Author Archives: Shé:kon

MOHAWK WARRIOR SOCIETY BOOK LAUNCH

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MNN. Oct. 20, 2022.

We are due in quebec superior court at 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 for our attempt to get an injunction to stop the excavation of McGill’s Allen Memorial Institute and other areas of tionni tiotialkon and tekanontak, now called Mount Royal, where there are serious suspicions of unmarked graves of our indigenous children. 

This is a book about Louis Karonhiaktajeh Hall of Kahnawake and other areas of kanienkehaka’onwe. Niawen’kowa.  

 

The Mohawk Warrior Society: Round Table and Book Launch

 

kahnistensera@@riseup.net

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING SOLIDARITY

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IMPORTANT  –

MOHAWK NATION NEWS NOTICE –

SOLIDARITY ACTIONS –

KAHNISTENSERA

SHEKON

MNN. Oct. 16, 2022. Sego. This is an important notice regarding the solidarity actions with the Mohawk Mothers that happened this week and the demonstration tomorrow. We knew nothing about this. 

The SQI has written to the Judge reporting that the offices of Arkéos were vandalized this week by people claiming to act on behalf of the Mohawk Mothers.

We are being held accountable legally of all such actions at this time, as the opponents are trying to construe us as criminals before the Judge with less than two weeks remaining before the hearing at the court on October 26, 2022.

As the plaintiffs in this matter we are being falsely considered as prime suspects in organizing these actions, thus risking police searches and prosecution, even though we have absolutely nothing to do with any of this. We remain in Kahnawake and work full time on court matters. We were not even aware that a demo was being organized. We greatly appreciate tokens of solidarity and demonstrations, but we ask you to be mindful of the dire legal repercussions for us, and the high risk of jeopardizing all the work we have invested for more than one year to obtain an injunction, which could be ruined, as well as the hope of our families to know the truth and get justice.

We invite you to consult our statements on Mohawk Nation News since last November 2021 to understand our position of peace and respect. We remind you all that skennen, peace, is one of the three pillars of the Kaianerehkowa (Great Peace), which has been and remains the way of Anowarakeh (Turtle Island) since time immemorial. It would harm us a lot if anyone was hurt, because our one and only objective as onkwehonwe and kahnistensera is to caretake the land and find our children in accordance with the Kaianerehkowa Kanien’keha:ka

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MCGILL’S NEW VIC: WHY URGENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL/CONSTRUCTION WORK!

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WHY URGENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL/CONSTRUCTiON WORK!

NOTICE OF DENIAL BY MOHAWK MOTHERS

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STATEMENT FOR MOHAWK NATION NEWS

OCTOBER 15, 2022.

 Shé:kon  We have been notified that a number of actions have taken place this > week at the dig site and the offices of Arkéos. The SQI is accusing us  of instigating them. We hereby unequivocally deny any knowledge of what > may have happened. We have absolutely nothing to do with any of this. These are false accusations causing prejudice to our legitimate concerns  regarding the unmarked graves of our children. We stress that as the  caretakers of our land and children, we are bound to follow the > kaianerehkowa, which includes skennen, peace, as one of its three > pillars. We advocate for the truth to be known, for the land and > children to be protected, and for skennen, peace, to be respected at all  times. We refute all false accusations and misinformation by anybody trying to cause prejudice to our legal process to halt the excavation of  the unmarked graves of our children.  O:nen  kanien’keha:ka kahnistensera, Kahnawake

FROM THE KAHNISTENSERA:

STATEMENT FOR MOHAWK NATION NEWS

OCTOBER 15, 2022.

PRESS ATTACHE THAHOKETOTEH@NTK.COM

kahnistensera@riseup.net

UPDATE MCGILL QUEBEC ARKEOS FAKE INFORMATION

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MNN. OCT. 11, 2022.

kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) Kahnawake kahnistensera@riseup.net October 9, 2022 OBJECT:

Re: Arkéos intervention and information meetings on the upcoming excavation in front of the Hersey pavilion of the Royal Victoria Hospital: we were informed that the SQI and McGill have declared that they would wait completing the “information meetings” before carrying out the archaeological intervention. Not so. Arkéos’s intervention can start immediately. 

We are wholly opposed to the archaeological intervention in its current form, which dismisses all the guidelines and frameworks that have been developed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and by archaeologists engaged in searching for unmarked graves since the first findings in Tk’emlúps in 2021. Disturbing ancestral and recent Indigenous burial grounds is a very serious matter in our culture, and the area in front of the Hersey pavilion show a very high risk of containing both precolonial and modern graves of our relatives.

The first ethical rule mentioned by the Canadian Archaeological Association (CAA) for searching unmarked graves states that “Any work to locate missing Indigenous children must be led by Indigenous communities”. The upcoming intervention at the RVH is not led by Indigenous people, but rather by development promoters and a private firm they hired. We note that not a single one of the 10 rules determined by the CAA for ethically conducting professional archaeological work on unmarked graves is being respected.

We have repeatedly requested that remote sensing technologies be used before breaking the ground and disturbing the remains of our families. New Vic and Arkéos have acted as if we were in the 1960’s and those technologies did not exist (GPR, cadaver dogs, resistivity tests, conductivity tests, LIDAR, etc.). In order to respectfully treat the remains of our families, we must have an idea of what is underneath the ground before breaking it, so that we will follow our cultural burial practices and the will of the survivors and families.

A bioarchaeologist will not even be on site, only on call. Our request to monitor the work has not been respected either. As the opponents are failng to take our demands into consideration, we hereby announce that we will be taking the following steps to protect the site:

1) On Tuesday October 11th, if the intervention is not postponed, we will file an official grievance to the CAA to stop the professional misconduct of Arkéos inc. and its failure to comply with its national association’s ethical guidelines for searching unmarked graves;

2) When the work starts, we will report to police authorities an ongoing criminal desecration of human remains and destruction of forensic evidence on a crime scene;

3) We will monitor the work ourselves from the sidewalk using binoculars.

As reinstated by the CAA, “the TRC directed that the work of documenting, maintaining, protecting and commemorating residential school cemeteries should be led by the affected communities and families, with guidance from residential school survivors and other Knowledge Keepers, and must respect Indigenous protocols. This work must be undertaken with the utmost care and appropriate mental health supports because of the huge potential to re-traumatize Indigenous communities.” At this stage, we have already been re-traumatized by the way that our legitimate concerns have been completely ignored by the promoters of the New Vic.

Regarding the information meetings, our duty is to inform all parties that these meetings are not consultation. We invite the SQI, as a public institution, to read the Guidelines for Federal Officials to Fulfill the Duty to Consult, which was apparently not consulted as none of its guidelines are followed. As for us, we were not available on the date that the promoters had unilaterally selected for an information meeting with us, on October 6th. We proposed a range of alternative dates, any time between October 10th and October 14th to meet at the 207 Longhouse. The promoters did not respond to our suggested dates. Instead, they told us that we could come on the next day, October 5th at 7:30pm, to the Golden Agers club, after completing the meeting between them and Band Council affiliates, as well as other meetings that day, including cigarette taxation and an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, that was canceled because of the McGill information meeting. The natural low of the community was totally disrupted. 

McGill and the SQI claimed that we declined their invitation, which is not true. That date did not work for most of us. However, two Mohawk Mothers went to the Golden Agers Club in Kahnawake at 6pm to see the information session with Band Councillors. Neither us nor anyone we know was notified by anybody that this meeting was taking place, though we are Longhouse people. We saw in the invitation shared with the court that elders were supposed to be welcome.

The two Mohawk Mothers who went are 77 and 82 years old. They found no more than five Indigenous people inside, most of whom were currently or recently under contract with McGill or Canada, and about 15 non-Indigenous people representing McGill, Arkéos and the SQI. Such situations where Mohawks are outnumbered by White people are extremely rare and sensitive in Kahnawake, as in such cases our “At the Edge of the Woods” ceremony must be followed to access our territory without trespassing.

During the presentation the unmarked graves of our people were not mentioned. All the zones that Arkéos checked in 2016 did not indicate were declared to contain no archaeological interest, regardless of the widely acknowledged fact that this section of tekanontak (Mount Royal) is the exact location of the highly populated villages of our ancestors. This silencing of our history retraumatized us. So we asked direct questions such as “Where are the bodies of our children?” The organizers reacted by calling the police to escort us out of the building.

The Kahnawake Peacekeepers were surprised to see that they had been called in to remove two of their elders who are still shocked. We are waiting for the Peacekeepers to give us the report to understand what happened. We would appreciate if the other parties could use dialogue instead of armed force to deal with differences. Even though we continue to uphold our role as caretakers of the land and the children, we are still humans, and we are still fragile as survivors and elders.

O:nen Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers), Kahnawake

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MOHAWK WARRIOR SOCIETY BOOK LAUNCH

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mohawk-warrior-book-launchImage by Kanien’kehá:a artist, author, and activist, Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, 1918-1993

https://www.facebook.com/events/839055253794046 https://www.concordia.ca/cuevents/offices/provost/fourth-space/programming/2022/10/18/mohawk-warrior-society-publication-launch.html

The Mohawk Warrior Society Book Launch and Screenings on Indigenous Sovereignty and Survival Tuesday, October 18, 2022 – Wednesday, October 19, 2022 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. 4TH SPACE J.W. McConnell Building, Concordia University 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal The Mohawk Warrior Society: Book Launch and Screenings on Indigenous Sovereignty and Survival

Join us for the launch of an unprecedented book, a public roundtable with members of the Kanien’keha:ka Rotiskenrakete of the Men’s Fire and Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera, an activist group of Mohawk women from Kahnawake, and film screenings in celebration of Indigenous culture and resilience.

THE MOHAWK WARRIOR SOCIETY: A HANDBOOK ON SOVEREIGNTY AND SURVIVAL, is the centrepiece of our events. Containing new oral history by key figures of the Rotisken’rhakéhte revival in the 1970s, this compilation tells the story of the Warriors’ famous flag and other art, their armed occupation of Ganienkeh in 1974, and the role of their constitution, the Great Peace. This book launch is part of a two-day series of events and film screenings that foreground Kanien’kehá:ka activism, culture, and current issues within the broader rubric of Indigenous sovereignty.

See below for the full schedule:

October 18 11:00am – 4:00pm Round Table and Book Launch

October 19 1:00pm – 1:15pm

Welcome and Introduction 1:15pm – 2:00pm Film Screening: “Mohawk Nation” (1978) 2:00pm – 2:15pm

Short Break 2:15pm – 2:40pm Film Screening: “Rose” (2022) 2:45pm – 4:00pm

Open Discussion How can you participate? Join us in person or online by registering for the Zoom Meeting or watching live on YouTube.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

QUEBEC COURT FAVORS MOHAWK MOTHERS SEPT. 20/22 Audio

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MNN. Sept. 26, 2022. The judgement was rendered on September 20, 2022 by Judge Gregory Moore of the Quebec Superior Court 500-17-120-468-221 Kahentinetha et al. v. Societe des infrastructure et al. concerning the right of kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers to represent themselves in court without an attorney. This judgment acknowledges that they have a right to follow the kaianerekowa.

 

Jugement beginas here:

https://mail.proton.me/u/0/inbox/gV5oY_lfZqc8Qllf6eRvkSEZcICHsD1jfU8s0VrFkC68Kk1b6uSbIH8OeN1kJHvQ2_IadloTSLROYc0WKKlwPw==

Reasons for decision:

“FOR THESE REASONS THE COURT:

DISMISSES the application for an order that would require the plaintiffs to be represented by legal counsel; 

WITHOUT prejudice to the defendants’ right to raise this issue at a later date after the hearing for an interlocutory injunction.

WITHOUT LEGAL COSTS

Gregory Moore J.S.C.”

mohawknationnews.com Box 991, kahnawake Quebec Canada J0L 1B0

kahnistensera@riseup.com

thahoketoteh@ntk.com 

TAKE BACK TEKANONTAK BY OCT. 26, 2022

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SMOKE SIGNALS

TAKE BACK TEKANONTAK [MOUNT ROYAL] 

BY OCT. 26, 2022

Tekanontak Solidarity Committee

https://vimeo.com/752710874

Early in September, a purple haze of smoke ascended over the colonial cross on top of tekanontak (Mount-Royal), at the heart of Tiotiake (Montreal). Kanien’kehà:ka oral tradition says that smoke signals sent by their ancestors on tekanontak used to be picked up in the Adirondaks, making its way down the East Coast with surprising rapidity. Our signal today calls on people across Turtle Island to “open their minds and think how to help” so that these issues do not become white noise.

Tekanontak is at the heart of a colonial dispute. In their press conference of July 27th the Mohawk Mothers detailed their legal struggle to stop the construction of McGill University’s New Vic project. The risks are damaging multiple archeological sites of Rotinonshionni presence on the island of Montreal and throughout onowarekeh, turtle island, and destroying evidence of unmarked graves from the Mk-ultra experiments on indigenous children, orphans and innocent children classed as juvenile delinquents.

Contrary to colonial history’s cover ups, the smoke signaled that it is time to make things right! Mainly to do away with the religious symbols of the atrocities committed on Indigenous peoples ever since the Europeans grabbed Turtle Island. *** To stand firm with the Mohawk Mothers, we call on all solidarity groups to join in action to end the cycle of unquestioned ways of doing.

The Mohawk Mothers have filed an interlocutory injunction to “stop excavation of unmarked graves of children and disturbance of archeological remains of kahnienkehaka/Mohawks on tekanontak [Mount Royal Montreal]”. Regardless of the upcoming hearing on 26th October to address the unmarked graves on the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill and the Société Québécoise des Infrastructures announced that they will start excavating work in early October.

*** Credits Music – Bear Fox sings Ohenton Karihwatekwen Karenna Film & Editing – Take Back Tekanontak Solidarity Committee *** Fundraiser: https://fundrazr.com/e23JRc?ref=ab_0I1Hge1ldOh0I1Hge1ldOhhttps://vimeo.com/752710874 

 https://fundrazr.com/e23JRc?ref=ab_0I1Hge1ldOh0I1Hge1ldOh

_____________________________________________________________

Unmarked Indigenous Graves on McGill Campus https://canada.detailzero.com/news/amp/47970  The Weeks take place on the sidelines of the long legal battle waged by the Kanien’kehaka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) against McGill University’s New Vic project on the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital. In this lawsuit against McGill, the City of Montreal, the Attorney General of Canada and the Société québécoise des infrastructures, the Mohawk Mothers seek an interlocutory injunction to stop the construction of the project because of suspicions ” that the site contains unmarked graves of indigenous children (tdlr) “, they express in a statement of September 17th. The hearing is set for October 26. . . . continue

HOLOCAUST [RON-WANA-SETON] MEMORIAL DAY OCT. 25/22 Audio

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MNN. Sept. 24, 2022. RON-WANA-SETON [they make the people disappear in mass graves] MEMORIAL DAY.

RON-WANA-SETON MEMORIAL DAY IS GETTING CLOSER 

OCTOBER 25, 1924 IS THE NINETY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY of the implementation by Canada of the holocaust laws known as the “Indian Lands Act” of each province. Canada gave indigenous resources to the provinces. The indigenous people were forced onto fenced in concentration camps called “reservations”. The Indian Lands Act is a 100 years business plan to rid Canada of indigenous people so the invaders can take onowarekeh, turtle island, for free and to be rid of the original people.

On October 25th 1924 the RCMP and the military put indigenous families in fenced in concentration camps. Today every reservation in Canada is still a concentration camp run by the band councils for the government. 

In the October 25, 1924 ron-wana-seton action, the indigenous people were all ages, many babies and some not even born yet. Many ran away who were disenfranchised and no longer ‘Indian’. The army snatched the children and put them into the residential schools to extinguish them. They were not allowed to leave the camps without a pass. Military permission was needed to do everything. If a child missed three days of school, they were classed as “juvenile delinquents” and removed by the truant officers. The parents were threatened with going to jail and loss of their children. The onkwehonwe indigenous houses that were taken were given to the white settlers for free.

On October 25, 2022, the people and supporters will stand for one minute of silence for the 98th anniversary of the Canadian Indian reservation ron-wana-seton system which is still upon us to this day. They tried to sever their connection to the earth. The indigenous continue to belong to their mother, the earth.  

Everyone in Canada will stand up on “The Canadian Reservation ron-wana-seton System Memorial Day” to remember the murdered indigenous people across turtle island at 11:11 A.M for one minute of silence. The dead children and murdered people who cannot stand on that day will be honored. Many died at McGill or they would have come home.

[Read Indian Lands Act]. https://caid.ca/IndLanAct1924.pdf

Grand Funk sings for these children that wanted to get home: “Everybody, listen to me and return my ship. I am your captain. I am your captain. Though I am feeling mighty sick. I have been lost now days uncounted and it’s months since I”ve been home. Can you hear me or am I all alone? If you are returning me to my home port I will kiss mother earth. Take me back now to the port of my birth. I am in my cabin dreaming or are you really scheming to take my ship away from me? You better think about it. I just can’t live without it. So please don’t take my ship from me”.

thahoketoteh MNN court reporter. Contact kahnistensera@riseup.net

Quebec Superior Court. #500-17-120-468-221  kahentinetha et al v. societe Quebecoise des infrastructure et al

 

PRESS RELEASE: MOHAWK MOTHERS CAN SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

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Judge Rules Mohawk Mothers can Speak for themselves according to their own culture. READ PRESS RELEASE

 

Audio

 

kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) Kahnawake kahnistensera@riseup.net PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION Judge Rules that Mohawk Mothers Can Represent Themselves According to their Own Culture. On September 20th, 2022 at the Superior Court in Montreal, Justice Gregory Moore ruled that the Mohawk Mothers (kanien’keha:ka kahnistensera) can represent themselves, dismissing Quebec’s motion to make them get a lawyer. His judgement acknowledged that it is contrary to Mohawk culture to be represented. The Attorney General of Quebec and the Société Québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) are leading this case to stop the Mohawk Mothers from getting an injunction to block McGill’s New Vic project. The case will be heard on October 26th . The September 20th case management hearing also addressed the intervention of the Independent Special Interlocutor on unmarked graves, Kimberly Murray, who was appointed by the Federal government last June. Murray has experience at the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the searches for unmarked graves at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. The Special Interlocutor asked the court’s permission to join the case to provide her expertise and file evidence. However, the defendants the Attorney General of Quebec and the SQI opposed her intervention for “conservatory purposes”, impeding her from filing new evidence and historical context. At stake is Quebec’s non-compliance with Federal commitments to facilitate independent investigations of the genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The guilt of genocide has been acknowledged by Pope Francis last July. For procedural reasons, the defendants also want to strike most of the evidence filed by the plaintiffs. Excavation work on the New Vic project is set to start in October 2022, before the hearing on the injunction on October 26th. The Mohawk Mothers want to halt the project to investigate the unmarked graves of victims of medical experiments as alleged by survivors. The Mohawk Mothers are concerned that human remains, forensic evidence and precolonial artifacts will be destroyed. The archeological film Arkéos affirmed the likelihood of finding these on site. McGill declined the Mohawk Mothers’ invitation to have out of court negotiations, while the SQI cancelled an informal meeting between them and Arkéos. The Mohawk Mothers were planning to request that special care be taken to stop any destruction of unmarked graves, using Ground Penetrant Radar, bioarchaeologists and cadaver dogs. The Mohawk Mothers also ask that Quebec’s Cultural Heritage Act be declared unconstitutional as it ignores any consultation with Indigenous peoples. “This law only specifies that they have to sent a notice to the Band Council, who don’t inform our people and who are agents of the Federal government“, said a Mohawk Mother. “It seems that they can legally bulldoze the bodies of our children, cover it up and no questions asked”, she said. By contrast with other provinces like British Columbia where the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples is required to excavate archaeological sites, Quebec’s Cultural Heritage Act treats Indigenous heritage as a property of the province. The Mohawk Mothers insist that the Royal Victoria Hospital is a crime scene and that forensic evidence must be protected throughout the site. Medical experimentation on mind control, brainwashing and torture techniques was rampant in the 1950s and 1960s. The testimonies and 141 exhibits filed by the Mohawk Mothers on August 26th show that Indigenous children were buried there after being used as guinea pigs in psychiatric experiments. Their research team discovered archival records showing ominous connexions between the Canadian Army’s cold-war deportation of Inuit children, the treatment of Indigenous children labeled as “juvenile delinquents” in residential schools and reform schools, and the CIA’s MK-Ultra program on mind control. This program was run by Dr. Ewen Cameron at the Allan Memorial Institute, which is part of the Royal Victoria Hospital and McGill University. The families of non-Indigenous survivors of the Mk-Ultra experiments are also in a legal battle for reparations. They wrote a letter to the Mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante to ask her to halt the excavation at the Royal Victoria Hospital. For the Mohawk Mothers, however, negotiations are at a stalemate as excavation work soon approaches. The Attorney General of Quebec served intrusive cross-interrogation questions to Kahentinetha, which bore no relation to her testimony. Quebec fears the Mohawk Mothers’ demand for a permanent injunction declaring Tekanontak (Mount Royal) an unceded and inalienable traditional territory of the kanien’keha:ka people. Their demands include removing the cross from the top of Tekanontak, which is a symbol of the atrocities committed against their people. For more information or for booking interviews with the Mohawk Mothers, write to kahnistensera@riseup.net

Press release Sept 22

 

NO MORE BLACKLISTING OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. Contact kahnistensera@riseup.net