill and the SQI had failed to implement numerous recommendations of the Expert Panel, notably refusing to share data from the Ground Penetrating Radar surveys, refusing to adopt forensic precaution to protect the chain of custody of evidence, and depriving the Mohawk Mothers of access to crucial information such as contracts with specialists.

Justice Gregory Moore found in favor of the Mohawk Mothers’ argument that the purpose of the Settlement Agreement was to rely on an independent and impartial Expert Panel to provide ongoing recommendations, in order to ensure that the New Vic Project would not result in the desecration of human remains, which survivors and search dogs indicated were on the site.  

In August 2023, McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel, one of whom had recently resigned, after they asked to implement forensic measures and peer review data from Ground Penetrating Radar. 

Although Historic Human Remains Detection Dogs had detected the scent of human remains in the area in front of the Hersey Pavilion, McGill and SQI declared that there was no evidence of burials there, suggested it was a false positive, and started large-sale non-archaeological excavation in the zone. The Mohawk Mothers were concerned that development work in the area could start before the source of human remains in the zone was established, especially inside the Hersey Pavilion, because the dogs signalled remains next to the building’s wall and because unexplained demolition work took place there. 

Judge Moore’s court ruling will allow for the independent Expert Panel to provide updated irecommendations regarding the zone and the larger site, after being cut off from the investigation since August. 

On November 5, 2023, search dogs detected the scent of human remains in yet another zone, close to the Allan Memorial institute, where the CIA’s MK-Ultra experiments on brainwashing took place in the early 1950’s and 1960’s.

The parties will be back in court on December 1st 2023. to address a motion ordering the release of records withheld by the defendants. 

The Kanien’kehaka:ka Kahnistensera [Mohawk Mothers] is a Kahnawake based group that helps Indigenous women accomplish their traditional cultural duty  as caretakers of the land, to protect all life, including their children and ancestors. They have been engaged in a legal challenge with promoters of the New Vic project to stall future excavation of the former Royal Victoria Hospital until a proper archaeological investigation is conducted, using the traditional protocols of the Kaianere’ko:wa. [Great Peace].

https:// www.mohawkmothers.csa/Contact for press: kahnistensera@riseup.net [514]463-8835 Kahnawake, P.O. Box 991, Que. J0L 1B0.

In 1990, not so long ago, the kanienkehaka Mohawks defended the land and people which speaks who hears their own way. This is our people. This is our song. It’s about peace:  

Magik Squirrel: Mohawk War Song

MohawkMothers.ca; 

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mohawknationnews.com

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