Category Archives: Great Peace/Law / kaianereh’kowa / Democracy / Two-row /

SYRACUSE COURT: IROQUOIS PEOPLE IGNORED AGAIN IN NEW YORK STATE-US LAND GRAB

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Re: Regarding Canadian St. Regis Band of Mohawk Indians, et. al, v. State of New York, et al., Case No. [5:82-CV-0783, 5.82-CV-114,5:89-CV-0829]

EDITORIAL NOTE: We are the original people placed in this part of the world as caretakers. We have always been here and we have covenant relations with everything living here. Everything belongs to our mother, the earth. We acknowledge, respect and give great thanks to her. This makes us all brothers and sisters. This bond never ends. We are the land and the people of the land. Every onkwehonweh knows this. The basis of the kaianerekowa Great Peace is to find the truth.   

Presented Feb 26, 2024 in Syracuse NY:

“We are Kanienkehaka and are here to make a public record of our duty to tell you that whatever happens in that court today is invalid. We are telling you that it is invalid because we object and they do not represent us, the Kanienkehaka.

The US forms agreements with parties within our nations that support its’ interests, and then they suppress everyone else’s voice. This is why they will not allow us into the court room and we are silenced.
We are in Syracuse today with other Onkwehonwe people.
We are all wearing T-shirts that say, “relevant decision maker”. The federal court today is meeting with a group called the ‘Tricouncil’ of Akwessasne’, who have identified themselves as representing the Kanienkehaka.
The Tricouncil do not represent the Kanienkehaka people because their legitimacy comes from outside of our Tekantiokwenhakstah, which is the circle of families that make up the RotInosaunee Confederacy, described in our Great Peace, the Kaienerekowa. You know us as the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.
Legitimacy only comes from decisions that are made within our Clans following the consensual decision making protocol. Decisions that come out of this process are transparent and fully vetted, and understood by the people. This has not been followed.
Also, the events taking place in the court today which we think concern a land settlement, uses the 1796 Seven Nations Treaty as its foundation for legitimacy. This treaty was signed between individuals and the United States, and attempted to remove inherent ownership of over 9 million acres of the original Kanienkehaka territory which includes but is not limited to the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Mohawk Valley.
The Seven Nations Treaty was illegitimate because it was signed by individuals who did not have the authority to do so. Specifically, Colonel Louis Cook, whose name O’tia:to karonkwen, which means “what identifies him is hung around the neck” , indicates his status as a newcomer to the Confederacy. These newcomers sit against the wall, watch and learn, and make a commitment to the Confederacy, and can never themselves be given full responsibilities. In this understanding, Louis Cook would have never been given the responsibility to negotiate and sign such an agreement. William Gray and Thomas Williams (Teharagwanegen) were also signatories to the Seven Nations Treaty.
The Seven Nations were a confederacy of trading partners consisting of separate villages along the St. Lawrence river valley. They were given the name nations by the English, who had no other frame of reference to understand the economic relationship of these communities. Their Wampum Belt was made by the Catholic Church, identifying them as adherents to their religion. They had no authority to sign away Kanienkehaka lands.
Despite trying to make it known through traditional and legal processes that the Tricouncil does not have the authority to sign away our lands, we have been ignored, and most of our people have been deliberately excluded from the discussions going on right now.
Whatever decision or deal that is made between the United States government, the State of New York, and any other entity and the Tricouncil is invalid. This is for public record”.
—————————————————————
BACKGROUND
THE HAUDENOSAUNEE – MOHAWK -ONEIDA, ONONDAGA, CAYUGA – SENECA – TUSCARORA -TITLEHOLDERS OF THE KANIEN’KEHAKA NATION MADE THE FOLLOWING DECLARATION CONCERNING AKWESASANE LAND CLAIM SETTLEMENT Declaration of Kanien’ke’keha:ka Titleholders concerning Akwesasne Land Claim Settlement. – U.S. District Court – N.D. of N.Y. Filed Feb. 26, 2024, At !0. O’clock 00, John M. Domurad, Clerk. -Syracuse.
This declaration is being stated before the court on behalf of several condoled Rotiiane [chiefs] of the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs {MNCC}.
This hearing today has been called by the Magistrate in order to settle any outstanding issues related to the ongoing settlement negotiation. We wish to tell you, the Mohawk Nation council has numerous outstanding issues and concerns regarding the draft settlement, ranging from the Nations implication with the 1796 treaty to the use and occupancy provisions contained in the internal agreement. These concerns have yet to be addressed or seen as relevant to present Mohawk Nation legal council, Alexlandra Page [esq.]. Legal counsel was asked several times to include all condoled leadership as attendees to this hearing, but Alexandra Page [esq] outright denied our request to be present.
Since 2005, the Wolf, Bear and Turtle clan families have not been in agreement regarding Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs participation in the litigation and settlement. MNCC cannot and should have not proceeded due to our lack of Ska’nikon:ra [our ability to come to one mind]. However, despite this  impasse, certain individuals of the Mohawk Nation Council, along with its representative lawyer, have decided to move forward with settlement negotiations, without the full consensus of the condoled council and “the People of the Longhouse.” We believe this has wrongly given the impression to the court and the rest of the settlement legal council that the Mohawk Nation is a willing party and active participant before this. court.
The Kanien’keha:ka are not American citizens nor are we a “Dependent Domestic Nation”. We are  people who continue to adhere to principles and philosophies entrenched within our very own existence, that. of which is the Kaianere’ko:wa or the constitution of the Rotinonshon:ni. We will forever continue to uphold our responsibility of protecting the land and water for the use and enjoyment of our future generations – as long as the sun shines,  the grass grows and the water flows. Our law preempts any and all paternal orders/law imposed, imagined or written.
Federal courts are an unfit negotiation forum for the Kanien’keha:ka Longhouse People and we are not to be subjects of the US court system – as the Kanienkeha:ka Longhouse People the nation-to-nation framework laid out by the Teiohate Kaswentha [Two Row Wampum]. Two Row Wampum, a treaty of non-interference between two sovereigns, the Rotinononhsion:ni and the federal government. The sovereignty of the United States government came from the Original People of the land, they did not declare independence from the original people of this land. We did not sign a doctrine with Europeans, they signed them with us.
Additionally, we carry the Sewatokhwatshera [One Dish, One Spoon]as our understanding of our relations to and with the land held in collective with all Onkwehon:we. This treaty bars us or any others  from exclusively claiming the lands along the Great  St. Lawrence River. These Onkwehon:we lands and its resources are to be held in common.
The Kanien’keha:kia are able to choose to emancipate from the United States government, tribal government or any entity. We are the host nation. The Kanien’keha:ka, as a nation, has never surrendered jurisdiction through a treaty of surrender agreeable by law in 1948 under Statutes 28 USC 232 and 233 to the State of New York or United States of America. Subsequently, the United States is motherless and cannot exert authority over a mother nation.
The Kaianere’ko:wa, the constitution of the Rotinonsion:ni Confederacy, clearly identifies the women of each clanship within our nations to be the progenitors of the soil and sole titleholders of Kanonhsionni:keh – Country of the Rotinonhsionh:ni. Only the Clanmothers and women of the Rotinonshion:ni have the authority to make important decisions relating to Rotinoshonni lands, whereas the Rotiia:ne and warriors of the Rotinonhsion:ni have the mandate from the women to act in the protection of our territory and to assert our sovereignty.
As One Mind, in consideration of the facts, history, and the welfare of A:se Tahitikonhsontankie, The Faces Yet to Come, of which we are bound by duty to act in their best interest – we cannot agree to any agreement, settlement or treaty that threaten our claim to the land in Kanien:ke, the Mohawk Valley, or to Atirontaksne, our nine million acres in the Adirondacks, of which the Kanien’keha:Lka Nation has never ceded, quitclaimed, extinguished nor relinquished and of which we will maintain the absolute aboriginal title.
The Kanien’keha:ka, as a Nation, reaffirms its position against any and all proposed settlement of our ancestral lands. Having absolute aboriginal title, we shall maintain and exercise our inherent Right to the Land and Right upon it, including but not limited to, travel and sustenance by hunting, fishing, planting and gathering food or medicine and we shall maintain and exercise our Right to live in Peace where we wish upon our land, free from taxation. Furthermore, we shall maintain and exercise our Duty to Keep and take care of the Earth and strive to be in harmony and balance with her. We shall maintain and exercise our Law of Peace, to exist in peace with creation and people.
Tho
Sharenho:wane
Condoled Wolf Clan Roia:ne”
New York State looks at this trial as a prize fight but they don’t know we have Tiger Man McCool on our side. He’s had a  lot of fights. Bobby Bare sings about being a winner:

The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand                                                                                                                                                 He looked like a drunk old fool

And I knew if I hit him rightWell, I could knock him off of that stoolBut everybody, they said, “Watch outHey, that’s Tiger Man McCoolHe’s had the whole lotta fightsAnd he’s always come out the winner”Yeah, he’s a winner
But I had myself about five too manyAnd I walked up tall and proudI faced his back and I faced the factThat he had never stooped or bowedI said, “Tiger Man, you’re a pussycat”And a hush fell on the crowdI said, “Let’s you and me go outside and see who’s a winner”
Well he gripped the bar with one big hairy handThen he braced against the wallHe slowly looked up from his beerAnd, my God, that man was tallHe said, “Boy, I see you’re a scrapperSo just before you fallI’m gonna tell you just a little‘Bout what it means to be a winner”
He said, “Now you see these bright white smilin’ teethYou know they ain’t my ownMine rolled away like ChicletsDown the street in San AntoneBut I left that person cursin’, nursin’ seven broken bonesAnd, uh, he only broke, uh, three of mine andThat makes me the winner”
He said, “Now behind this grin I got a steel pinThat holds my jaw in placeA trophy of my most successful motorcycle raceAnd each morning when I wake and touchThis scar across my faceIt reminds me of all I got by bein’ a winner
Now this broken back was a dyin’ actOf a handsome Harry ClayThat sticky Cincinnati night, I stole his wife away (beat it)But that woman, she gets uglierAnd she gets meaner every dayBut I got her, boyAnd that’s what makes me a winner”
He said, “You gotta speak loud when you challenge me, son‘Cause it’s hard for me to hearWith this twisted neck and these migraine painsAnd this big ole cauliflower earAnd if it wasn’t for this glass eye of mineWhy, I’d shed a happy tearTo think of all that you gonna get by bein’ a winner
I got arthritic elbows, boyI got dislocated kneesFrom pickin’ fights with thunderstormsAnd chargin’ into treesAnd my nose been broke so oftenI might lose if I sneezeAnd, son, you say you still wanna be a winner?
Now, you remind me a lot of my younger daysWith your knuckles a-clenchin’ whiteBut, boy, I’m gonna sit right here and sip this beer all nightAnd if there’s somethin’ that you gotta gain or proveBy winnin’ some silly fightWell, okay, I quit; I loseYou’re the winner”
So I stumbled from that barroomNot so tall and not so proudAnd behind me, I still hear the hoots of laughter of the crowdBut my eyes still see and my nose still worksAnd my teeth are still in my mouthAnd you know, I guess that makes meThe winner
Box 991 kahnawake que. canada J0L 1B0

THEORY OF RIDICULOUS

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MNN. Feb. 17, 2024.

Einstein developed the “theory of relativity” E=MC2. He defined the relationship between all matter and energy as the motion of one thing is always relative to the motion of everything else. “Quantum mechanics” has proven Einstein’s theory of E=MC2 is invalid. It was never proven. It was a hypothesis. Quantum mechanics is the study of things that are very, very small. This branch of science investigates the behavior of matter and the activities happening inside of atoms in order to make sense of the smallest things in nature. Einstein, supposedly one of the smartest men on earth, was wrong. As the Hermetic principle suggests – “as above so below,” “as within so without”. Science is to question everything.

Einstein told the Japanese that he would not have told US President Roosevelt to build the atom bomb, which was dropped in Japan in 1945, had he known the Germans were actually secretly building one that failed. We can surmise that he wanted to ensure a tenure at Princeton University until his death in 1955. Einstein decided that the Japanese were going to be killed and the nuclear age would begin. In his last press conference he told the world to listen to Dr. Emmanuel Velikovsky [Worlds in Collision] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_in_Collision. 

We are wondering how to escape from this matrix they have ensnared us into. We don’t do what we are told to do or think.  We have to consider the impact on our people of everything we do or say, from time immemorial to infinity. The corporate nationalism used against us since they intruded on onowarekeh turtle island is a severe sickness brought here by a small group of international elite. They and their slaves are now all living off our backs and our land and want to continue being the ‘canadien’ squatters. They constantly try to turn us against each other. We are not pacifists.

You colonial settlers take note that you will be the next “Indians” branded for extinction. We constantly think about survival of our people and all our brothers and sisters of the natural world that came from creation. What are these invaders doing with all the truth coming out about their genocide of the indigenous? Twisting and turning around facts so nobody understands anything. There will be no freedom and tolerance for us because we are in their way. They will try to ‘vanish’ us again from turtle island as they tried before, but not completely. 

We wonder about the passive response of the whole world to the barbarous genocide that is being committed on us and others. Because they are silent to the genocide they carried out against us, they are obviously complicit.

We are now a small mass being attacked by a large mass of energy. We appreciate that some settler colonialists are listening to the okwehonweh kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers. The question is how will the indigenous survive another genocide? As before we are being hated which leads to violence against us. We are gazed at or turned away from while we suffer distress and violence at the hands of the invaders. We all know that our freedom is at stake. Almost everyone is aware we were almost annihilated. Foreign statutes like the “Indian Act” and Indian Lands Acts” were set up to continue the genocide under the Admiralty Law of the Seas. They want us to live in tension, terror and danger. The world should know about the current strife by settler colonial institutions while we struggle and suffer. Our voices are barely heard as we try to stop being pushed to non-existence. 

INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS WERE CANADIAN TERMINATION FACTORIES.

Framework Agreement for the “Final Solution of the Indian Problem” set for Oct.25/24

Canada is allied with the forces of evil, acting fierce towards us so few help us resist their horrific mistreatment of our people.  The “Framework Agreement” is Canada’s “business plan” to try to finish us off once and for all so they can get our land and resources! We know about the plan to carry out “the final solution of the Indian problem” to either kill us or to turn us into corporate Canadian slaves. 

If they are not fighting for peace, then may the ‘otken’ take them. We must immediately stop tolerating politicians who are hungry for power, our funds, resources and land. They constantly threaten everyone with new laws and punishment to control and frighten us. They attack and use armed forces to destroy creation. Our fate does not depend on man’s quest to defeat creation.

The elder statesman Willie Nelson of country music talks about Einstein and other scientists and their irrelevance to reconstruct a peaceful Indigenous-lead every day life. He sings about the longing to make bad things right, which may or may not be possible because what happened to us was so horrific that science can’t fix it. Also, “sorry” does not exist in our language. Only spirit does:  

Oh, take me back to the start
I was just guessingAt numbers and figuresPulling the puzzles apart
Questions of scienceScience and progressDon’t speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love meCome back and haunt meOh, and I rush to the start
Running in circlesChasing tailsComing back as we are
Nobody said it was easyIt’s such a shame for us to partNobody said it was easyNo one ever said it would be so hard
I’m going back to the start
Source: Musixmatch

 

 

mohawknationnews.com

kahnistensera@riseup.net

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

Court correspondence thahoketoteh@ntk.com

 

 

 

 

           

 

DISCOVERING DEAD CHILDREN FED TO PIGS UNDER QUEBEC LIQUOR BOARD WAREHOUSE

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 MNN. Feb. 6, 2024. The Duplessis Orphans have been standing with the Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers over the issue of unmarked graves of native and non-native children. SAQ is the Quebec Societe des alcools du Quebec which is a government department that distributes wine, beer and spirits to over 400 stores in Quebec.  The SAQ warehouse site is known as the “pigsty cemetary” where dead native and non-native children were allegedly fed to the pigs.
[Translation from French.]
“GRAVES ON SAQ LANDS?   
Nathaëlle Morissette La Presse, February 6, 2024
The possible presence of anonymous graves of orphaned and aboriginal children in a former cemetery located on current SAQ grounds could extend the $300 million expansion of the liquor distribution center, which has been suspended since the beginning of January 2024.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. 

The SAQ stoppage of the expansion and modernization of its liquor distribution center was at the request of the Duplessis Orphans and the Mohawk Mothers,l which suspect the presence of graves of native and non-native children. A portion of the SAQ’s land is located on a former cemetery. A meeting is expected to take place between the Crown corporation and the two groups to discuss the setting up of a protocol.

The SAQ suspended the excavation at the request of the Comité des orphelins et orphelines institutionnalisés de Duplessis and Kanien’keha : ka Kahnistensera, a group of aboriginal activists commonly referred to as the “Mohawk Mothers”.  In a January 8 letter they requested the crown corporation to suspended the construction so that “basic precautions” can be put in place.The SAQ liquor distribution center and head office is located in the eastern part of Montreal, near the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine bridge-tunnel.The expansion and automation of the center is scheduled for completion in 2027  and is estimated to cost around $300 million. This includes a new 192,000 sq. ft. building. The SAQ will expand its online offering to 20,000 products, increase warehouse processing speed and offer 24-hour delivery, which is presently not the case. 

“…the SAQ warehouses on Rue des Futailles is a former cemetery that once belonged to the Sœurs de la Providence, [Sisters of the Providence]” according to the notice sent to La Presse . “The site served as an informal cemetery for unclaimed bodies of patients who died at Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu. It’s possible there are burials of anonymous children, or some named from the Duplessis Orphans, and a strong probability that aboriginal children were also buried on the site.”

The letter from the Duplessis Committee and Mohawk Mothers point to a high probability of anonymous burials of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children on the site. Both parties would like to establish an archaeological and forensic protocol with the SAQ to ensure the protection of human remains prior to excavation. They have requested a meeting with the company’s management. The SAQ confirmed that it would like to discuss the next steps with both groups. “Upon receipt of [the] letter [from the Duplessis Orphans and Mohawk Mothers], SAQ decided not to undertake excavation on the proposed expansion, while establishing a plan of action.”

For the moment, no meeting date has been set.”Official exhumation measures were […] undertaken on this property in the late 1960s, before it was owned by the SAQ,” the Crown corporation stated in an official statement by email to La Presse.

BY THE BOOK. 

According to anthropologist, Philippe Blouin, who works closely with the Mohawk Mothers and acts as their French interpreter, the signatories were only notified of the work stoppage late on Friday February 2nd, a few hours after La Presse had questioned the SAQ about the matter. “It was registered as a cemetery,” says Blouin, who is also a lecturer and doctoral candidate in anthropology at McGill University. “Unofficially, it was called the “pigsty cemetery”. Unclaimed bodies, mostly of children who were at Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, were buried there. Many of the bodies were exhumed and transported to Saint-François-d’Assise Cemetery. By accident, in 1999 during the expansion projects [of the SAQ] some bones were found.”

Their letter stated, “As representatives of the Duplessis orphan and Mohawk communities, we do not wish to see such accidental discoveries happen again,” reads the letter. In 1999 and today, the SAQ asserts that the were “animal remains”.

Regarding the distribution center, Hervé Bertrand, president of the committee representing the Duplessis orphans, is convinced that human bones were involved. If the SAQ won’t cooperate, he won’t hesitate to go to court, he told La Presse.

A ROYAL VICTORIA, TAKE 2? 

The SAQ case is not the only one of interest to the aboriginal group, whose role in Mohawk law is to ensure the preservation of traditional territory. The Mohawk Mothers have gone to Quebec Superior Court and forced a halt to the work planned at the Royal Victoria Hospital for McGill University to expand its campus. The Mohawk Mothers fear that excavation work will destroy possible native burials and clandestine graves. In October the Superior Court forced McGill University and the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) to reinstate the Panel of Expert Archaeologists to carry out proper excavations. A few weeks ago the SQI and the university appealed the ruling. The appeal will be heard on June 11.

The brilliance of this song is because it is being sung by the spirit of our buried children, by The Band Perry: “If I die young , bury me in satin. Lay me down on a bed of roses. Send me on the river at dawn. Send me away with the words of a love song. Or make me a rainbow and I’ll shine down on my mother. She’ll know I am safe with you when she stands under my colors. And life ain’t even gray but she buries her baby. The sharp knife of a short life. Well I have had just enough time. If I die young bury me in satin . . . .”
Kahnistensera@riseup.net
box 911, kahnawake, que. canada J0L 1B0

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

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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

kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

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

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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.

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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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Box 991, kahnawake que.canada J0L 1B0 kahentinetha2@kprotonmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MASS MACABRE MUSEUM INC.

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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:

 mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

MohawkMothers.ca

kahnistensera@riseup.net

box 911 kahnawake que. canada J0L 1B0 

CONTESTED SOVEREIGNTIES @ RVH/MCGILL UNIVERSITY

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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).

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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.

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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

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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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References Annable, Kristin 2020                                                                                                                                                    Winnipeg Woman Brainwashed in Montreal Psychiatric Hospital Hopes New Year Brings New Compensation. CBC Investigates, January 2nd, 2020. Accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mkultra-allan-winnipeg-cameron-1.5410817.

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.

2001 Quebec. In Encyclopedia of Archaeology: History and Discoveries, edited by T. Murray, vol. 3, pp. 1079–1083. ABC-Clio: Santa Barbara.

Cooper, Anderson 2023                                                                                                                                                                    Canada’s Unmarked Graves: How Residential Schools Carried Out ‘Cultural Genocide’ Against Indigenous Children. CBS News, February 12th, 2023. Accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-residential-schools-unmarked-graves-indigenous -children-60-minutes-2023-02-12/.

Culture et Communications Québec 2023                                                                                                                                               Site patrimonial du Mont-Royal. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=93313 &type=bien.

Delaronde, Karonhí:io and Jordan Engel 2015                                                                                                                                Montreal in Mohawk [map]. Decolonial Atlas, February 15th, 2015. https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/montreal-in-mohawk/.

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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.

2011 Loi sur le patrimoine culturel. Webpage, accessed December 7th, 2023. https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/p-9.002.

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: 

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EVERYBODY KNOWS

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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”:

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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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