Monthly Archives: January 2007

ELIZABETH JOHNS’ “YELLOW JOURNALISM” DEMONIZES ONKWEHONWE!

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ELIZABETH JOHNS’ “YELLOW JOURNALISM” DEMONIZES ONKWEHONWE!

MNN. Jan. 25, 2007. Elizabeth Johns suddenly came on the scene in Cornwall Ontario. She is 21 years old, a recent Ryerson Journalism graduate still wet behind the ears. In no time at all, she has become a front page banner reporter for the Cornwall Standard Freeholder. She writes sensational stories, and we do mean ‘stories. The main plot and theme of these imaginative presentations focus on discrediting the Mohawks, Cornwall’s neighbor across the river.

Young Miss Johns has presented what she called “objective fact” but in fact was a biased opinion on just about every story that trickles off her computer. Most are unsubstantiated rumors, innuendos and charges. She must have gotten “A” in “yellow journalism” 340 at Ryerson.

She wrote about the two young cousins from Cornwall Island who had been murdered by two “hit men” sent in by the Bikers. These men were caught. A sensational story appeared starting on the front page giving extensive information on the leads, evidence and police reports. This eventually led the defense to declare that their clients could not get a fair trial in Cornwall or anywhere. They might get off scott free! Whose agenda does this serve? How did this sweet looking girl get ahold of police files that should have remained confidential to protect the integrity of the justice system?

The Cornwall Standard Freehold has come to be known as the editor?s mouthpiece. It publishes only the facts that the editor thinks are fit to print, rather than a full account that would be fair to everyone.

This L’il Miss Poison spread the story of a Mohawk lawyer on the front page with a photo. He had been falsely charged with sexual harassment. The story was written in a way that effectively destroyed the man’s reputation and tried to ruin his business, with the editor’s approval, of course. She stuck her knife into him and took slices off him. She did not double and triple check her sources or read between the lines of what she was told by the band council. They wanted to get rid of him and made up the charges that they thought would stick, but did not. So what’s she going to do about it now?

Her story was highly destructive and almost ruined his life. For all the harm done, this “cracked” reporter didn’t even bother to attend his trial. When the case finally got heard, he won, but at what cost? The result was acknowledged on the front page. It was too little too late. The damage was already done. Can he be given back those five years of hell on earth?

This young lady’s initiatives don’t stop here. She also wrote a disparaging story about the daughter of an Akwesasne activist who has been constantly harassed at the border at a port that is right in the middle of the community. She finally brought complaints against them before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The story tore that young girl up and questioned her integrity. Did little Miss Muffet report on the appeal to the Human Rights Commission? We don’t think so.

Who benefits from all this demonization of the Mohawks? One theory is that there is a fight between the Ontario Provincial Police with the local Cornwall Police over control of the city. It sounds like a turf war by street gangs. But these are the cops!! How are they protecting the citizens? We all know that newspapers depend on the police for tips on their stories and so they maintain a close relationship.

It started in April of 2006 when the New York Times came to Akwesasne to do a story on one of our business people. They got all kinds of information that could only come from police sources. The entire story was engineered for one purpose. The Mohawks have to be neutralized. Our spokespeople have to be discredited.

There is an attempt to stymie the position of the Mohawks as defenders of Onkwehonwe rights. In the 1920?s Paul K. Diabo, an iron worker, working in the U.S. brought a case to stop the colonial governments from stopping us from going into the U.S. to live and work. It went to the Supreme Court of the United States. It established that all Indians have a right to cross into the U.S. without hindrance because we are the original people of Turtle Island. We have continued our yearly demonstration of this right to cross this imaginary line at Niagara Falls.

For the conglomerates that are trying to run the world, multinational corporations, banks and the governments they control must neutralize all their opposition. The New York Times is one of their major mouthpieces. That’s why the yellow journalism started there. And the rest are following in hot pursuit.

Many reports on Onkwehonwe have been inaccurate or biased and the public has little means of verifying what was written. The newspaper wields a lot of political power. Little Miss Intrepid and the Freeholder often exploit their position with regard to the Onkwehonwe by putting out flamboyant and irresponsible approaches to news. The Freeholder has taken a lead in presenting distorted stories, sensationalism and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales. Or could they be supporting another agenda? One of the agendas could possibly be the purported removal of the Mohawks from Akwesasne, a strategic area.

Because of the internet, newspapers are losing circulation, advertisers and money. Yellow journalism appears to be making a big comeback in this climate. Johns appears to be willing to produce this kind of journalism of fabricating a story to fit someone’s agenda.

Something’s missing in this kid’s education. Her editor and Ryerson should both be ashamed. She’s only 21 and she’s already destroyed the reputations of so many people.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com katenies20@yahoo.com
For updates, workshops, speakers, to sign up, go to
http://www.mohawknationnews.com
Please sign the Women Title Holders petition.
Nia:wen

poster: katenies

 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT/CHILD MOLESTATION STRATEGY OF CHOICE TO ATTACK ONKWEHONWE MEN

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SEXUAL HARASSMENT/CHILD MOLESTATION STRATEGY OF CHOICE TO ATTACK ONKWEHONWE MENMNN. Jan. 25, 2007. There is a tried and true strategy being used by Indian Affairs, corporate governments and their agents to get rid of our men who question their corruption and whom they want to “get under their control”. It?s called the ?Let?s-get-him-charged-with-sexual-harassment-or-child-abuse? strategy.

Back in 1990 a band council out west received multi millions of dollars on behalf of their people. It was a settlement for a claim. Indian affairs parachuted in a blond long legged woman to become the auditor. Her salary was $1.4 million a year. She didn?t audit the money. She audited the men. Before long, fights were going on among them. One man eventually committed suicide. This auditor approached one dissenter that the Indian Affairs was particularly anxious to shut up. She tried to get him into a compromising situation so she could charge him with sexual harassment. When he confronted her about what she was trying to do, she said, ?Nobody will believe you?. He knew that too. He reported her attempts to the RCMP.

In the 1980?s there was a young warrior who was speaking out about the corruption of Indian Affairs against his people and how Onkwehonwe can assert our rights. Suddenly a woman and her daughter made charges of sexual harassment against him. He eventually won his case at the Supreme Court of Canada level. It was too late. His reputation had been destroyed. He moved away and started again somewhere else.

In the early 1990?s a warrior, who could not be faulted, was asking the corporate government too many questions they did not want to answer. He adopted children. Next thing the local social services in the community falsely charged him with child molestation. Again it was almost impossible for him to defend himself. The child accusers were protected and nothing could be revealed about them and their family background. Social Services had created the situation. Eventually the RCMP told him if he didn?t move out of the country, he would spend many years in jail.

Then recently a former ironworker turned lawyer got a job in the band council to clean up the office and get the employees working. He was charged with sexual harassment by four women. They were protected by a publication ban and could say anything they wanted. With hard work and a deft lawyer, he was able to prove that these charges were false. But his reputation and his professional practice had already been almost destroyed.

There have been many other similar instances. A common threat runs through these cases? They all threatened the powers that be. The charges were almost impossible to defend. The accusers could remain anonymous. The aim was to defame the victim for the rest of his life and to destroy their credibility with their people.

Another covert Indian Affairs operation that victimizes Onkwehonwe men is the ?Let?s-get-them-crying-at-the-healing-circles? tactic?. The courts play along by ordering our men to attend them. There they have to confess everything while being assured that whatever they say is privileged. This is not so. Sometimes when a Onkwehonwe comes forward and spills the beans on something he did 40 years ago, the next thing he knows he is charged, arrested and thrown into jail. Or he could be blackmailed into silence about the goings on that Indian Affairs wants to keep quiet or even made to do something illegal.

These circles get the information and the goods on people that can destroy them. It would seem that Indian Affairs set up these circles to get control over our people. They even train and certify those who run them. It started in 1990 after the Oka Crisis as the ?Kumik Lodge? program in the lobby of Indian Affairs? ?Tower of Terror? in Hull. They selected ?healers?, brought them in for three weeks for ?training? and then sent them out to the Onkwehonwe communities to do their ?stuff?.

Some ended up in far worse condition than when they started. The circle has no confidentiality agreement such as one would have with a lawyer or psychologist, which is on a one-to-one basis. The healers are not in positions of trust. What a setup! The Canadian government has put $350 million into the ?historical-molestation-in-residential-schools? strategy. We?ve been told by more than one person that some are offered $20,000 to say they were molested even if they weren?t. Then they have to go for ?healing?. Suddenly social services arrives on the scene and grabs their children to get them ?out of danger?.

Does this story sound familiar. This is a new version of the old genocidal scheme to get our guys and break up our families in order to weaken our society. They want to keep us so busy that we can?t ask the obvious question of why they are here and why they won?t go home to the land of their own ancestors.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com katenies20@yahoo.com
For updates, workshops, speakers, to sign up, go to
www.mohawknationnews.com
please sign the Women Title Holders petition. Nia:wen

poster: katenies

 

“IMAGINARY LINE” ISSUE FOR ALL ONKWEHONWE OF NORTH AND SOUTH TURTLE ISLAND

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At the request of various interests, this has been reposted to register our objection to the Haudenosaunee Task Force on Border Crossing representing us in “talks” with the US and Canadian colonial governments. We also provide more contacts at the end for you to put pressure on those who are making deals with the colonists over our heads.

“IMAGINARY LINE” ISSUE FOR ALL ONKWEHONWE OF NORTH AND SOUTH TURTLE ISLAND

MNN. Jan. 9th 2007. The international situation between Canada, U.S. and Mexico is not very complicated. There are two peoples involved. It is us (the Onkwehonwe) and them (the colonists).

We Onkwehonwe, also known as “Indigenous” people, have an inherent right to traverse Turtle Island. When human beings first appeared, Creation gave us the original instructions to be respectful, to live in harmony with the rest of the natural environment and to always adhere to the original ways.

The Haudenosaunee Task Force on Border Crossing [made up of Curtis Nelson, Oren Lyons, Leo Henry, Paul Williams, Darwin Hill and others] was set up without consultation with us. They appear to be cooperating with the colonists who want to issue “smart cards”, something like a credit card. Everything about us will be on that card. This is another straw to try to break the back of the Onkwehonwe.

Many of us who have been active and concerned for a long time found out for the first time this past weekend this committee was set up. They’ve already met with U.S. Homeland Security and Canada Customs and Immigration to work out compliance with colonial terms. We have not been allowed to question this committee. We resist their attempts to pressure us into accepting the colonial timelines and the proposed card which is a de facto recognition of the “imaginary line”.

Preamble

We Onkwehonwe face the US-Canada-Mexico border almost every day. Our nation-to-nation relationship with the colonists is through the U.S. President and the Her Majesty the Queen of Canada. It is governed by the principles of the Two Row Wampum Agreement. One condition of tolerating the presence of the colonists was that we would continue our pre-contact right to conduct trade and commerce and travel anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Jay Treaty (proviso)

The Jay Treaty of 1794 is a third party agreement and can have no binding effect on us. Traveling around on our homeland is a birthright, not a “privilege”. Colonists cannot interfere with our crossing of their imaginary line they call the Canada-U.S. and U.S.-Mexico borders. The Jay Treaty created the imaginary line on the 49th parallel. The Iroquois Confederacy said at the time, “It is for you, not for us”. The Confederacy would not agree to this as we were looking out for all Onkwehonwe, our friends and allies. The line between the colonies of Mexico and the U.S. was created by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. These lines allowed the colonists to illegally implement privileges and tariffs.

Article III of the Jay Treaty is a violation of international law.

“the right of aboriginal peoples (people indigenous to Canada and/or the US) to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain. This right was restated in section 289 of the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act: Nothing in this title shall be construed to affect the right of American Indians born in Canada to pass the borders of the United States, but such right shall extend only to persons who possess at least 50 per centum of blood of the American Indian race.

The Jay Treaty was made between two colonial corporations, Britain and the United States, to provide privileges for the colonial subjects. It did not include our political position. It contradicts itself when it stipulates that it would not be “construed” to affect who is and who is not an Onkwehonwe. In fact, it stipulates that this article applies to those who are “naturalized”. So an immigrant who becomes an American, Canadian or British is subject to the rules and privileges of the “corporation”.

Colonists and their “Indian” representatives speaking to band or tribal councils or incorporated “Indian” entities is not consultation. Once they thought they had pacified us and diminished our population, the colonists put these restrictions in place without informing, consulting or getting our consent. Now new restrictions are being imposed according to their “might makes right” paradigm.

We will tell the colonizers what we want, not what they want us to do. It tells us we can travel with personal belongings, not with “bales”. They wanted to extinguish trade and commerce between all Onkwehonwe. “Bales” referred to the fur trade. It meant anything that is more than one, and could not be resold. They set up a system of extortion to interfere with our ancient rights to sustain ourselves. It was similar to the killing off of all the Buffalo on the Plains.

The colonists have demonstrated their disregard for universal human law. Every human has the right to their existence, their own nationality, their land and their government.

The colonizers are trying to blackmail us into recognizing their borders between Canada, U.S. and Mexico. We have our own territories, our own understandings and respect for each other. We did not need standing armies to protect the borders of our territories because we practiced respect for those who inhabited the particular area. We still do.

Passports and Citizenship

Canada and the U.S. are trying to push us into getting Canadian or US passports to restrict and control our movements. We have a right to maintain a connection to our Onkwehone people throughout the Western Hemisphere. The colonizers are trying to class us as American or Canadian or Mexican “Indians” by illegally and violently forcing us to alienate ourselves from our birthright. They cannot make us something we are not. Today they tell us we need a card. Next they will tell us we need a mark on our forehead.

We are not members of any of these colonial entities. We cannot carry passports of foreign corporations of which we refuse to be members. These colonists are trying to make us commit an illegal act. As independent Indigenous peoples we have a right to deal with such issues based on our own laws. The colonizers are bound by agreements they have entered into such as the UN Charter of 1948 and the International Covenant on Cultural and Political Rights.

The concept of “citizenship” does not exist for us. We are Kanion’ke:haka, not citizens. A “city” is a corporation which one becomes a part of with privileges that can be taken away by the hierarchical governing body. No nation has a right to denationalize another nation.

ID Cards

There is no consistency as to what ID the colonists want. When we produce ID they punch our name into the computer and information comes up on that screen. Now they are pushing for us to have a specific ID which they will decide on and authorize. The advisors of the colonists are conforming and misleading our people. The colonists have already made a decision and are relying on the ignorance of our people to implement it. This violates international law because we were not genuinely consulted. Our laws do not allow us to give away the birthright of our children and future generations.

We have a right to decide how we will be identified. Phil Fontaine of the AFN [Assembly of First Nations] has suggested that we use their government-issued “Indian status cards”. Many Onkwehonwe don’t have such a card. A lot of imposters do.

The colonists want the micro chip in the card to contain our DNA, retina scan and finger prints. They will put this into a data base where a satellite GPS tracking system will know our whereabouts at all times. The European countries have rejected this and still require paper passports because the U.S. recommendations violate human rights.

Today the colonial governments are forcing us to shoulder the burden of threats to their national security by bringing us under their rules. Why should we? We’ve never carried out terrorist threats or acts of violence anywhere in the world.

More and more these border guards are bullying our people, trying to ensnare and control us. Intimidating tactics are being used to entrap our people into doing something that will give them a reason to detain or charge us. Cavity searches are being carried out by the customs goons which violates human rights.

Jurisdiction

The Two Row addresses the jurisdiction issue. We never surrendered our jurisdiction over ourselves or our land. Legality requires proper procedures. If they have cause to stop one of our people they can do so according to the Two Row Wampum Agreement. They can turn them over to us. It is our responsibility to deal with those who are in violation or committing a wrong and to restore the peace between our peoples.

The colonists have no right to order us to have these pass ports or anything by January 2008 or anytime. We will tell them whether we will do something or not. To follow the rule of law, the protocol is for them to meet with us. We must polish the Silver Covenant Chain and dust the Two Row Wampum. The Two Row Agreement governs our nation-to-nation relationships with the colonizers through their heads of state.

Conclusion

We Onkwehone are here to fulfill our duties and responsibilities as the Indigenous sovereigns of Turtle Island. The colonists are trying to kidnap our people from our canoe and force us to row their boat. We are being held hostage against our will in violation of the Two Row Wampum Agreement. We can only leave our canoe by our own free will. Those being forced to live under the illegal Indian Act and federal Indian law system are hostages forced to live under an alien social, economic, political system.

When times get rough the colonizers use these violent tactics to try to control us and make us lose confidence in ourselves and our traditional system. In the past when they could not defeat our people, they destroyed the things we needed to sustain us. They disconnected us from our mother, the earth. She is always there to sustain us. We continue to stand by her to protect her.

We are not afraid to defend our birthright and to protect the next generations. Onkwehonwe throughout the world are presently fighting to protect our children, our people and our land. This entire process to undermine us is a continuation of the genocide that the colonists initiated 500 years ago. Only the names and faces in the corporation have changed.

Kahentinetha Horn kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
MNN Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationnews.com

**Send your comments to anyone or any entity that you think is affected or should be concerned. Ask them about the action they are taking or know is being taken to protect Onkwehonwe independence:

Canada-US line: Haudenosaunee c/o haudenosaunee_online@yahoogroups.com;

Onondaga nosneaks2@msn.com;

Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force joyceking@westelcom.com

Ganienkeh Territory info@ganienkeh.net

On the US-Mexico line: International Indian Treaty Council http://www.treatycouncil.org

B.Norrell b_norrell@yahoo.com

poster: katenies

 

URGENT! KATENIES WILL NOT “WALK THE LINE”

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URGENT! KATENIES WILL NOT “WALK THE LINE”

MNN. January 5, 2007. All Katenies [gaw-den-yes], a Kanion’keha:ka/Mohawk, did was ask Her Majesty the Queen to explain how all her foreign corporations got jurisdiction over her and her land. They won’t tell her because they can’t. They have claimed power over her in a way that violates the principles of international law that Canada has agreed to uphold.

This youthful looking grandmother has had it up to the eye balls with the colonial abuse that our people continue to suffer. Katenies obeys the laws of the land meticulously. The problem for the colonial Canadian courts is that the laws she follows are the legitimate laws of the land. They are founded on the Kanion’keha:ka participation in the Rotinhsonnion:we/Iroquois Confederacy.

Katenies never had any problem with the law before and is being attacked with everything the colonizing corporate-judicial-military forces can throw at her. Her crime! She simply pointed out that the Queen is guilty of genocide, violations of our freedom and our inherent right to self-determination. She ordered her to return to us all her stolen money, trusts, lands, rights and possessions that were made or taken from our lands.

On December 27th, 2006 Katenies received a document that had a medieval name. It seems to be an artifact of some quaint customs that were brought here on the sailing ships by the colonizers. It is a Notice of “Estreat”. Apparently it’s a copy from their records which they will use to extract everything she has. The Court Hearing is to be in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Katenies will be sued for every question she?s asked about their illegal actions.

The Queen’s corporation has ordered her to appear at the Cornwall court on January 18th 2007 to [have a cup of tea with her and] tell her why she shouldn’t throw all the books at her. Katenies told her that we own Canada, lock stock and barrel. Their document has stamps, dates, numbers, signatures and fingerprints of the Queen’s slaves all over the paper and envelope.

In effect, it’s just another paper noose being put around our necks at gunpoint. Will the Queen be at the execution wearing dark glasses and taking pictures with her phone to be shown on the internet?

On January 3rd 2007 Katenies received a letter dated December 18th 2006 from Ronald J-L Turgeon, the Crown prosecutor, informing her that she has been charged under ?this and that? [S.11(1), 153 (c) & 153.1] of the colonial Custom’s Act. At the hearing on December 18th 2006 they quickly closed down the court when she read her questions and charges against the Queen. she had already filed and served to everyone involved. She did appear, refused to stand and then left. She then sent her document by mail to the Queen and the Governor General of Canada.

The court jesters got all flustered when she refused to stand up according to their master-slave protocol. The letter to her stated, “As you left prior to your matter being dealt with” [which is not true. They were busy ejaculating all over the courtroom and pretended she wasn’t there]. Justice of the Peace Stewart has a Bench Warrant for her arrest. Does this mean they’re going to handcuff her to some bench, or hit her with a bench?

Katenies was told that if she does not “relinquish” herself she will be jailed probably until her trial on August 10th 2007 in Alexandria. What’s this supposed to mean? It sounds like they want to institutionally rape her and beat her into submission. If these guys didn’t wear those medieval black robes, the “character” of their actions would be clearer for all the world to see. They want to confine her for their own perverse pleasure to torture her.

These weird voyeurs even asked Katenies to bring along witnesses for their “peep show” of “See Katenies in Bondage”. What is the purpose of this circus? They want to prove that they have might by pointing guns at us and being able to imprison us. This is so they can distract attention from the fact that they simply do not have jurisdiction. Corporate Canada, the charge is rape.

This whole thing started in 2003 when she was driving through the checkpoint to visit her daughter as she does every day. Then they started to harass her daughter. Why these rapacious predators decided to land on this ordinary grandmother is really difficult to understand. Now they are even scaring her 6 year old granddaughter by making her sit outside in the cold while they harass her parents. The guards want the higher ups to give them guns to make their scare tactics more effective. We can expect worse. That checkpoint should never have been there in the first place. They constantly advise us to go along with it to “make it easier on ourselves”. What do you think?

What is going on here? Katenies wants to be at the forthcoming birth of her grandchild. Are they trying to make her the female “Deskahe”? In the 1920’s he asked a similar question about the Indian Act being ultra vires the constitution of Canada. He went to the League of Nations. Canada would never let him return to Six Nations. He died in Tuscarora near Buffalo New York in 1925.

We Onkwehonwe are confronted by the US-Canada-Mexico border every day. We don’t need passports to travel freely anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. One condition of tolerating the colonial presence was that we would continue to travel anywhere on Turtle Island. We all have some kind of ID. Only we can decide how we will identify ourselves.

The AFN [Assembly of First Nations] wants us to use their government-issue “Indian status” cards. A lot of us who are real Onkwehonwe don’t have such a card. A lot of imposters do. Many of us refuse to be incorporated into Canada and become’ members of a foreign company. Incorporate means “in”. A corporation makes Canada into a “body”. We don’t want to become part of the polluted body of Canada. It all smells awful to us and we want no part of it.

Traversing our homeland is a birthright, not a “privilege” granted by them. We demand that the colonists stop interfering with our travel over their imaginary line. The Jay Treaty 1794 was a trade agreement between the United States and Britain. Ever since then the colonists have been trying to make us “walk the line”, to impose that phony line on us. They haven’t been able to do it. So now they’re trying to tie it around our necks and squeezing it as tight as they can. They are trying to drive us to desperation. But it’s not working.

No one can make us citizens of a nation we don’t want to be citizens of. No nation has a right to denationalize another nation. As independent Onkwehonwe nations we have a right to deal with such issues based on our own laws.

Under International law, we are not members of any of these colonial foreign corporations. Therefore, we cannot carry passports of foreign corporations of which we are not citizens. These drooling jackals are trying to make us commit an illegal act. If all the mystification were removed everyone would see that this all grand standing. They are creating illegal policies to determine our existence as a people. They have no right whatsoever to do this. It’s an international issue. We know many Canadians an Americans have good sense and want to belong to a decent law abiding entity.

Legality requires proper procedures and remedies. Katenies raised a legitimate legal question which has to be answered. She asked where they got their jurisdiction. The Queen and Governor General have not answered. According to law, they have to meet us on a nation-to-nation basis to polish the Silver Covenant Chain and dust the Two Row Wampum Agreement. We have to stop the ongoing theft of our lands and resources and the destruction of the environment.

Why is this ongoing bullying and threatening of Katenies continuing? The policy is probably to give resisters and their families a hard time. If these people believe in the rule of law, the next procedural step is for them to produce the proof that they have jurisdiction. That’s it!

To help and for comments, contact katenies20@yahoo.com

Kahentinetha Horn

MNN Mohawk Nation News

poster: katenies