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Calling any real journalists

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This is long. But it shows us how to decipher corporate media stories about us. Kahentinetha Horn MNN Mohawk Nation NewsSIX NATIONS: MACHIAVELLIAN GHOSTS HAUNT CANADIAN MEDIA Where is “Deep Throat” when we need him?
MNN. April 23, 2006. The Canadian media continues to deliberately distort what’s happening at Six Nations. The law and British guarantees to protect our land are completely on our side. We want to show just how tricky and deceptive the corporate media is. Let’s go through the editorial published in the Montreal Gazette on April 21st 2006, the day after the police raid on the Six Nations at Caledonia.

Their heading was, “Enforce the law for natives, too. Authorities are chronically terrified to deal with native truculence and belligerence.”

We agree with the first part. The law should be enforced on behalf of Natives too. That’s what this demonstration is about. Canada has laws against theft and fraud. We want Canada to obey those laws. Why is it alright to steal our land? Why do they call us “truculent and belligerent” when we try to live by the law? Why are the authorities afraid? We haven’t attacked them. They surround us with guns, bullets, pepper spray, tasers, M-16?s, ambulances ready to ship us to the hospital and body bags to put us in when they drive us to their morgues. Who is being belligerent? We have no weapons. We have not made any threats. We are sitting on our land. If they are afraid, it must be of their own ugly faces in the mirror and shadows on the ground. All that weaponry in their hands is not a pretty sight.

The Gazette says we have been “illegally occupying a subdivision construction site”. Since when is it illegal to sit on one’s own land? This is a deliberate attempt to defame us. Such as their claim “In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of native policy” nobody really expects the laws to be applied to aboriginals as it is to everyone else. “Yes, why don’t we get the same benefit of the law as everyone else? Why aren’t we considered innocent until proven guilty? Why is it still open season on “Indians”? Why, in 2006, more than 50 years since Canada supported the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are we being vilified in the Canadian press?

Canadians don’t have to obey American laws when they are not in the United States. The British don’t have to obey French laws when they are in England. Why are we treated different? We aren’t Canadians. We have our own jurisdiction and Britain promised to protect it. Every time we have tried to present our case in a neutral tribunal Canada has refused to participate. It has done everything to avoid respecting the promises made by Britain. Colonialism is supposed to be dead and gone. But Canadian officials continue to conspire to stop us from getting justice.

It’s not as if we haven?t tried to get justice before. We had a lot of international support at the League of Nations in the 1920’s. Canada’s response’ It officially deposed our government, denied us access to our trust funds, set up a puppet band council regime and passed laws to prevent us from hiring lawyers to fight our case. What’s legal about that?

Of course, Canada could not legally depose our government. No more than the Nazi’s could depose the legitimate government of France in World War II. Our legitimate government was and always has been by and for our people according to the Kaianereh’ko:wa. Our traditional Confederacy government always continued. Canada only persuaded a tiny minority to vote in their puppet elections. Now they can?t find enough puppets to fill a band council. The Six Nations Indian Act band council has now publicly decided that Six Nations land claims should be dealt with by our traditional government. The Gazette never mentioned that.

That editorial was meant to defame us and our legitimate struggle to hold onto our assets, to right injustices and to exercise our right to self-determination. The Gazette did not do any research or competent reporting. It did not explain the legal basis of the Women’s trust responsibility for the land, the reason why we are standing up.

The Gazette trotted out a bunch of trite and hackneyed insinuations. It outright lied, declaring that, “There’s not much real evidence” of “legitimate land claims rooted in historic complaints”. What? Check out the League of Nations Archives or Canada’s own National Archives [watch it get burnt down suddenly!]. The latter includes a 1952 memo by the national archivist, A.E. St. Louis. When he was ready to retire, he decided to put his shock over the mistreatment of the Six Nations people on record. There is a ton of work by accredited scholars. Sydney L. Harring stated that a substantial proportion of the litigation in Upper Canada courts concerned Six Nations land.

Our ancestors hired the best lawyers available. But we still couldn’t get justice from a system that was all too willing to accommodate illegal squatters and dip into our trust funds. More recent research includes Brian Titleys’ book, “A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada”. In the 1970?s the late Sally M. Weaver received a Canada Council grant to research the Six Nations situation. Her findings were upsetting and never published. They lie hidden in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room at the University of Waterloo. Royal commissions and other official studies have been done time and again. They all show that the Six Nations have been defrauded. The Law Society of Upper Canada and McGill University borrowed from our trust funds and never paid it back. If Canada believes in the rule of law, why doesn’t it do the right thing?

The Gazette stated that, “courts have been consistently generous, many say too generous – in accepting native arguments”. What judgments are they talking about? To date our arguments have been almost universally ignored, misunderstood or misrepresented. Naturally many might say the courts have been “too generous” – especially if they’ve relied on the Gazette for their information. With such biased media shaping public opinion, no wonder people imagine that we’re a gang of hoodlums.

It’s obvious that yellow press, like the Gazette, is deliberately trying to create the impression that we are a bunch of uneducated criminals. They can’t do this by showing pictures of us beating anyone up. They do heavily cover trials where it is “proven” that we did something “violent” when we defended ourselves from armed attacks. But they can’t plant violent images in their readers’ minds.

The Gazette editorial said: “Ask yourself this: in a province deeply concerned about crimes, gangs, and gun violence, would any other ethnic or cultural group be allowed to shut down a legal construction site for 52 days and counting?” Notice that it didn’t actually say that we had guns or gangs or did anything violent. It couldn’t because we aren’t. It just inserted these images into the middle of its statement about us.

Every time people read about “Natives” they see something about crime, guns and violence. They get conditioned. They start to think that “where there’s smoke, there must be fire”. That’s how they keep the old missionary stereotypes alive. They could steal our land. They could kill us. They could steal our children, because God was on their side. They want you to keep on thinking that they are “civilized” and we aren’t.

But you have to wonder. If the Gazette is really so concerned about crime, why didn’t the Gomery Report on major bureaucratic fraud get full front page treatment? Most of the Gazette’s anemic reporting got shuffled to the inside pages, while the front page ran a feature on the heart wrenching plight of children who are apprehended from dysfunctional parents. That goes on every day. One of the reasons why there’s not enough money for legitimate public work is that too much is being skimmed off by crooks with official government positions.

They are using the same tactic on the Six Nations Caledonia story. Guess what the front page featured the day of the police raid? A new portrait of the Queen!!! As if what happened to us that day did not leave the British monarchy in total disgrace!

Back to that shameless Gazette editorial. Another trick it used to make us look violent was mentioning that an SQ officer was killed in the “Oka affair” of 1990. They didn’t recall that the man was killed by a police bullet when they opened fire on our people, including people who were asleep and a two year old toddler on a tricycle. Talk about selective memory!!!

We do agree with one statement, however, “rewarding bad behavior only encourages more of it”. Right on!!! So we wonder why is the Gazette refusing to do an honest and competent job of reporting? Why is it spreading lies about us and covering up past and present bureaucratic corruption and incompetence? We think Woodward and Bernstein, those reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal, based pm secret informant “Deep Throat”, wouldn’t work there. The spirit of investigative reporting is alive and well. It lives in the hearts of the people. We are getting our tips from latter day Deep Throats! Honest decent Canadians Americans and friends all over the world. You won’t find out what they know by reading the corporate press.

Canadians and Americans, for that matter, are being told bare faced lies. As we write, they are being “fibbed” to by the corporate press that “everything has been resolved” [at Six Nations]. Those shady characters who run Canada want our supporters to stay away from us. We are still here. We’re still ready, and we’re still on alert. We can see the build-up of troops before our eyes. Twenty vans full of armed RCMP have been spotted in Caledonia. This is a life and death situation. The corporate media lies to you.

Tricks the Media Plays to Try to Colonize Your Mind.

1. “There is No Story”.

We knew a lot was happening. We knew high ranking government officials, police, military and courts were involved. We sent everything to the media. They published nothing.

2. When something important happens, the front page features a big photo about something heart-touching that isn’t really news.

Like the Queen’s 80th birthday hat!

3. The media tells you there is only one way of looking at things. (Their way).

When the mainstream media finally said something about the Six Nations issue, it only gave the viewpoint of Henco Industries? and the “government”. They didn’t speak to us or ask us or our supporters why we were there.

4. The media ridicule the issue and any public official who tries to find out the truth and deal with it honestly.

The Montreal Gazette accused government officials of being soft on us and claimed that we live in an “Alice in Wonderland World of Native Policy”. That’s right! They do look at us “through their twisted carnival mirror”! Or down their rabbit hole where they want us to go!

5. The reporters do no research then say there’s no evidence.

Woodward and Bernstein need not apply.

6. The media call for “law and order” and refer to “guns” or “crime” in every third sentence.

Yes, we want law and order. The media won’t tell you that. They don’t tell you that only the cops have guns and only government officials can lie and commit crimes.

7. They claim the courts have been generous when actually they have bent the rules against us.

Canada does not want a neutral tribunal to hear our cases. The current court orders were made when we were not there by a judge who owns property in the disputed area.

8. The media claim that angry “citizens” are attacking the protesters

The media makes ordinary citizens angry by misrepresenting the facts. They’re driving some young hot heads to attack us to justify the presence of the army to carry out state violence against us. They did this during the Mohawk Oka Crisis in 1990. Someone persuaded people to evacuate the sick, elderly and children from Kahnawake. The police blocked the convoy on the bridge for hours, while the rabble-rousing radio stations encouraged crowds of thugs to gather. When the Indigenous people were finally released, they had to drive through a gauntlet of stone throwing hooligans. Cars and windows were smashed. Police stood by watching. One man died of a heart attack. Countless infants and children had glass embedded in their skin. It was fully photographed. Only one man was convicted.

A few years later French-speaking fishermen attacked their Indigenous neighbours at Burnt Church. Government officials used this to deny Miq’maq fishing rights where they had fished since the end of the last ice age.

At Six Nations Caledonia a few misguided youths have been lead to believe that attacking natives is a right. No one says anything about the thousands of peaceful non-native supporters from all over the world who are trying to help us.

9. The paper only publishes one letter to the editor.

That’s it for the Six Nations/Caledonia issue. The corporate papers will only publish your letter if: (a) you have figured a witty way to repeat their editorial line; or (b) you give cliché “red neck” support that’s easy to rebut. That way they can pretend they”ve covered both sides of the issue. The Editorial page articles in the Gazette include, “No cures for traffic woes” and “Marital rescue needed”. Someone fought with his wife over who gets to do the Soduku puzzle!

10. The summary of the week in pictures makes it look like the protests are on some other planet.

On Thursday, April 20th, the Warriors and the Peacekeepers at Kahnawake closed the Mercier bridge for half an hour to mount ten unity flags on top of the bridge for all the world to see. This same bridge was blocked for most of the summer of the Mohawk Oka Crisis of 1990. It was a big deal for Montrealers. The Gazette ignored the home-town news. It also didn’t have any photos of the protesters blocking the train track between Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest cities. It did show a picture of a South Korean protesters burning a Japanese military flag’ and was the panda in someone’s zoo having indigestion or something?

Welcome to the corporate media’s job to promote the new world order!

Kahentinetha Horn

MNN Mohawk Nation News

Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Allies: Continue to be vigilant. Send along all your info and ideas. Spread the word. If you can come, bring along perishable food, rain gear, radios, batteries, alternative communications, tents, alternate transportation, tools, clean clothes, towels, etc., any kind of shelter, sleeping bags, cots, lawn chairs, for a long stay. Bring along any alternate media that’s covering the story truthfully. Cameras, camcorders. Signed flags of your nation. Any useful electronics. Medical supplies and anything in case of injuries. Gas masks. Lemons to wash off tear gas. Tell the so-called authorities “lighten up and back off”. Keep up the pressure. Tell the world what’s going on. Organize protests. Hand out flyers. If you have any ideas, send them along to us and we’ll let everyone know. Get support from unions, workers, ordinary people, anybody. Write letters to the editor and see if you can get one in the corporate media. Don’t let them shut out our fire, our spirit. Have bail money and lawyers ready. Keep putting out press releases on and off the ‘net. Get all native organizations and the tribal and band councils to get on board with us. Get support in Mexico, Central and South America, other parts of the world. Native and non-native. We need people who can get through the police and army lines to get supplies to us. Presently the way still open and most can come in. Just Send supplies to c/o Hazel E. Hill, RR #6, Hagersville, Ontario Canada N0A 1H0. By mail, by any courier. They need urgently a wireless laptop so they can send reports and messages hourly, if necessary.

poster: Thahoketoteh

 

RETENTISSANTE

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ROTISKENRAKETE

MNN .?KAHEHTI:IO?, one of the young men jailed by the OPP yesterday morning for being on the Six Nation Nations land, remains in jail. Following the precedent set by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Kahehti:io is being kept in jail for refusing to give any other name except the one he has. It means ?he plants a good garden?. They are asking him for a colonial name does not have. He refuses to be fingerprinted and photographed. He is a young skinny kid who was beaten up by 4 OPP officers. He asked for me, Kahentinetha, to come and take him into my care. I would have to assure them he will be a good boy, without mentioning that I think he has been a wonderful boy so far!

AKWESASNE ROTISKENRAKETE, the men of the longhouse are handing out information on the International Bridge between New York State and Cornwall. They have a duty to protect the land which is held by the Women Title Holders. The decision of the people was for these men to express our outrage at what is happening to our brothers and sisters at Six Nations.

COLONIAL WAR RE-ENACTORS ? CANADIAN ARMED FORCES
ARE STILL PLAYING
?COWBOYS AND INJUN GAMES?.

They?re behaving like little kids marching around the kitchen banging on pots and pans. You know how Canada re-enacts old wars, like the Plains of Abraham, Louisburg and other monuments of the colonial past. The fife and drum set clowns around with old flintlock guns just for fun. You can get you photo taken on that guillotine thing. They sure took this seriously, didn?t they? They?re still playing their baby games, but they?ve got serious artillery in their hands.

12:10 PM There are now between 2,500 and 3,000 OPP and RCMP in a perimeter around the people about 1 mile away. There is 50 sq. mi. squared off.

How to get there: From Niagara Falls and Toronto, take Highway 6 straight south from Hamilton to Caledonia. From Buffalo take Highway 3 west to Highway 6 and north on Highway 6 to Caledonia. From Windsor take Higway 3 East to Highway 6 and go north. These are back ways.

10:30 am. On Site

Most of the scouting is being done by the native women, doing groceries, laundry, happen to be driving around window shopping. At the nearby subdivision is the RCMP staging area where they have 20 vehicles parked. Personnel around throughout the area. The military staging area is at the John Munro International Airport in Hamilton Ontario, 12 miles from Caledonia. Unity Road is just north of Caledonia which is closed off. This is the staging area for the OPP. Ambulances and buses all around. Onsight surveillance indicates that the OPP have upgraded from ?riot gear? to ?tactical gar? which is bullet proof vests, keeping their weapons nearby. One of the concerns of the Indians is that negotiations with band council and the Confederacy chief will be used by Ontario and Canada as a diversionary tactic to distract the people, calm everybody down. As soon as we relax, they will attack. This is what they did last week.

WHAT?S THE MESSAGE? POLICE STATE OFFICIALLY IMPLEMENTED

The Canadian government wants to send us a message that if we ever again lift our heads and demand our rights, they and their goons are coming after us with overwhelming military force. They want to show us they are the conquerors and we are the conquered. They want to tell us we have no rights and, even though we are in the right, they are taking our land and resources away from us anyway. They have never had a public hearing to look at the evidence of the Six Nations. They tell us, ?You can?t do anything about it. Too too bad for you?. With all their ambulances parked up front, it seems obvious they are out to make another Tianamen Square right in the middle of rural Ontario. They may even come in and bulldoze our houses and put non-native subdivisions on our lands. All Indian communities across Canada can be overwhelmed and bulldozed for developers from all over the world. They are being welcomed to come and take over stolen Indian land. The Canadian government institutions are protecting them. Do the Canadian people want this? I don?t think so. We know about this old strategy. Soon, if we look at them the wrong way we might be eliminated one way or another. Canada is sanctioning this process. In the Six Nations case, neither Canada nor Ontario take responsibility. Is it the police?s? All these public enquiries into police behaviour show is how police can hide the abuse and murders of Indians and how to cover up their crimes efficiently.

9:10 am

Need more people. The Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty stated that the presence of 1000 OPP was confirmed by CHCH TV news this morning. RCMP are using the Hamilton Airport as a staging ground.

Behind Canadian Tires on Kinross St. Caledonia, there were 18 ? 11 passenger vans, great big ones. They are full OPP officers. One seen with gun on passenger side. There were some standing behind the vans. Couldn?t tell what they were doing.

From Marlene: ?Yesterday at night at Radio Canada (CBC in french), at the end of 6:00 pm news they invited a rights specialist, and he told what happens now was highly predictable due to Canada’s mistakes on the matter of territories and that your claims might be justificated (welll….it is still CBC, they won’t accept to say you guys are totally right!). Not surprisingly though, the only coverage of the event shows images of haudenasaunee flags and tires burning, nothing about police violence. This media manipulation is sickening?.

7:30 FRIDAY APRIL 21, 2006

EXTREME HIGH ALERT! POLICE MOVE IN FOR THE SLAUGHTER

Twenty RCMP vans arrived loaded with Mounties and weapons arrived. Ambulances nearby. Need people right now! Phone working sporadically. Need alternative communications. Need people to stand with us with cameras, eyes and ears. Contact everybody you can to get the word out. Need some medical personnel to help in case of injury.

OPP and it is believed the Canadian Army are coming in too at Hamilton airport at 9:30 am.

5:20 AM Friday April 21, 2006

PREPARE FOR MILITARY OPPRESSION: OKA BLUEPRINT BROUGHT OUT AGAIN

Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Allies,

We need information about the moves being made against us, solidarity, witnesses to stand with us, alternative communication systems, cameras, food, medicine, runners, people to apply pressure on the Prime Minister, Parliament, Premier of Ontario, Governor General, etc. Addresses and phone numbers are further down this email, contact with and information to media to get the word out, supporters outside of Canada to put pressure on governments, United Nations, protests?. and whatever you can think of to help us prevent bloodshed, imprisonment, persecution.

As happened at Oka they cut off our communication with the outside world. They seem to have already done that at Six Nations. We need reports, to ensure safety if someone gets hurt.

We have learned 1000 OPP have been brought in nearby and WE received the following email:

C wrote:

I wanted to pass on information I heard from an employee who works at the Hamilton Airport. Apparently at 9:30am tomorrow the military will arrive there and begin using the airport as a staging area.

in solidarity,

Thanks, C. What other info do you have? Anything at all. Whatever. Kahentinetha Horn, MNN Mohawk Nation News

Thanks to our Canadian supporters who do NOT want to live under a military dictatorship. Yesterday Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in Montreal. Mulroney was the Prime Minister during the Mohawk Oka Crisis of 1990. One day after his visit with US President George Bush, he came back to Canada and ordered the army to attack us for defending our ancestral ceremonial site and burial grounds. We were under siege for 78 days. It?s really sad to see that Canadian leaders have learned nothing. If Prime Minister Harper is using the Mulroney blueprint, he?s headed for disaster. Look at the botch up that guy made in 1990. If he?s listening to George Bush, we?re all in trouble.

We need negotiation, consent and peaceful coexistence. The Six Nations grievances are deeply rooted, complex and well documented, going back centuries.

CONTACT NUMBERS:
Six Nation Contact: Dick Hill 519-865-7722, 519-445-1351; Hazel 519-717-4292, 519-445-0719; Jacquline House 905-765-9316; thebasketcase@on.aibn.com; Jacqueline_house@hotmail.com

Send or phone messages to stop this lunacy:
Premier of Ontario, PHONE: (416) 325-1941 FAX: (416) 325-3745 email: dalton.mcguinty@premier.gov.on.ca (cc: mkwinter.mpp@liberal.ola.org)

ONTARIO RCMP Headquarters 130 Dufferin Ave PO Box 3240 Station B London, ON N6A 4K3
Telephone: 519-640-7267
Hamilton/Niagara Reg Det, STN Main BOX 487,Hamilton L8N 3H8 (905)572-2401
Kingston Det 1000 Gardiners RD 3RD FLR Kingston K7P 3C4 (613)384-7201
Kitchener Det 17 Executive Place Kitchener N2P 2V3 (519) 896-3542
London Det 451 Talbot ST 8TH FLR London N6A 5C9 (519) 645-4329
Sault Ste Marie Det 22 Bay ST Sault Ste Marie P6A 5S2 (705) 941-7267
Sudbury Det 1310 Sparks ST Sudbury P3A 2C8 (705) 671-0645
Thunder Bay Det 21 Archibald ST N Thunder Bay P7C 3Y3 (807)623-2791
Toronto East Det 415 Baseline RD W BOX 1500 Bowmanville L1C 4V7 (905)697-6000
Toronto West Det 2755 Highpoint Drive Milton L9T 5E8 (905) 876-9500
Toronto Lester B Pearson Airport Det 255 Atwell DR Etobicoke M9W 7G2 (905) 405-3750
Toronto North Det 345 Harry Walker PKY S Newmarket L3Y 8P6 (905) 953-7267
Windsor Det 6080 Riverside DR E Windsor N8S 1B6 (519) 948-5287
——————

ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE Haldimand County O.P.P. (6C01) P.O. Box 148 72 Hwy. # 54
Cayuga, Ontario N0A 1E0 Phone 905-772-3322 Fax 905-772-5815 Dispatch Office: 1-888-310-1122 Primary Contact Brian Haggith, Inspector Alternate Contact Pat Colley, Staff Sergeant
——————-

CANADA GENERAL ATTORNEY webadmin@justice.gc.ca
Department of Justice Canada 284 Wellington Street

Send emails to stop this insanity to: Prime Minister Stephen Harper pm@pm.gc.ca; Attorney General Ontario http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca; Henco Industries Ltd., 128 Highland Blvd. Caledonia Ontario. N3W 2P1; Brant County Community Development: Fax (519) 442-3461; to cities on our land – City of Brantford: Fax (519) 759-7840 E-mail: mhancock@brantford.ca; Corporation of Haldimand County: Fax (905) 772-2148 E-mail: mayor@haldimandcounty.on.ca; Oxford County: E-mail: info@city.woodstock.on.ca; Onondaga: Customer Service Fax (519) 758-1619; South Dumfries: Customer Service Fax (519) 448-3105; Dufferin County: Fax (519) 941-2816 E-mail: warden@dufferincounty.on.ca; Kent County, Michigan: Mike Cox, Attorney General Fax: (517) 373-3042; Waterloo: E-mail: sken@region.waterloo.on.ca; Innisfil: bjackson@barint.on.ca; Attorney General: Fax (416) 326-4007 Media Relations E-Mail: Brendan.Crawley@jus.gov.on.ca; Governor General: Michaelle Jean Fax (613) 998-1664 E-mail: info@gg.ca; Chinese Consulate in Toronto Fax: (416) 324-6468; OPP Brantford 519-756-7050; Hamilton 905-572-2401; Jim Potts OPP liaison 613-795-3907; RCMP London 519-640-7267; Dalton McGuinty, Premier. Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto ON M7A 1A1, Attorney General of Canada; Attorney General of Ontario; Department of Indian Affairs;

poster: Thahoketoteh

 

Rejecting our Sovereignty?

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She:kon. The following letter speaks for itself. It calls for support by emailing the Prime Minister at pm@pm.gc.ca and anyone else your see fit. Nia:wenKanion’ke:haka Kaianereh’ko:wa Kanon’ses:neh
P.O. Box 49
Kanatakon. Akwesasne (HOM 1A0)
518-358-6012 fax 518-358-6007
katenies20@yahoo.com

December 4, 2005

VIA FAX URGENT

Lance Markell
District Director
Canada Customs
Ottawa 613-930-3234 Fax 613-991-1407

She:kon

Today a meeting is taking place between Mike Mitchell, Angie Barnes and pseudo Iroquois Paul Williams of Akwesasne Mohawk Band Council regarding the Kanion’ke:haka Nation’s “Red Card” identification. This card is the choice of the Roti’noshonnon:we/Iroquois who are citizens of the Kanion’ke:haka/Mohawk under our constitution, the Kaianereh’ko:wa. Any usurpation of our right to issue this card to anyone is considered a hostile act of international consequences.

These members of the Canadian government band council system, who are Canadian citizens of Mohawk ancestry, are impersonating us and usurping our national identity. These band councils are municipal level entities illegally set up by the Canadian government. They cannot represent us or use our national instruments such as the Red Cards or even to negotiate any kind of agreement on anything. The reason we believe this is happening is due to the continued assertion of our constitutional jurisdiction according to our laws that are respected by the laws of Canada.

The Two Row Wampum Agreement is the guide for our relationship with the newcomers to our land. They agreed to stay in their ship with their laws, customs, languages and ways and whatever land they brought with them. We agreed to stay in our canoe with our laws, ways and culture and title to all our land and jurisdiction over our unsurrendered lands. So far our sovereignty and none of our land has ever been surrendered.

Our relationship with Canada can only be on a nation-to-nation basis according to our constitution, the Kaianereh’kowa, as respected by the British North America Act 1867. International law is clear. We could only give up jurisdiction and sovereignty through informed consent of a clear majority of the constitutional Indigenous people. This never happened.

These fakes are followers of the illegally imposed Indian Act which violate the Canadian constitution, international law and the rule of law. They have relinquished their claims to Mohawk nation rights and lands.

Sections 109 and 132 of the Canadian constitution respect our nation-to-nation relationship, which sets out the process for our formal relationship. Parliament only has jurisdiction to make treaties with us, that’s all. We never surrendered anything to anybody. We were and continue to be governed by our own constitution.

Customs Canada and all federal, provincial and local agencies who try to deal with us through their own puppet governments violate the rule of law and breaches section 109 of Canada’s constitution. International law is clear. Your appropriation of our rights and possessions is illegal. Canada is not exempt from international standards in dealing with Indigenous nations such as ours. Neither Canadian federal, provincial or local laws apply to us because we never consented to them. They were imposed on us against our will at a time when Canada was actively involved in promoting policies that are now identified as genocide.

Regarding the crossing of your “imaginary line”, you must deal with the true Mohawk Nation government. We are not subject to your “imagination”. We refuse to see it. You cannot show us where we ever agreed to this border line on our territory. You cannot deal with your illegally imposed band council on Nation issues. We are not British or Canadian subjects and we never have been. We Mohawks have always been on our land under our own constitution. Your own laws confirm we are independent. We have “prior interests” to our lands, resources and jurisdiction that Canada and its provinces must respect.

Canada in passing the Indian Act treasonably superseded its constitution and placed itself above the law. Any business conducted under the Indian Act is null, void and illegal. We have asked your Supreme Court if the Canadian constitution still stands. The answer of course is “yes”. Canada and its provinces have no jurisdiction over us and our lands were never validly surrendered. We continue to be independent.

Cease and desist your meetings about us with these imposters. We’ll be glad to come and explain the facts of life to you in person.

Nia:wen

/s/____________
Katenies, Woman Title Holder

Cc: Governor General of Canada
Ms. Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister
U.S. President George Bush
Band Council of Akwesasne
St. Regis Mohawk Tribe Inc.
Assembly of First Nations
Etc?.
All Embassies and Media

poster: Thahoketoteh

 

Poospatuck attacked by NY state

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Poospatuck attacked by NY state

Here are the emails that someone sent along to us. Nia:wen. Kahentinetha
Email can be sent to Gov. Pataki at
http://161.11.3.75 there’s a webform to email him
Email Eliot Spitzer via Webform at
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/online_forms/email_ag.jsp Prez Bush at president@whitehouse.gov, Vice Prez Cheney vicepresident@whitehouse.gov
Once again, New York State is knocking Indigenous nations to our knees by killing our economy. Protest by going on their website. Giving them a piece of your mind would help. Their constant bashing has got to stop. cc me your comments. Nia:wen – Kahentinetha
Kahentinetha Horn
P.O. Box 966, Akwesasne (New York 13655
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com

MNN.Dec. 8, 2005.

Mr. George W. Bush
President, United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C.

Mr. George Pataki , Governor, New York State
The Capitol, Albany, N.Y. 12224

Mr. Elliott Spitzer
New York State Attorney General
The Capitol, Albany, N.Y. 12224

She:kon

It has come to our attention that the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance started on December 8th to place an illegal and unconstitutional embargo on businesses conducted by Indian nations. It is a blatant attempt to economically strangle our economy. You are criminalizing customers who purchase products from us by threatening to prosecute, jail, fine and seize their cars. Even internet and mail order sales have been criminalized. This is a small remaining part of our economy that survived your appropriation of the land and resources that sustained our ancestors from time immemorial.

Throughout the territory claimed by New York State, Indigenous people are governed by our constitution, the Kaianereh?ko:wa/Great Law of Peace. As a Woman Title Holder, it is my duty to inform you that you are violating the Two Row Wampum Agreement, which governs our relationship. You have no jurisdiction over Indigenous people. All of New York State is unsurrendered Indigenous land. According to our constitution, we can only deal with the President of the United States as set out in the U.S. Constitution.

New York State is not only breaching the two constitutions by invading our jurisdiction, but they are attacking our economy. Your embargo is meant to strangle our nation economically in order to topple our government. According to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, all Peoples have a right to freely assure their economic, social and cultural development. This obvious attempt to strangle us economically is a violation of the duty to promote international cooperation between nations. It?s an attempt to stop the creation of equal opportunities for employment and economic development for our people. It?s interfering with our social security and represents a new variation on the ongoing attempt to commit cultural, social and economic genocide.

Because of the economic stranglehold that the colonial states exercised over our people, cigarette manufacturing has become the largest employer of our people on our territories. No attempts have been made to negotiate alternate economic arrangements with our traditional constitutional governments. We have a right to conduct tax free commercial enterprises. Your attempt to stop people from buying products on our territories makes it obvious that you do not want to accord us the same rights that you assume you have on territories you claim to govern. Moreover, you are occupying our land for which you have not paid us any taxes whatsoever for your use of our land and resources. Whatever makes you think that we do not have the same right as anyone else to support our families?

You are the visitors on our land who stole everything from us. You impoverished us. Now you want to kill our means of livelihood. Everyone has a right make a living – individuals, states, nations. So do we, internationally and locally.

The Haudenosaunee and New York State have no treaty. A ?treaty? is ?a compact made between two or more ?independent? nations. New York State is not a nation. It cannot conclude treaties with Indigenous nations nor invade our jurisdiction. If you want to alter current relations you should send an emissary to our constitutional governments through the President of the United States. Your attempt to impose your will by force is a violation of international law and a throwback to the old days of colonialism and piracy. Only the President of the United can deal with us. Even in this case, a neutral arbitrator agreeable to both parties must help with the negotiations between us and the United States. Using the police and courts of the usurping party to threaten the other party is not legal.

We have never submitted to American sovereignty. According to the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, Paragraph 1, our relationship is nation-to-nation. The Poospatuck Nation is one of our allied nations whom we have agreed to protect under our Constitution of the Haudenosaunee. It is not legal for New York State to deal in anyway with the Poospatuck Nation of Long Island. New York State cannot invade this nation?s jurisdiction. There are no agreements with the United States for the Poospatuck to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of any foreign government such as the United States, or to any federal, state or local government without our participation and consent. The Poospatuck cannot gain federal law recognition without our permission.

In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson spoke for the world when he declared that the era of conquest and aggrandizement was gone. Everybody realized that you can?t have peace so long as strong nations continued to force their will on smaller ones. Not content to have driven us to the bottom rungs of the economy, you are continuing to search for new ways to squeeze the last drop of life blood from us.

New York State is an invading colonial society which is located on unsurrendered Indigenous land. New York State is committing a crime when it coerces customers to pay them taxes for purchasing cigarettes, tobacco, gas or any product from Indigenous nations. New York State is illegally invading the sovereign jurisdiction of the Poospatuck Nation who never gave their informed consent to give up their land, sovereignty and tax free rights.

Your illegal imposition of taxes to attack our economic base, to end our custodial responsibility for our land, to limit our rights in all the communities of the friends and allies of the Kanion?ke:haka/Mohawk Nation, to extend New York State and federal jurisdiction over us, or to otherwise compromise our inherent sovereignty is a crime.

Onen

/s/_______________
Kahentinetha Horn

cc. UN Office of High Commission for Human Rights, UN Plaza, S.2914, New York 10017; St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, Route 37, Akwesasne (NYS) 13655; Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, P.O. Box 579, Cornwall, Ont. Canada K6H 5V5; Kanion?ke:haka Kaianereh?ko:wa Kanon?ses:neh; Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington DC; Ganiengeh Mohawk Territory; Haudenosaunee On-Line.

poster: Thahoketoteh

 

“MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL”

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 WHAT HURRICANE KATRINA REFLECTED.MNN. September 20, 2005. Hurricane Katrina put up a mirror that exposed a hole within “democratic” society. She swept away the veil of delusion. She revealed a societal crisis. She showed our flaws. In a hierarchal system, only the man at the top can give the order. President George Bush delayed assistance to the victims for four days causing death, havoc and chaos. Now everybody is taking shots at George Bush. Bush says, “I take responsibility for what happened”. Does it really make sense to balance our lives on the narrow little shoulders of this man? What does he know of the struggle that the people are facing? Why should we turn to someone who has no experience in practical reality?.

The problem is deeper. Bush is a pawn in the system in which he exists. He is trying to play the hero. He has to look good. “I am responsible”, says he, while
saluting the flag. Who cares about a flag when babies are dying of starvation and dehydration in the middle of a cesspool?

Decaying structure. As Katrina showed, the Americans have a structure that’s supposed to take care of them. It’s rotted, crumbled and washed away by winds and tides, eroded by pollution and neglect. They aren’t sure how this happened. So they are trying to find some scapegoats, some sacrificial lambs that they can burn on the alter of convenience to feed their fear and confusion. The energy they waste would be better spent listening to the people.

Scapegoating takes American society off the hook. Nothing gets solved. Katrina showed us their system cannot cope. It is structurally fraudulent. How much can they build with delusional beams? They refuse to look at a system that is supposed to have a rule of law root. They think that all their hierarchical structures will stand every hurricane even though they’re crumbling.

Smoke and mirrors. Bush says he’s going to rebuild New Orleans. Their system produces contrived leadership. It tells people whatever they want to hear. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” It’s too busy asking silly questions to know how to roll up its sleeves and get to work rebuilding the structure and sorting out the rule of law.

The hierarchical system versus the true democratic system. The judiciary is supposed to uphold the basic principles of constitutional democracy and the rule of law. The judiciary has not permitted the power of the people to express itself, even though they have an inherent right to do so under the constitution. The judiciary is supposed to make sure a true democracy functions.

Our constitution. The Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law of Peace, is a true democracy that is not hierarchical. It is a tripartite system. Every citizen’s opinion is valuable. Every person is responsible. Individual responsibility goes along with individual empowerment.

The U.S. Constitution is based on the Kaianereh’ko:wa. Accordingly, each individual is responsible at the grassroots level. In our language we call the brain “oni kon ra” which means “it takes care of you”. We take care of ourselves with others by putting our minds together. Everybody has an opinion because humans are equal and everybody gets to have their say. The Longhouse government and court hears everyone, in the presence of everyone. This sets the truth free. By this means justice, as the application of truth to affairs, comes into existence.

The U.S. Founding Fathers have acknowledged the debt owed to the Kaianereh’ko:wa. They tried to copy our constitution. They got it almost right, but not totally. Now they’re busy covering up the mess they’ve created.

U.S. and Canada. The constitutions of the United States and Canada are both based on the rule of law. Neither the political leaders nor the people have given much thought lately to what this means. Their legislatures passed federal laws which violated their constitutions and undermined their nation-to-nation relationship with the Indigenous people. The newcomers turned their backs on caring for the people. Katrina left them with a lethal combination of chaos and despotism.

They have to go back to first principles. Any leader in any country at anytime is a product of the society. Bush did not create society or its rules. It is a tragedy to see so much responsibility placed on the non-existent shoulders of such an uninspired man. Under the Kaianereh’ko:wa he would still have his contribution to make. But it wouldn’t take precedence over the depth of human experience shared by fellow Americans.

Obligations. If they want to avoid chaos, they need to learn how to restructure their society in a way that respects their founding belief that all men and women are created equal. Everybody matters. Under the Kaianereh’ko:wa the relief effort in Southern United States would have been spontaneous. You have to help your brothers and sisters.

Symptom v. Cause. Bush made a deadly mistake when he delayed responding to the flood victims of New Orleans. What happened is deeper than any individual. He is a symptom, not the cause. The rule of law is not functioning as it should. To solve the problem you have to clean the wound and get the infection out of it.

Bush bashing is another way of avoiding responsibility. The man is not that important. The people are. We all have to join hands with our neighbors and learn how to work together again.

Everyone is responsible. The Kaianereh’ko:wa doesn’t scapegoat the guy at the top. There is no guy at the top. There isn’t a top. There isn’t a bottom. The people are all together with all else in the circle of interdependent life on Mother Earth. The Kaianereh’ko:wa is pure democracy where each individual, all the relatives and nature are respected. Everybody is entitled to speak and be listened to. You never know where a good idea might come from, or who will tell the truth when all others are lying.

What’s in store.? Katrina showed us what will happen if we don’t reform the structure. We must return to the fundamental principles of justice. If nothing is done about the structure, society will break down.

Root Cause. The rule of law will change society if they address the constitutional jurisdiction question. Our case in the U.S. Supreme Court, number 05-165, addresses the root cause of the breakdown of the system. The Kaianereh’ko:wa is the origin of civil government and society which is the rule of law. This is not working right now. The judiciary allowed the structure to be created that allows people to take advantage of other people, contrary to the rule of law. Bush is a competitor. He takes advantage of the system. Scapegoating him instead of correcting the system is merely treating the symptom, not the cause.

Restructuring. The Kanien’ke:haka/Mohawk have been trying to get the system to address itself structurally. Bush is operating competitively within the system as it has been set up to operate. Should we continue taking pot shots at him? Or can we listen to the Kaianereh’ko:wa and the Indian message? We are trying to stop the genocide of Indigenous people. When we help re-establish the rule of law then genocide of others will stop too.

The Kaianereh’ko:wa represents something good about humans. It expresses the justice that is inherent in the natural world when it is based on responsibility for “all my relations”. The people are the final decision makers. If Bush makes mistakes, it is the people’s response to correct it by insisting that their judiciary do its job of upholding the constitution. The rule of law is based on the power and responsibility of all the people.

We are getting conflicted messages. The Kaianereh’ko:wa message of taking care of each other, and the mainstream message to take care of number one. The structure out there is not working. It produces scapegoats instead of structural reform.

Conclusion. Can we save people from themselves by correcting the system that produces and rewards such people? Is it our fault that this happened? We do have the ultimate power. We are the people. Our system of constitutional law and the rule of law is the solution. This is implemented by weaning the judiciary away from opportunism about what it wants the law to be, into respecting the law as it is. There is no point in a people having the rule of law if the people’s judiciary makes up the law as it goes along instead of taking the law as given by the people.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News

poster: Thahoketoteh

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DO YOU SUFFER FROM “POLITICAL PARANOIA”?

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TAKE THE TEST.

MNN. Jan. 16, 2005. When the 109th Congress convened in Washington D.C. in January 2005, Senator Bill Frist, a doctor, filed a bill that would define “political paranoia” as a mental disorder. Every social disaster or political movement has its loonies: McCarthyism, John Birch Society, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Crusty the Clown, Pat Robertson, Oren Lyons, David Ahenakew, etc. What conditions have to exist before the message of the paranoid takes place. Well, here’s a test, folks, to find out where you are on the scale.

Just answer the questions and score them from 1 to 10.

1. My blood boils when I see George Bush in the news.

2. I wince when I see colonial flags like the Stars and Stripes or the Maple Leaf on Indian cars.

3. I believe that the involvement of Tribal councils in the United States and the band councils in Canada in land claims, casino high tech deals are fraudulent and that they are out for themselves.

4. I cannot listen to reservation radio stations financed by the federal government without becoming enraged. The cherry picked opinions of the tribal and band councilors or their employees infuriates me.

5. A sign objecting to the casino has been sitting on my lawn for the past 5 years.

6. I avoid speaking my mind because I am afraid I might get called down or get an egg thrown on my car windshield or get my welfare cut off.

7. I believe that everything the chiefs say is the gospel truth. Halleluyah!

8. I believe that Homeland Security or CSIS may be listening in on my phone conversations. So I use an obscure dialect for code – like Mohawk.

9. I am opposed to the concept of an individual ownership society.

10. I use traditional herbs to treat all ailments, including my political paranoia.

11. I avoid speaking to anyone in authority, including the Wal Mart cashier.

12. I think that the chiefs and councilors of my territory are unbiased.

13. I supported these same people in the last election.

14. I have trouble admitting that I suffer from political paranoia.

If you score from 1 to 20, nothing bothers you. You probably don’t listen to the media. You may be a hermit or can’t afford cable. You are a winner because you just don’t know or care about what is going on. If you scored between 100 and 140 you are aware of what is going on and are still normal in this day and age. You don’t have to be treated by Bush’s new paranoia pills – Paxil or Prozac.

Hey, wait a minute! Here’s a new business venture for some enterprising Mohawks – manufacturing cheap generic anti-depressants. Carry on, George!

Kahentinetha Horn

MNN Mohawk Nation News

poster: Thahoketoteh