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

KAHNWAKE MOHAWK MOTHERS BLAZING A TRAIL

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MNN. Nov. 8, 2022. So glad this came out in the Eastern Door of Kahnawake. This is what is known as ‘balanced’ writing. 

Mohawk Mothers blazing a trail

JOHNNY CASH explains the kahnistensera’s situation pretty well in his song when the mother keeps telling the son not to take their guns to town. They don’t listen to their mother and end up dead. 

[Verse 1]
A young cowboy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm
A boy filled with wonderlust who really meant no harm
He changed his clothes and shined his boots
And combed his dark hair down
And his mother cried as he walked out

[Chorus]
Don’t take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don’t take your guns to town

[Verse 2]
He laughed and kissed his mom
And said your Billy Joe’s a man
I can shoot as quick and straight as anybody can
But I wouldn’t shoot without a cause
I’d gun nobody down
But she cried again as he rode away [chorus]

[Verse 3]
He sang a song as on he rode
His guns hung at his hips
He rode into a cattle town
A smile upon his lips
He stopped and walked into a bar
And laid his money down
But his mother’s words echoed again [chorus]

[Verse 4]
He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hand
And tried to tell himself at last he had become a man
A dusty cowpoke at his side began to laugh him down
And he heard again his mothers words [chorus]

[Verse 5]
Filled with rage then
Billy Joe reached for his gun to draw
But the stranger drew his gun and fired
Before he even saw
As Billy Joe fell to the floor
The crowd all gathered around
And wondered at his final words 

[Chorus]
Don’t take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don’t take your guns to town

kahnistensera@riseup.net

MOHAWK MOTHERS COURT VICTORY Oct. 27, 2022

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MNN. 31st October 2022, 

Just got the judgement from the Quebec Superior Court:  

Decision of the Superior Court of QuebecDownload

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MOHAWK MOTHERS: EXCAVATION STOPS & INJUNCTION STARTS

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QUEBEC SUPERIOR COURT DECISION –  JUDGE GREGORY MOORE. OCT. 27, 2022. THE ORDER :

 

MNN. Oct. 28, 20220.We are happy to announce yesterday’s successful court decision for the Mohawk Mothers in #500-17-120-468-221 kahentinetha et al v. Societe quebecois des infrastructure et al. This landmark decision halts all excavation work at the Royal Victoria Hospital site. This is the first injunction granted to self-represented indigenous people based on our way of representing ourselves, using our great peace to achieve concensus.  The judge decided that the two parties shall spend 4 months together to do this but will convene out of court to determine together the best archeological practices to respect the land and remains. 

Judge Moore decided that both parties will use good relations and dialogue to achieve concensus the way kanienkehaka achieve it in the longhouse.

Mohawk Mothers will continue to represent ourselves. 

Kimberly Murray, the newly appointed Interlocutor on Unmarked Graves in the case is forming a new legal framework for dealing with unmarked graves and the genocide of our children.

We have demonstrated a strong possibility that  our children and others were experimented on and murdered at Royal Victoria Hospital. This ruling is a start in the right direction towards a new legal framework consistent with the two row wampum and kaianerekowa.  

This is a turning point on Canadian legislation so indigenous people and the legal system can foster a new relation based on respect and dignity. Once McGill is transformed by this new relationship with onkwehonwe, other institutions will take inspiration and also be transformed.  

The court decision will be posted on Mohawk Nation News as soon as it is available. If they understand our process, we will come to one mind.  The judge saw that it is time to find another way to deal with what happened to our children by using this ancient process of the longhouse.

Shorty Long “Here Comes the Judge”Niawen to everyone who helped us accomplish our duties and responsibilities as kahnistensera.

Shorty Long sings, “Here comes the Judge”: Here ye, hear ye, the court’s in session, the courts in session. Now here comes the judge. Here comes the judge. Stop eating that fudge, cause here comes the judge. Dont nobody budge, cause here comes the judge. Judge Shorty is presiding today and he don’t take no stuff from nobody. No kind of way. Hey boy take off that hat. Where do you think you’re at. I know were you’re gonna be if you don’t heed my plea. Court’s in session. Order in court. Now court can’t nobody smoke cause here comes the judge. Here comes the judge.

MOHAWK MOTHERS GRANTED INJUNCTION

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I-bhIpKN4Yll2jWtH0rs9pRQeiZ6oHrB/view?usp=share_link

kahnistensera@riseup.net

 

 

 

 

HAIL MARY PASS

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She:kon everyone. We are bracing for the hearing tomorrow at the Quebec Superior Court while the excavators and backhoe are already digging up our land at the Royal Victoria Hospital. We want to thank everyone that supported us in our struggle to protect our land and children. We will post updates shortly. Stay tuned.

Kahentinetha

p.s.: I have been notified that I have made a factual mistake at a recent speech at Concordia by stating that the minister of Crown Indigenous Relations Mark Miller had served in the Canadian military in the Oka crisis. While Miller was effectively an infantry commander in the Canadian Army Primary Reserve, he was not present in Oka as he was 17 years old and his military duty was allegedly peeling potatoes. I was misinformed, and if the Prime Minister and the Pope can apologize, so can I. kahentinetha

As Late Kurt Cobain apologized for leaving this world, 

What else should I be?
All apologies
What else could I say?
Everyone is gay
What else could I write?
I don’t have the right
What else should I be?
All apologies

MOHAWKNATIONNEWS.COM 

kahentinetha2@protonmail. com

MOHAWK WARRIOR SOCIETY BOOK LAUNCH

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MNN. Oct. 20, 2022.

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

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

 

The Mohawk Warrior Society: Round Table and Book Launch

 

kahnistensera@@riseup.net

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING SOLIDARITY

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IMPORTANT  –

MOHAWK NATION NEWS NOTICE –

SOLIDARITY ACTIONS –

KAHNISTENSERA

SHEKON

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

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

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

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

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

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

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

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WHY URGENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL/CONSTRUCTiON WORK!

NOTICE OF DENIAL BY MOHAWK MOTHERS

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STATEMENT FOR MOHAWK NATION NEWS

OCTOBER 15, 2022.

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

FROM THE KAHNISTENSERA:

STATEMENT FOR MOHAWK NATION NEWS

OCTOBER 15, 2022.

PRESS ATTACHE THAHOKETOTEH@NTK.COM

kahnistensera@riseup.net

UPDATE MCGILL QUEBEC ARKEOS FAKE INFORMATION

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MNN. OCT. 11, 2022.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MOHAWK WARRIOR SOCIETY BOOK LAUNCH

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

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

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

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

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

See below for the full schedule:

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

October 19 1:00pm – 1:15pm

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

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

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

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