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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/.

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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.

Canady 16

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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kahnistensera@riseup.net

kahentinetha2@protonmail.com POBox 991, kahnawake Que.  Canada. J0L 1B0

MOHAWK MOTHERS DISPUTE DISBANDMENT OF EXPERT PANEL

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MNN. Nov. 1, 2023.
https://www.thetribune.ca/news/kanienkehaka-kahnistensera-appear-in-court-discuss-disbandment-of-archaeological-panel-31102023/

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) appeared at the Montreal Courthouse for a five-hour case management hearing on Oct. 27. The hearing came as part of the Mothers’ ongoing investigation into McGill’s New Vic Project site—where the Mothers fear that there may be unmarked Indigenous graves—alongside McGill, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), the City of Montreal, and the Attorney General of Canada.

The Mothers gave the first statement before Justice Gregory Moore. Beginning with Mohawk Mother Kwetiio, the Mothers urged the court to enforce the settlement agreement, which, in Kwetiio’s interpretation, states that all parties are bound to the recommendations of the court-appointed expert archaeological panel. Kwetiio further alleged that McGill had sent contracts to the three members of the panel—which disbanded on Aug. 3—with three-month termination dates. The Mothers were not informed of these contracts until they had already been signed and were irreversible.

Kwetiio argued that Ethnoscop—the archaeological firm hired for the investigation—did not use appropriate methods to protect the forensic chain of custody of any potential evidence, as they were touching evidence with their bare hands and not using tamper-proof bags. She also stated that the defendants were strategically choosing which information they would share with the Mothers in order to continue the investigation without delays.

“There’s been a lot of cherry-picking of what [the defendants] are going to use to help themselves to further their construction, and not the investigation,” Kwetiio said in a press conference after the hearing.

The court then heard from Mohawk Mother Kahentinetha, who shared that potential anomalies were excavated on the site in rapid time which did not allow for proper significance and care to be given to each anomaly. She said that on one day, nine anomalies were excavated with a mere 45 minutes allotted to each anomaly. Kahentinetha claimed that the soil was not sifted properly, and any bone fragments found were immediately deemed to be of animal origin.

In a written statement to The Tribune, the SQI asserted that all excavation is being carried out in accordance with proper archaeological regulations by expert firms, with proper methods used to ensure soil is not mixed or contaminated.

Kahentinetha also shared that after facing verbal assault from SQI security guards on July 25, the Mothers had asked to be accompanied by Indigenous security personnel from T.D. Security while onsite. However, it took three weeks before the defendants complied with this request.

Kwetiio continued, asserting that the Mothers deserve to be treated with respect on the site and should not be subjected to “uncontrollable anger” from the defendants when they ask questions. She ended the Mothers’ statement by contending that the defendants had breached every part of the settlement agreement.

The court took a fifteen-minute break, after which Julian Falconer—the lawyer for the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor, Kimberly Murray—gave his statement, alleging that the defendants were being denialistic. He stated that the Mothers already had an insurmountable burden placed on them throughout this case, and this burden had “quadrupled” the day the panel was disbanded. He condemned the disbandment of the panel and alleged that McGill and the SQI had replaced the panel with their own archaeological experts so that they could inform the public that they were relying on the advice of experts.

“Today was about bringing back the experts that know how to do this work, to find unmarked burials,” Murray said in a press conference after the hearing. “We have a lot of companies that can do scans. We don’t have a lot of people that have expertise in analyzing the data.”

Later, the court heard from the SQI. Their statement was delivered in French and translated for the Mothers by anthropologist and associate of the Mothers Philippe Blouin. Members of Take Back Tekanontak—an advocacy group in support of the Mohawk Mothers—were stationed outside of the courthouse after the hearing to show solidarity. In an interview with The Tribune, an organizer of Take Back Tekanontak, Diane, who chose not to give her last name, shared her belief that the lack of a court-provided English translation of the SQI’s statement for the Mothers was appalling and oppressively exclusionary.

“The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera come to court, and they speak Kanyen’kéha, their own language, and their colonial language is English,” Diane said. “It’s not okay to ask them to learn French as a second colonial language, and yet there is no translation provided for them. I cannot believe my eyes.”

McGill’s lawyer, Doug Mitchell, provided the next statement before Justice Moore. He stated that the university believes that it has abided by the settlement agreement wholly and respectfully, arguing the occasional disagreements between parties are not an indication that the agreement is being violated. He asserted that the defendants are bound by the recommendations of techniques by the panel, not to anything else.

Mitchell additionally claimed that Falconer had “theatricized” his speech to the court so that Justice Moore would rule in the favor of the Mothers.  He stated that the Mothers needed to take the emotion out of the investigation, alleging that the Mothers and Murray only wanted to enforce their interpretation of the contract and were not suffering any irreparable harm by the way McGill was carrying out the investigation.

Falconer responded to Mitchell’s statement, saying that Mitchell should apologize for asking the Mothers to be less emotional about the investigation. He also argued that all parties should acknowledge that the panel’s recommendations have not been followed, as the panel itself believes its suggestions have not been entirely executed.

“It is absolutely essential that McGill, the Quebec government, [and the] SQI come to their senses and understand that it is very short-sighted to essentially terminate a panel they agreed to be bound by in order a further a development,” Falconer said in a press conference after the hearing. “I promise you, whatever few dollars [the defendants] make on their development, the [societal cost] and the [further erosion] of trust is absolutely innumerable in terms of the size of the expense.”

Kwetiio also replied to Mitchell’s statement, stating that Mitchell’s words were “deeply offensive,” and reiterating the fact that all parties would not be back in court if the recommendations of the panel had been respected.

“I think it was pretty disgusting that the defendant said ‘Oh, there’s no irreparable harm done here.’ […] There’s never a situation where any one of us is going to bargain without children of the past, present, and future,” Kwetiio said in response to Mitchell’s comment in a press conference after the hearing.

Justice Moore adjourned court with no decision made, explaining that he would need some time to review all submissions and testimonies. McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle told The Tribune in an email that McGill will provide a comment on the hearing once Justice Moore makes a decision. A tentative subsequent court date is set for Dec. 1, during which all parties will discuss the issue of archives and records related to the investigation.

“We demand that we have a proper best practice investigation for our children and for those that were disrespected on that site,” Kwetiio said. “I think our children are looking for us to find them, and this is what’s important, and I’m so glad that all these people are here today in support.”

Led Zeppelln knows the way of betrayal; “Lying, cheating, that’s all you seem to do. Messing around with every guy, putting me down for thinking of someone new . . . Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. Your time is gonna come. . . . 

Led Zeppelin - Your Time Is Gonna Come (Official Audio)
KIMBERLY MURRAY SPEAKS:

CALL TO ACTION: ONE YEAR TO GO!

                

 

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CALL TO ACTION: ONE YEAR TO GO!                

THE GENOCIDE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IS OVER.

 

THE GENOCIDE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IS OVER.

99 years ago on Oct. 25, 1924, the Indian Lands Act was enacted as part of the Indian Advancement Act called the “100 year business plan”. Next year is the 100th year when Canada plans to eliminate the Indian problem forever by killing us and taking our land. According to the “Admiralty Law of the Seas” we are supposed to be signed away.  But it might be the perpetrators and their beneficiaries who will be eliminated. Not us. 

Historically the slaughter of us was wholesale. Those laws passed by the colonists to genocide us are part of Canadian colonial law, which is legalized murder to take everything from us, particularly our lives. The formation of Canada is based on genocide, therefore Canada is illegal. The genocidal policies and laws are made to look legal, but they are not!  They cannot be punished for squatting on our land, their ‘blood quantum” laws, stealing our land, creating POW camps called “reserves”, kidnapping our children, doing experiments on them and then murdering and burying them. Our languages and culture were outlawed.!

2024 will be the 100th year of their insidious plan for the corporation of Canada to be rid of the “Indian problem” to  incorporate us into the Canadian body politic. Duncan Campbell Scott, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, called it the ‘final solution to the Indian problem’. it’s a corporate “business plan” disguised as law. The prime minister enforces that law on behalf of the people of Canada. The first remedy may be to have the body of John A. Macdonald disinterred from his grave and shipped back to Scotland where he belongs. All statues and monuments of him can be shipped back home. The onkwehonweh will take our proper seat at the table of nations. 

Canada thought it was right on target with the “Framework Agreement” to finalize the annihilation of the indigenous people. With the stroke of their colonial pen, there would have been no more Indians. They think they can force us to become Canadians. But they did not factor in the internet in their planning. Now everyone in the world is watching while this colonial enterprise called “Canada” is coming to an end. The whole colonial system will be gone forever. Back to where they came from. The Dominion of Canada will end next year. All our land and resources will be returned to us.  Canadians can make this right by becoming a model for the world by adopting the kaianerekowa, the great peace, as the basis for their constitution. 

Canada is a Nazi project. 700 top Nazis were brought to Canada through “Operation Paperclip” and placed in high positions within the bureaucracy.  

Canada recently showed its hand by presenting one of its Operation Paperclip heroes, Nazi war criminal Yaroslav Hunka Vet. of Waffen S.S. Every Member of Parliament stood up and gave him several rousing standing ovations, while the world watched. The applause was akin to giving the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute. Welcome to Canada! Parliamentarians showed their love and allegiance for the Nazis when the world watched them giving accolades to Hunka.

Department of Indian Affairs is a department of the army. Some of us have seen the “War Room” on the 14th floor of the DIA in Hull/Ottawa. Their job is to keep the indigenous as prisoners of war because the war for our land has never ended. We want them out of our land. We live under military law which is enforced by the army. The government hopes that we will die out. Our people continue to be disappeared.

Those who take an oath to the foreign autocrat King Charles and his corporations [Canada}, ancestors and heirs forever  can either leave on the ship with their masters or they can rescind that oath and take a new one to the onkwehonweh. It is still legal for the government to kill indigenous people. Canadians need to follow the natural law also known as the great peace of this land. Their Admiralty Laws are enacted to protect them from their crimes so the perpetrators will never be held responsible.

Canadians want to celebrate the end of the Indian problem which is that they occupy Indian land free of indigenous occupation. They rely on the ‘Doctrine of Discovery ‘ for their false occupation of our land.  

The first Prime Minister John A. Macdonald wanted to make us ‘white’. He failed so he set up the “Indian Plan”. Now it is in the hands of prime minister Trudeau and his gaggle and are now the biggest criminals in Canada. They have never condemned these criminal laws and policies. In 2024 they will do it.

Mr. Trudeau, I invite you to explain how is it possible to have these genocide laws on the books? You are just another prime minister criminal that we have to deal with. Aren’t you and everyone who gets a benefit from the murders of and theft from our people embarrassed by this legislation enacted to kill us?  You and everyone who benefits from these murders is guilty.

And then to bring in and praise a Nazi to remind us of who owns the corporation/dominion of Canada. The Admiralty Law and all of their courts are no longer valid because they get their right to exist from the Doctrine of Discovery which never existed in the first place. Canadians got away with murder by classifying us as non human beings with only the rights of an animal. 

We cannot reconcile with murderers. 2024 will be the best year for us and the worst year for the corporate entity called Canada.

 

Nobel Laureate, Bob Dylan, hammers the message home: “Come, you Masters of War. You that build the big guns. You that build the death planes. You that hide behind walls. You that hide behind deaths. I want you to know I can see through your masks… I hope that you die and your death will come soon. I’ll follow your casket in the pale afternoon. I’ll watch while you’re lowered onto your death bed and i’ll stand over your grave till i’m sure that your’re dead. 

THE TERRIBLE LEGACY OF DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT.  https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/the-terrible-legacy-of-duncan-campbell-scott_b_14289206

 

TIME TO GO HOME

 

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CAN ANYONE BECOME KILLERS UNDER THE RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES?

MNN. Sep.22,  2023. Does killing one group have to do with the relationship between the individual and the state? The state says this is the group for you to hate and this is how we deal with them. The citizens are the instruments of the state. When the state no longer has power or loses an election, how do they continue to undermine these targets. Who carries on the violence that was designed by the state for them? It is important to think about what the state is allowing its citizens to do with impunity when they vote them into office.  

The ruthless hatred of the indigenous becomes state doctrine. We were driven off our land and not accepted in their society. Many anti-indigenous laws were passed.  We were systematically  excluded, stigmatized, humiliated and killed.

Mass murder was one of the first steps. It was between us and them. We were studied and analyzed to find our “weaknesses”. It was a public policy process. Then it became a secret while the genocide was being carried out. They are “them” and we are the ‘others’. We are defined as different and treated different. This makes them willing to treat us different while the rest look away. That’s the basis of carrying out mass murders.  

In the beginning the whites were given permits to attack us, kill us, take our property and hide our bodies. They gathered us up and murdered us. It became routine. Then they built their houses, towns and cities on top of us. 

HOW DO THEY JUSTIFY THE KILLING?

Mass murders were committed by thinking people. Not machines. They understand what they are doing. The perpetrators plan it for the rest of their society. For example, some would only kill the children who would die if they did not have their parents. So it was not blind obedience. It was by choice. They saw themselves as morally righteous. They reasoned that if the children grew up and learned what was done to the indigenous people, we would become enemies of their state. So there had to be no memories. To them killing a human being was reasonable. We were considered non-human and expendable and were hunted down.

What will happen to Canadians when they lose their power? They did not think it was wrong to kill us. 

There were those who easily learned to kill human beings and hide their crime, which they did not think was a crime. Some enjoyed torturing the victims which they still do today. [Joyce Echequan, St. Jovite]. There were the passive ones who did what they were told to do. And the objectors who tried to object, but could not find fault with not killing the indigenous people and so they helped carry out the murders. 

THERE WAS NO NEED TO KILL OUT OF CONVICTION TO BE MOTIVATED BY STATE IDEOLOGY.

The killers did not have to be brainwashed by indoctrination, or fascism to become prolific killers. They would shoot their own mother or sister if they were ordered to.  We think they should not be allowed to walk free, but Canadian society gives  them a free pass.

Today Canadians and Americans want to forget and walk away with an “I’m sorry”.  How many invaders were involved and benefitted from these mass murders? Who was and is still behind it? In the US there are 340 million foreign citizens and in Canada 40 million more who all benefit from this genocide. The false concept of private property originated from the “Doctrine of Discovery”, which is legal fiction. There is lack of will to punish them. They keep on doing the dirty work for the state. The state passed laws to allow genocide, which are still on the books. Genocide is not illegal. Millions killed us and don’t realize how it was carefully planned and carried out.  

If you were ordered to kill, can you refrain? Such crimes against humanity must be stopped and cannot be repeated. 

Canada and US are cowards and frauds. They did not conquer us. They came here to run away from tyranny in Europe to come here and run their own tyranny. They killed our children without any empathy or due process to get rid of us all. There is no reason in the universe to kill children.  There is no statute of limitations on murder. Somebody paid to carry it out and somebody benefitted.  It was the government and its people. The same government that wants to “whitenize” us. They did it without any qualms whatsoever. They wanted to live on our land without us!

We were murdered.  It was government planned, lead and endorsed. And Canadians vote for them to continue it.  Canadians have never been asked if they agree with their governing structure.

It was quite the plan. Rez schools were in remote areas. They were concentration camps burying little children in their midst away from prying eyes. Most Canadians didn’t know what was going on by design. The children were abused and then disappeared. But their spirits will remain and direct the karma.  

 As slide master, Ry Cooder, suggests: “Now the prodigal was a forward child. His mind was not to obey. But after he left his father’s house, he thought he had gone astray.  I believe, I believe, I believe that I will go back home. . . ” 

[Now, the prodigal son was a forward child, his mind was not to obeyBut after he left his father’s house he thought he had gone astray
That’s why I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeWell, I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd be a servant of the Lord
Now, his father saw him coming he met him with a smileHe threw his arms around him, saying, “This is my darling child”
Now, I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeWell, I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd be a servant of the Lord
The father asked the prodigal“Son, why you been gone so long?Well, did you so love the world and forget your happy home”
The prodigal said, “I searched for true religionBut no faith and no peace could I findUntil I came to a little place called Bakersfield, that eased my troublin’ mind”
That’s why I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeWell, I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd be a servant of the Lord (well I)
I wandered into a tavern where a music band was playin’Now, the steel guitar rang out so sweet, I feel that I was prayin’And I asked a comely waitress, is this a new teachingYeah, she said there is no God but God, and Ralph Mooney is his nameI said, let me empty your ashtray, Mr. MooneyAnd if the drunks interfere I’ll be sadBut just as long as you sit there on the bandstandAnd play your guitar like Buddha, I’ll be gladThe father asked the prodigal,Did you smell the sweet perfume and hear the angel band?He said, dim lights, thick smoke, and loud, loud musicIs the only kind of truth I’ll ever understand
I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeWell, I believe that, I believe that I will go back homeAnd be a servant of the Lord
I believe this, I believe that I will, yes I believe . . .]

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DESKAHEH WENT TO GENEVA IN 1923 FOR THE SOVEREIGN ROTINOSHONNI PEOPLE

MNN. Sept. 21, 2023.

REMEMBERING THE ARGUMENTS OF DESKAHEH

FOR THOSE WHO FORGOT WHY HE WENT TO GENEVA.

THE REAL FACTS!
ERAKWA DIPLOMACY 1710
IROQUOIS DIPLOMACY 1710

IERA’KWAH EXPLAINING TEIO’HATEH/TWO ROW IN EUROPE.

1.OPENING. Canada’s Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples now admits that the relationship between the indigenous people and the uninvited Europeans began with the teio’hateh, Two Row Wampum agreement. Two entities agree to live separately according to the kaianerekowa, the great peace, or leave. We allowed them to live here temporarily – with us in our canoe and they in their ships. We would share only the river. The indigenous peoples and the newcomers belonged to different families with different languages, culture, laws and ways of life. Europe’s monarchs acknowledged we were not their subjects and they could not interfere with our laws and customs. As turtle island is all indigenous land, we provided to the European “social groups” the use of land the depth of a plow to grow food. They could never own it or form a political party. They needed our permission to do anything on our land.

THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS WERE CLAN BASED WITH TIES TO THE LAND. 

 

2.FORGETTING TWO ROW. Then the colonizers began to see things their foreign way. They violated the Two Row and adopted a “geographic” description of themselves, that they were North Americans. The original inhabitants were clan based tied to the land. The colonizers fought with their European cousins over who could come here, which is our right. Then they started to impose their military laws and ways on everyone on turtle island based on the treaties the Europeans made to end their wars with each other in Europe. [Seven Years War and others]. They never consulted the onkwehonweh, the original peoples who had always respected the land since time immemorial. Instead of staying in their own ship they decided to take over the whole river.

3.DOMINION “CLAIMS’. Some of Britain’s North American colonies confederated in 1867 to form the colony of CANADA. The new political organization was a “dominion”, a colony, because the visitors decided they had a right to dominate the land and all the indigenous people on it. Instead of subjects of their king or queen, they began to base their identity on the indigenous land they were squatting on. They changed from accepting our generosity to trying to dominate us. 

4.BRITISH SUBJECTS. There was no permission from us for this assertion of power. Canada was a British colony and Britain could not give her subjects here anymore than she had to give, which was nothing. The British subjects ignored the Two Row. Britain could not give their subjects on turtle island the right to make laws for the indigenous people because we were not British subjects. At that point they had to leave as they had become trespassers.

5.GEOGRAPHIC DEFINITION. Our ancestors were not consulted about these moves. They knew we could never change the terms of the Two Row. Our land belongs to the unborn. We are the caretakers of mother earth. She cannot be sold or conveyed to anyone and is governed by the kaianerekowa, the great peace. The land was provided by creation to our past present and future generations.  Britain’s colonial subjects had no right to force Indigenous peoples into their European territorial concepts of nationality and property. They could not impose their new geographic definition of themselves on us. 

6.INDIGENOUS FREEDOM. The colonists are still subjects of their kings. Indigenous are not, never were. and never will be. The  life of being free and having a voice was a revelation to Europeans. We are all sovereign persons and part of our own nations and clans. We were each sovereign persons placed by creation in various areas of turtle island to carry out our duties to our mother earth and all life.

7.OUR VOICE. The colonists didn’t want to be subjects anymore. They changed their view of law and international relations. Today Europeans have formally embraced equality along with the rest of the world. Britain no longer has subject status. The colonists define “nationality” on usurp territorial terms rather than adhering to the kaianerekowa, the great peace.  Without our knowledge or consent their citizenship became based on place of birth undermining the kaianerekowa. They still do not grasp the full meaning of equality. Their institutions don’t give their citizens a voice. Their First Nations Governance Act shows that they don’t respect the voice of the indigenous people who have had total jurisdiction of this land since time immemorial. This Act of 2002 was proposed to municipalize native land under private banks and extinguish the sovereign original people.  [Today it is the proposed “Framework Agreement”.] They completely ignored their obligations under the Two Row Wampum.

8.REAL INDIGENOUS IDENTITY. The colonizers can change the way they think of themselves as long as they adhere completely to the great peace here. They cannot define our identity nor appropriate our land and resources. Since Confederation Britain’s colonial subjects have been violating Britain’s agreements with the Indigenous peoples.

9.CORPORATION CAN’T OWN THE LAND. Confederation and the British North America Act 1867 did not give Britain the right to let its colonists violate the Two Row Wampum. Britain knew that its people could only come onto our land as a separate “social group” that would share the river with us. But Britain’s subjects fell into the illusionary idea that they owned the land. This lie is taught in their indoctrination centres called the education system. 

DESKAHEH 1923

10.DESKAHEH & S.C.C. The iera’kwa, the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy knew this back in 1920. In desperation they sent Levi General Deskaheh to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to stop the Department of Indian Affairs from violating the British North America Act 1867. This Act only gave Canada the right to negotiate with us in place of Britain. the colonists cannot impose their Admiralty laws on indigenous people. But Canadian officials would not let Deskaheh have his day in court.

11.TROOPS ATTACK SIX NATIONS. If Deskaheh was allowed to prove that what they were doing was illegal, these bureaucrats would have been out of work.  So they sent troops, the RCMP, to invade the part of Six Nations Grand River territory that remained after a century of theft and fraud. The military deposed the traditional government, the oldest governments in the world, installed their band council puppets and stole all our land and created the Indian reservation on October 25, 1924. [Indian Lands Act]. *Since then the colonists have refused to deal with the real traditional leaders, speaking only to their faux elected band councils they have imposed under colonial laws.

12.DESKAHEH & LEAGUE OF NATION. Six Nations diplomats had been honoured guests in Britain’s courts. By the 1920’s Britain was refusing to deal with the problems that had befallen their colony. The Iroquois Confederacy sent  Deskaheh to the League of Nations to appeal for justice. The sovereign Six Nations, iera’kwah, were qualified to join and wanted membership in this new international organization so our arguments could be presented to protect our legal rights. The Netherlands, Persia, Estonia, Panama and Ireland all agreed that the Six Nations complaints should be examined by the international court. But Deskaheh was ambushed again by Canadian officials lead by D.C. Scott skulking behind the scenes to make sure the case never got a formal public hearing. They lied to the League saying  there was no Two Row and no Great Peace.

The Lands Act is part of the Indian Advancement Act 1924 that imposed the blood quantum legislation [apartheid].  It was the 100 year “business plan” to extinguish the native people, due for completion in 2024.

13.INDIGENOUS ARE ALLIES. Today, the colonists know we indigenous will always maintain our right to independence. We were allies, not subjects of Britain. We are not part of the Corporation of CANADA – the colony that became a corporate successor state. The colonists imposed foreign Admiralty laws on us in violation of both the Two Row and modern International law. They imposed their economic sanctions upon us that have put us in a state of destitute poverty compared to all the colonists. As Deskaheh put it in his last address before he was assassinated in 1924, it’s as if Mexico tried to apply its laws in the United States. 

14.MEANING OF EQUALITY. The problem is European colonists don’t understand the meaning of equality. They have changed how they define themselves. When we made the Two Row Treaty with France and then Britain a month later, we both defined ourselves in terms of ‘personal’ relationships. We are sovereign individuals who are part of our clans. European nations are based on subject status and their allegiance to their monarch. Their shift to a turtle island territorial definition of themselves has no legal basis. They have no right to impose themselves or their laws on us or to take our land and resources without our knowledge or consent. As a successor state, the colonists are still bound by Britain’s treaty obligations. The colonists are guests on our land. Instead they have presumed to take over our whole house. The colonists must work out fair and valid agreements with us, the original inhabitants of turtle island, to our satisfaction if they want to remain here.

15.CANADIANS ARE IMMIGRANTS. The colonizers celebrate “Canada Day” aware that CANADA is a corporation, not an independent nation. Canadian nationality does not exist. Nationality is tied to having clans, shared ancestry, native language, not two foreign languages, a traditional culture and land. CANADA has none of these.  The settlers and their ancestors have in common fleeing from oppressive regimes and immigrating onto someone else’s land and then oppressing them. We have no obligation to care for them. They never accepted the protection under the great peace, which alienated them. 

16.DOMINION FEUDAL CUSTOM. Canada is a “dominion” that was produced by Britian’s will to dominate. “Dominion” is a feudal custom carried to Britain by foreign lords who conquered the land and the people on it. These deeply rooted cultural habits violate the egalitarian respect represented by the Two Row Wampum.

17.CANADA NON-EXISTENT. Consequently, the whole existence of Canada as a legal country is the biggest ruse played on the world. The colonist’s self-definition cannot appropriate our political identity, our resources and our land. This violates the initial treaties made by Britain with the Indigenous peoples. 

18.CANADA VIOLATES NATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW. The colonists violate both the European version of international law and our Indigenous law. The colonists violate the principle of human equality, which they now recognized in a formal way in the mid-twentieth century – after the atrocities of World War II – when they signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the United Nations and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Canada hesitates to ratify UNDRIP UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as it recognizes that Canada is not a country. The immigrants would have to vacate, CANADA would dissolve and the great peace would be the only law that would prevail.  

19.MIGHT DOES NOT MAKE RIGHT. Deskaheh tried to present this argument in the 1920’s but the colonists didn’t want to hear us explain once again  our demands for them to respect our jurisdiction over our land and our political and economic rights. We are sovereign and they are not! When Americans had their revolution they threw off their subject status. Then they went crazy, grabbing land, killing people and destroying resources. They called us the natural people “Indians” and treated us as vermin. Canadians accepted the American policy that “might makes right” and that Europeans had a god-given right to grab lands, possessions, resources and lives. Canada bought into the sleazy American dream. This premise applies to all of the Americas, north and south.

20.INDIGENOUS HAVE EVERYTHING. What happened was sordid. In the subsequent treaties on the prairies there was no meeting of the minds with the native people there. Anglo-Canadians pretend those people agreed to give up everything they had! The indigenous are aware of the agreement to co-exist with them as social groups. In our case the Two Row created a real meeting of minds. The British recognized that we are nations that give permission for anybody to live here according to the great peace. It’s still in effect.

21.TERRITORIAL DEFINITION. The Anglo-Canadian one-sided decision to shift to a territorial definition of themselves gave them no right to take over our land and resources. They have no agreements with us the real natural indigenous. Their corporate Canadian band councils are on the enemies team. They need our consent to our full satisfaction to do anything on our land. We won’t succumb to their lust for our resources or to ransack our land. It’s all ours and they all know it.

22.WHERE’S RECEIPT FOR TURTLE ISLAND. The colonists purport that all people are equal, at the same time illegally imposes laws and beliefs on us. As a successor state Canada is still bound by the limitations of Britain’s treaty obligations which they must fulfill. They would have to leave, or leave us alone or abide by the great peace. Since whites don’t have clans, they are disqualified from living here. They can only live here as a separate social group under the authority of the clans established by the great peace. This is international law which Canada agreed to. The colonizers have no legal right to claim dominion over the inherent original people, or to take our lands and possessions. They have not worked out fair and valid agreements with us that consider the rights of our people now and into the future. We are the “people of the forever” placed by creation on mother earth. Canada’s current attempts to force us original people to prove in their foreign private courts that we have a claim to our own lands is ridiculous and unlawful by international law. They must show us their permits to be on our land, to ransack our resources and to leave a trail of blood and pollution behind. The colonists have no receipt for our land. 

What part of the “depth of a plow share” don’t these alien invaders understand? All these points apply equally to the United States. Only the foundation of the great peace and two row of equality, having a voice through concensus, justice and truth can eliminate the current pandemic of hatred, injustice and racism that is tearing up the world. 

The rotinoshonni are awaiting an invitation from McGill to deliver this speech again. 

In 1924 Duncan Campbell Scott set up the whole concentration camp POW/reserve and apartheid system. October 25, 2023, is the 99th year of the 100 year “business plan” to rid Canada of the indigenous problem. We are standing strong even though our hands are bound. Canada should be more concerned about their own dissolution. Upon intruding turtle island, the ratinaraken were welcome to follow “The white roots of peace” and sit under the shade of the tree of peace.  Fellow Mohawk Robbie Robertson does it so well bridging the people of the world together with this song:

MNN Mohawk Nation News thahoketoteh & kahentinetha2@protonmail.com  For more news and to sign up for MNN www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

The Indian Lands ACT. 1924. file:///Users/kahentinetha/Downloads/IndLanAct1924.pdf

Six Nations Appeal to League of Nations 1922-31 http://historybeyondborders.ca/?p=189

MohawkMothers.ca 

MOHAWK MOTHERS DECLARE THE GENOCIDE IS OVER

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COMMENTS TO QUEBEC SUPERIOR COURT FOR DECLARATORY RELIEF AND TO OBTAIN A SAFEGUARD ORDER ON SEPT. 14, 2023. CASE #500-17-120468-221: Kaheninetha et al v. SQI, McGill University, et all.; and Intervenors Independant Spedical Interlocateur for Missing Children & Unmarked Graves…. 

MNN. Sept. 15, 2023. “Shé :kon Sewakwe :kon. I am Kahentinetha, a Kahnistensera. I’m 84 years old, a great grand mother. Much of what we are doing at McGill and SQI are based on my experience, and that of the people I’ve known.

I was born in 1940. Many of our teachers at the day school I attended as a child were soldiers who just came back from the war. They were in charge and took a military approach to help Canada to annihilate us. They moved from the European theatre and to home grown Canadian war for Indian land, which continues to this day. They are trained killers sent to train the Indigenous children. It was the army managing us. Managing our disappearance. I have known about what was done to our children, to Inuit children too, in some of these hospitals. Children strapped to their stretchers, trapped in caskets. Horrible things. They came to get the weakest and the strongest of us. Intelligence tests at the Allan Memorial Institute to screen us and incarcerate the unruly, of which they studied the mind, to understand how it is that we think, the reasons why we are still ourselves, Onkwehonweh, and never became Canadians.

I’m here for these lost children, to know what happened to them, and who did it, without lawyers and no funds, just using our way against the corporation of Canada.

That’s why I came to the crime site on Mount Royal every day, without pay, to do the words to open the day, to see how things are going, that our ancestors and children are respected and that they are being found. It wasn’t easy. The toilets were filthy. We had to walk through dangerous construction sites, high fences around, and the security attacking us. A nightmare. I was reminded of when my daughter was stabbed in the chest by a soldier in 1990. Genocide is a nightmare that I have been through and that I witnessed. My family was targeted as a traditional longhouse family. Non-Indigenous people often have a hard time understanding that. They were and are still not told the complete story. If we could get the archives we are asking for, if there was a real commitment to transparency for ethnic crimes committed on us in the post-war period, it would help us. 

Justice Moore stated in the injunction that he ordered last October that no party disputed the fact that the investigation must be “Indigenous-led”. The settlement agreement provided that Cultural Monitors appointed by the Kahnistensera must be on the site. Only a fraction of our cultural monitors have received a basic safety training, and certainly nothing that would allow us to securely monitor heavy machinery on the site. We have no real protective equipment to do that. We were expected to use filthy toilets that were on the other side of the site, in an area under construction where they were stockpiling bricks in high stacks, that could fall on us at any time. We were attacked by the SQI’s security guards, and SQI  told us they wouldn’t come back, but we just stumbled on them last Sunday still working there. They were there all the time! I don’t understand how it can be so complicated to understand what Indigenous-led means! It means something that is safe for us to do things our own way, to burn our tobacco, to make decisions together using our consensual decision making system. Now the Defendants say something new that they didn’t even tell us about before starting to drill the site. They say they built another fenced area in between all the other fences, creating an open air prison to put us in and hopefully protect us from rocks flying over and guards insulting us. By any stretch of the imagination this cannot be considered lawful, let alone safe, in any law, Mohawk or Canadian.

Being on the site was not easy in a context where the Defendants apparently do not want us to be there at all. We are facing constant pressure. The slightest attitude that doesn’t fit within non-Indigenous people’s understanding of what it means to be nice was denounced immediately. I was very sorry to learn that Sophie Mayes from the SQI resorted to pulling emails from some service providers that they had contracted who apparently did not like the way us Mohawk women conduct ourselves. I do not want to perpetuate and thus endorse the Defendants’ disturbing use of defamation and ad hominem attacks through quoting non-Indigenous third parties in their submissions. Such accusations are absolutely baseless and reflect the fundamental problem with the way the Defendants unilaterally sign contracts with service providers that end up thinking they work for them, along with non-disclosure agreements and a client-provider relation that excludes the Indigenous people who are the only party that has a vested interest in the credibility of the investigation. When someone like Brian Whiting, department manager at GeoScan, says that he was upset by what I told him when he came to see me last weekend during a GPR survey, he doesn’t say that what I was asking him about is why we cannot access the raw data from the GPR, and why experts cannot get that data and analyse it. He finally admitted that it was because he is under contract with the SQI, and his allegiance goes to who is paying. At the same time, as Kwetiio said before, Mr Whiting’s own recommendations were not followed by the Defendants regarding the unknown anomalies. The SQI and McGill simply decided to ignore them. I know the settlement agreement does not allow them to do that. Nobody on our side of the room would ever have signed such a document.

To finish, I have something to say that I learned after my affidavit was completed, and that I couldn’t include in our submissions. But it happened. An indigenous person called me, who had been contacted by Pierre Major from McGill University, starting a few weeks ago, and again these last days. McGill was searching for a cultural monitor for archaeological work at the Royal Victoria site. This was done without telling us, or involving us, as if McGill wanted to continue their work by hiring their own monitors. The settlement agreement provides that it is the Kahnistensera who appoint the cultural monitors. The person was offered a good salary, a hotel, benefits, and a McGill masters degree. Mr. Major also said a few disparaging words about us, the Mohawk Mothers. We were ‘mean’ women who were not nice to security guards on the site. Aggressive, hysterical women, basically. Obviously the person didn’t believe a word of it. He said he knows how Indigenous woman are. It’s not the first time I’m contacted by people who are approached that way by the Defendants. I ask you to stop this now and show some respect for your elders. I am your elder too. It’s clear to me that the service providers were constantly hearing bad things about us, and became very reactive and apprehensive when we approached them. But the majority of them were very nice and asked us questions, including the two technicians from GeoScan that Mr. Whiting described as upset by our presence. Actually they asked us a lot of questions, and we explained them. They told us about their work to help us explain this to our people. They participated in our ceremonies. The way it should be, very simply, to be real human beings, Onkwehonweh. That’s the way we can truly change our relationship and become free.

I know it’s my right to do this. It’s my responsibility according to the Kaianerehkowa. I am a Kahnistensera, and I declare the genocide is now over.”

 

 

So as Willie Nelson reminds everyone, the party’s over. 

thahoketoteh mohawknationnews@ntk.com  MNN court correspondent

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

MohawkMothers.ca

mohawknationnews.com

JUDGE TO MAKE DECISION MONDAY SEP.13/23

PRESS RELEASE 

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MNN. Sep. 15/23. September 14, 2023. Quebec Superior Court, District of Montreal. Oral submissions by Kahnistensera vs SQI, McGill et al. Judge will make a decision next Monday: REGARDING 20 T0 70 FALSE POSITIVES  FLAGGED BY THREE DOGS & GPR [ground penetrating radar]. Mohawk Mothers. face ‘denialism’, ‘disbanding’ of Expert Panel, and other questionable actions.

Kwetiio,  Bear. Clan: “A grave matter brings me here which. is about to get disastrous. The last time we were here was to discuss the findings, by Historic Human Remains Detection Dogs (HHRDD), of the scent of decaying human remains in front of the wall of the Hersey Pavilion, the Nurses’ Residence of the Royal Victoria Hospital. Since then, in several public releases – and again in Pierre Major’s affidavit filed yesterday – McGill University quotes a study underscoring between 20 and 70 percent of false positives for HHRDD. What McGill doesn’t mention is that this number is exponentially reduced when other dogs alert. At the Hersey pavilion, three dogs flagged. McGill’s communications also didn’t mention was a 12-year-old study, which specifies that dogs become more efficient with further training – and HHRDD have gotten much better since 12 years. They don’t mention either that the study’s sample was only three dog teams, that it was only based on teeth, and that it defined false positives,: “based on alert distance from target, it is important to recognize that these false positives do not necessarily translate to the equivalent of a dog alerting in a blank area”.. They don’t mention either that the dogs in this study were not HHRDD but HRD, which smell recent human remains instead of historic, older ones, and which have an entirely different training. Another study, this one from 2021, that was cited by the Panel of archaeologists but not by McGill, states that “the probability that two dogs would have a false positive at the same box is less than 0.06%”. This is from “Applying Canine Detection in Support of Collaborative Archaeology”, by Grebenkemper et al.

We sent the full exhibit this morning and we brought copies of the relevant pages for all parties. Right in front of the wall of the Hersey Pavilion of the Royal Vic, not two but three dogs alerted. Calling this an absence of evidence is outright denialism and rejection of science. Last time we were here, Mister Justice, the Defendants denied that there was any evidence of remains. Now they are stating the same notion publicly, that no evidence has been found, that the investigation is over. They don’t mention the woman’s dress – that was handled without any forensic care when it was taken out of the ground and that was admittedly almost put in the garbage. They don’t mention the old children’s shoes, all the allegedly “animal” bones, the ball of hair or the very concerning so-called slag, this purple/maroonish substance poured all over a layer of soil, which was apparently used to “sanitize” it, and as we recently learned, perhaps also to decompose organic matter. That we don’t quite know, because the Defendants and their contractors did not deem advisable to study it further.

We were told that HHRDD dogs can detect human DNA even after bodies are decomposed. This has to be looked into. But it wasn’t done, in the absence of the Panel to recommend it. For the same reason we were not able to investigate the horrid fetid smell coming from a layer of soil, that slowly dissipated when it dried in a pile under the sun, nor the smell that came from the pipe protruding out of the Hersey building, exactly where the three dogs alerted.

Denialism is what we are facing. It is sad, sorry, and for us, retraumatizing. Constant gaslighting. The Panel and dog handlers all suggested searching a 10 meter radius around the spot. Ethnoscop asked about entering the building. The SQI refused. End of the story! They claim the investigation is over, there are no remains!  In addition to the 9 potential graves detected, of which we ended up having a (rather botched) report yesterday – not as a report shared with us, but as an exhibit shared by Mrs. Mayes from SQI after the 4pm deadline.

The GPR survey by GeoScan detected a great number of unknown anomalies in the Priority Zone which have never received any attention, even though GeoScan’s report deemed that they could be graves of children or graves without coffins, like our ancestors did. Those anomalies have been entirely pushed to the wayside by the Defendants, and silenced in all their communications. A cluster of potential graves and unknown anomalies is situated immediately next to where the Defendants started heavy excavation work on Tuesday, in defiance of the upcoming court hearing. on Sep. 14/23. Mrs. Mayes’ affidavit also includes another piece of information which we were never made aware of, even though we were the very instigators of this whole process. In Exhibit SMC-15, Mr Whiting, from GeoScan, responds to the SQI complaining that their report suggested the numerous unknown anomalies could be unmarked graves, by saying: “What I usually recommend in these cases is to absolutely approach the “potential” graves as if they are in fact graves, and investigate with full archaeological protocols. In the case of the “unknown” features, these are normally approached with a sampling strategy. In particular I usually suggest archaeological excavation/testing of the closest Unknown features to the features we ID as “potential”, say within a 10 m radius of each potential. If any of the unknowns turn out in fact to be burials, then expand the radius another 5 m and continue testing unknowns until all are negative. There may also be some unknowns or clusters of unknowns some distance away from any potentials that should be tested. Especially if they look rectangular in map view”.

Mr Whiting of GeoScan then suggests drafting a sampling strategy. The SQI do not respond to this professional advice, nor will it ever, as it is now to be assumed, because SQI executives are not experts in searching for unmarked graves, and are not qualified to manage this investigation. In fact all their actions indicate they do not wish it ever happened at all. They refused to share the data with the Panel who asked and who. were jointly selected with them through painstaking negotiations. The settlement agreement specifies that all parties must be guided by the Panel’s recommendations as to who should analyze the data. A clear breach of the agreement. They refused to share it with the Canadian Archaeological Association’s Working Group on Unmarked Graves, the top experts in Canada, for a peer review, as asked for by the Panel too. This is McGill, a world class institution and the SQI, a public body from the Quebec government, doing this. Refusing expertise. Disbanding the Panel, to simply take over the whole process.

It is unexplainable that any credible investigation would operate without project managers who know what they are doing and have expertise. Agreeing on three experts to provide recommendations was the bottom line of the agreement. To stop arguing, and let the experts decide what is the best to way to find, protect and respect human burials on the site of this hospital. This is where some of worst medical experiments in human history took place. We repeat again it: we are here to find our children, to find the truth of what happened, and who is accountable.

Cherry picking which of the Panel’s recommendations they would implement came to define the defendants’ methodology. The Panel asked to carefully excavate GPR targets and sift the soil? The Defendants rather used mechanical excavators rushing through 8 holes in a single day and immediately refilled them back, unsifted. The Panel asked to use S4 Probes in the Soil. It wasn’t done. On July 25th we were literally attacked by the SQI’s security, who grabbed our camera to erase images of their racially charged insults of Indigenous elders on the site. McGill and SQI gave us their best assurances that they would not be there anymore. Last Sunday, who do we see on the site where GPR was being done? The same security guards! After the assault we couldn’t return there for three weeks and the piles of soil excavated around the dog’s target were just left to the rain, unattended. The Panel wrote to say they should be covered.

That’s the value of having a Panel overview an investigation. The Panel also said at that time that it would be necessary to involve a forensic specialist with the Panel to protect the chain of custody of evidence. The Defendants simply dismissed their recommendation, refusing to treat the search for unmarked graves in any credible and professional way. Many other Panel recommendations that were rejected by the Defendants emphasized that it was necessary for the Panel to follow up on the implementation of the recommendations, to adapt to the reality of what is happening on the ground. The Panel reported that it needs “to be informed of the outcome of any related work – Archival research, HHRDD investigations, GPR survey, S4 probe and monitoring. The Panel will review these reports and provide updated recommendations (if warranted) within 1 month of receipt of each report”. A Panel member explained that it was a professional and ethical obligation to follow up on their recommendations.

SQI and McGill decided to manage everything themselves, through contracts and non-disclosure agreements, to be judge and jury, and to manage and argue that somehow it’s a good thing that experts are not involved and have no say. McGill University submits that the agreement has not been breached, that only monitoring was required in the zone where they excavated last Tuesday, and that there is nothing to see. “Just trust McGill”, they said in this Court last October. The Defendants do not dispute, apparently, that the spirit of the agreement was breached many times by them as well as their letters. McGill and SQI suggest that the agreement limited the mandate of the Panel to selecting archaeological techniques, and that they had no say in how they would be applied. Mcgill and SQI would entirely take over the investigation. We strongly disagree with such a distorted interpretation of the agreement. However, the Defendants state that the only way the Panel could come back would be under Section 17 of the agreement, which provides that “if following the execution of the Techniques, there are no graves identified in a given area, the excavation work can begin on a rolling basis, in a sensitive manner with appropriate monitoring that will allow a prompt reaction in the event there is some unexpected discovery, at which point McGill, SQI and the Kanien’keha:ka Kahnistensera will seek the advice of the Panel as to how to move forward.”

The last time we were in this Court after the dog’s finding, McGill and SQI argued that since this was an unexpected discovery Section 17 would apply, and they deferred to the panel asking to excavate a 10 meter radius around the target. A 10 meter radius from which the Defendants somehow managed to exclude inside the building, even though the target is just next to the wall. Now they entirely changed their interpretation, and they say that Section 17 does not apply and that there is no use bringing in the Panel. We could think that they’d rather rely on the expertise of the service providers, like GPR technicians, but that’s not even the case since they dismissed GeoScan’s recommendation to investigate unknown anomalies that are the closest to potential grave anomalies.

The Defendants now suggest that the only “unexpected discovery” that could bring back any sort of expert in the picture would be after a body is found, after a backhoe or an excavator hits human bones. Yet the SQI admitted, in an email by Sophie Mayes shared on August 1st (Exhibit MM-8), that there is no way that the Panel could be involved if a body was found: “If Ethnoscop’s professionals identify human bones on site, the latter will be legally obligated to immediately inform the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications and the Montreal Police Department (including the Coroner). Consequently, in the event of such discovery, neither Ethnoscop, the SQI, the Panel, McGill nor the Kahnistensera will have control over the following steps.” Therefore, the SQI ruled out the possibility that the “unexpected discovery” bringing back the Panel as per Section 17 of the agreement applies to human burials. The only other possible interpretation of Paragraph 17 is that an “unexpected discovery” actually means something three HHRDD alerting on human remains, or Ground Penetrating Radar yielding concerning unanalyzed data like what was unexpectedly found in the zone immediately adjacent to where the Defendants have started excavating Tuesday.

Article 13 has also explicitly been breached. It provides that “SQI, McGill, and the Kanien’keha:ka Kahnistensera agree to be (…) guided by the recommendations of the Panel as to the specialists to carry out the techniques and analyze the relevant data”. The Panel recommended the Canadian Archaeological Association CAA and themselves to analyze the data. The Defendants have simply refused. Article 1 states “that archival and testimonial work will begin immediately and the results of such work will be communicated to the Panel (defined below) on an ongoing basis to inform their work.” Given the termination of the Panel’s mandate, they won’t have time to do this, so the Defendants have breached this article. As they breached articles 2, 3 and 4, where McGill, the McGill University Health Center and the Attorney General of Canada promise expedited access to their archives, “including restricted files.”

Canada is still slowly processing an ATIP request we made more than a year ago, while McGill’s most important files on their psychiatrists’ potential involvement with Indigenous people need approval from the Canadian Army- still now, 70 years from the fact. The McGill University Health Center has provided no record at all, not even finding aids. As Kahentinetha will explain later, article 9, that allow us to appoint Cultural Monitors to oversee the respect of Onkwehonweh protocol on site, has been breached by threats to our security. And finally, by disbanding the Panel, the Defendants breached Article 11, which states that the “The mandate of the Panel is to assess and identify the appropriate archeological techniques to be used on different areas of the site to detect whether there are unmarked graves.”If its mandate is terminated, it is impossible for the Panel to assess and identify the appropriate archaeological techniques, except if we define “to identify techniques” as simply selecting them.

This is what we call a sharp dealing, breaching the spirit of reconciliation. We submit that these breaches to the agreement are prejudicial to all searches for unmarked graves throughout Turtle Island. It will affect all indigenous people for generations to come in setting precedents that will have implications for the overall relationships between us. We have a protocol called the One Dish and One Spoon. It unites all Indigenous peoples and played a huge role in the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. The story is in the Kaianerehkowa, the Great Path that we follow as the Rotinonshonni confederacy. The Peacemaker Dekanawida showed a big dish, saying that all people share it. It’s our shared territory, our mother, that provides our subsistence. Dekanawida said that when sharing the great dish with one spoon, nobody should use sharp objects, so as to not hurt each other.

Canada has admitted genocide. At the National Gathering on Unmarked Burial in Montreal last week, the Attorney General of Canada said that “we cannot deny and we should not deny what happened in residential schools or their effect on many generations”. Our relationship has to change. Everyone wants it to change. We asked this Honorable Court to help the Defendants, all the institutions that verbally commit to reconciliation, to make that step in the 21st century to truly change the way we live alongside one another. Our duty as Kahnistensera (life-givers) is to caretake the land and the children of past, present and future generations. We are following our own law, the Kaianerehkowa. It is the way we have conducted ourselves since time immemorial to keep peace on this land and to help creation continue and grow. This place, Tiotiake, is our land, where our culture originated. Tekanontak (Mount Royal) and what is now the campus of McGill University contains the remains of one our biggest villages in all the land of the flint, Kanienkeh, our territory. Our people and children were murdered in order to get the land, to cut the connection between us, Kahnistensera, and the land. It is the greatest power: the power of the relationship between a mother and her children. We have the right to accomplish our traditional duties as Kahnistensera. It is not only the appearance of a right, it is our responsibility. The irreparable harm is not only certain to happen in the short term, it was already partially started when the Defendants started excavating, even refusing to wait until the court date. Once they disrupt those pipes which are, as McGill and SQI admitted, PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL AT THIS TIME, they will necessarily have to excavate the whole Priority Zone area, including where the dogs detected remains. We hope that the damage already done is not too great, but it is certainly not something that anything else than a halt to the work and a reassessment of the situation can buy.

Nothing can compensate the loss of the trust of our people, of all Onkwehonwe, in the responsibility of McGill, Quebec and Canada to protect the basis of our human rights. To halt excavation until the origin of the scent of human remains is found, and until the GPR findings are studied in a serious way is the only honorable thing to do. For these reasons, I ask the court to grant the declaratory relief and safeguard order which will allow us to search for our children in a peaceful, professional, fruitful and therefore timely manner. NIAWEN:KOWA O:NEN

The late Willie Dunn put together words, ideas and laments to remind us to keep going:  O Canada:
Our home and native land
One hundred thousand years
We’ve walked upon your sands
With saddened hearts
We’ve seen you robbed and stripped
Of everything you prized
While they cut down the trees
We were shunted aside
To the jails and the penitentiaries

O Canada
Once glorious and free
O Canada
We sympathize with thee
O Canada 

MOHAWKNATIONNEWS.COM 

thahoketoteh@ntk.com MNN court correspondent

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

 

MOHAWK MOTHERS RETURN TO COURT AS MCGILL/SQI DRILL HOLES AT ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL

 

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PRESS RELEASE For immediate publication.

Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) kahnistensera@riseup.net 

 

MOHAWK MOTHERS SOON SETTING OUT  FOR ANOTHER DAY IN MONTREAL COURT

September 12th , 2023, “Mohawk Mothers Return to Court Thursday As McGill and SQI Drill Holes At Royal Victoria Hospital” Tio’tià:ke (Montreal) –

The Mohawk Mothers held a press conference at the corner of Pine and Peel sts. on September 12, 2023, at 2:30pm.

The Kahnistensera filed an Emergency Motion to halt drilling and excavation at the Royal Victoria Hospital site, which will be heard on Thursday September 14 at the Montreal. Superior Court. The Emergency Motion details breaches to the Settlement Agreement by McGIll and the SQI that the Mohawk Mothers repeatedly raised in direct talks about the way they are handling the archaeological investigation ordered by the Quebec Superior Court to search for unmarked graves of victims of medical experiments.

The Kahnistensera are shocked that McGill and SQI have pressed ahead with construction on September 11, 2022 by drilling a large number of holes marking the beginning of a series of excavations.

The same day, McGill University issued a message to all its staff and students, declaring that the investigation of the zone is complete and that no evidence of graves was found. The Mohawk Mothers see these as major provocations, as the investigation is far from complete. McGill’s message emphasizes favourable findings while concealing or downplaying several discoveries that confirm the possibility of unmarked burials at the New Vic site. These discoveries require further follow-up to determine whether the New Vic work can safely proceed.

On August 29, 2023 the Mohawk Mothers filed a motion for a safeguard order to enforce the settlement agreement signed by all parties in April 2023. This follows a landmark injunction stopping work in October 2022. The Kahnistensera flagged several breaches to the letter and spirit of the settlement agreement: McGill and SQI disbanded the panel of three archaeologist experts agreed upon by all parties to make recommendations on the findings.

The Kahnistensera’s court files show that McGill and the SQI refused to follow several recommendations from the archaeologists, such as sifting the soil of areas where anomalies of potential bodies were located. Court documents also reveal that the SQI refused to share data from Ground Penetrating Radar GPR with the Canadian Archaeology Association CAA and the panel of experts. They silenced numerous “unknown” anomalies that the GPR report say could possibly be graves of children without coffins. Several artifacts, including a dress, children’s shoes and bones excavated in a zone where search dogs detected the scent of human remains have not yet been examined by experts. The origin of the scent of human remains picked up by search dogs has not been established.

The Kahnistensera state the SQI and McGill have refused to allow the search dogs to return to the site to sniff the piles of soil that were excavated or to determine whether the smell came from inside the building, where archaeologists were denied access.

“Since disbanding the Panel, McGill and SQI have basically decided to take over the whole investigation. They have been opposed to it even happening from the start,” said Kwetiio, a Mohawk Mother. “Their behaviour goes against the court order that this would be Indigenous-led”, she said, “This could have been done the right way and provide closure to survivors and the families.”

On July 25th the work stopped for three weeks after the Mohawk Mothers and Cultural Monitors were attacked by security guards working for the SQI. The guards assaulted a person to take his phone and erase a video, while someone else recorded racist insults and threats against the Mohawk elders and cultural monitors.”

According to Kahentinetha, “On September 11 we saw these same two security guards on the archaeological site. The SQI told us they had been removed”. Even though the settlement agreement allowed Indigenous cultural monitors to be on the site and monitor the work, Kahentinetha says they now fear for their safety. “The security guards who attacked us are still there, while SQI and McGill want to rush in large-scale excavation for their New Vic project. In fact they drilled those holes yesterday without us being present. They didn’t even give us safety training for working in zones under construction with heavy machinery, and we don’t have the proper equipment. The settlement agreement said we have to be there, but the conditions are extremely dangerous.” The Kahnistensera had already flagged violations of construction safety regulations such as masonry material stacked higher than 1.8 meters next to an unsanitary toilet that cultural monitors were expected to use. “Are we still being treated like animals, like a problem to get rid of, in the heart of Montreal, where the villages of our ancestors sit,” said Kahentinetha. “But we will not take genocide anymore, both Canadian and Mohawk laws affirm this,” she said.

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) is a Kahnawake-based group that helps Indigenous women carry out their traditional cultural duty as caretakers of the land, to protect all life, including their children and ancestors. They have been engaged in a legal challenge with promoters of the New Vic project to stall future excavation of the former Royal Victoria Hospital site until a proper archaeological investigation is conducted, using the traditional protocols of the Kaianere’kó:wa (Great Peace).

Let us look at the kahnisensera portrayed as ‘Dixie’ in this song, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, by The Band. “Virgil King is the name and I ride the Danville train. Til Stoneman’s Calvary came and tore off the tracks again. It was the winter of ’65. We were hungry and barely alive. I took the train into Richmond that day. It was a time i remember oh so well. Chorus: The night they drove old dixie down and all the bells were ringing. The night they drove old  Dixie down, and all the people were singing. they were ….”

Quebec Superior Court #500-17-120-468-221 kahentinetha et al v. SQI, McGill et al.

The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

SEE https://www.mohawkmothers.ca/

Contact for press: kahnistensera@riseup.net Kahnawake, P.O. Box 991, que. canada J0L 1B0

 

MCGILL & SQI, REMEMBER YOU’RE IN INDIGENOUS COUNTRY

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MNN. Sun. Sept. 3, 2023. 

https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/08/31/not-in-good-faith-mohawk-mothers-about-search-for-unmarked-graves-at-former-montreal-hospital-site/

Our brother the eagle landed on the highest point of the McGill Women’s Pavilion on September 3, 2023., with a message! A crew is digging the place in front of this building where three dogs found human remains. The kahnistensera and cultural monitors are staying on the path that leads to the great peace and finding our children, who were the victims of the MKULTRA and other experiments. No one will take us off that path.  

McGill is on the land of the kanienkehaka since time imemmorial. No land can be sold, transferred or in any way taken from the original people who have been placed on onowarekeh by creation.  Our mother, turtle island, belongs to the unborn children. All life is dedicated to caretaking the land for the forthcoming happiness and dignity of our children. Intruders who do not live by the way of natural life as created by the kasatenserakowa saoiera have no place on turtle island. 

One of our belated Mohawk brothers, Robbie Robertson, said it perfectly: “In circles we gather. Moonlight fires are healing. Taking us back, make us go back. Beating hearts as one, this is indian county. You’re in indian country. [Robbie Robertson and the “Red Road Emsemble “Stomp Dance”].

Stomp Dance (Unity)

contact: court correspondence thahoketoteh@ntk.com mohawknationnews.com box 991, kahnawake Que. Canada J0L 1B0

info: mohawkmothers.ca

Mohawk Mothers unveil ongoing genocide of indigenous people of Canada

 

 

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MNN.  Aug. 8/23.

The Proximate Aspect; Mohawk Mothers unveil ongoing genocide against indigenous people.

C A N A D A  PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, DISTRICT OF MONTREAL.                        
No.500-17-120468-221
 KAHENTINETHA-and-KARENNATHA-and-KARAKWINE-and-KWETIO-and-OTSITSATAKEN-and-KARONHIATE                         Plaintiffs
V.
SQI SOCIETE QUEBECOISE DES INFRASTRUCTUES-and-ROYAL VICTORIA HOSPITAL-and-MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER-and-MCGILL UNIVERSITY-and-CITY OF MONTREAL-and-ATTORNEY GENRAL OF CANADA      Defendants
-and-
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF QUEBEC                Mis-en-cause
-and-
OFFICE OF THE INDEPENDANT SPECIAL INTERLOCUTOR ON MISSING CHILDREN & UNMARKED GRAVES & BURIAL SITES ASSOCIATED WITH INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS     Third Party Intervenor 
As the story goes, the first land out of the water was turtle island. All four races were created here on turtle island. All living things have the same mother. She is the earth. We all have the same source energy as father who shall survive and co-exist as brothers and sisters living on our mother. In each of our minds is a piece of the source energy which makes each of us a sovereign creator being. The peace comes when all of us put our minds together based on the good message that we are all earthlings. All you people who are just opening your eyes and seeing the true horror story called ‘Canada’ listen to Rod Stewart and Jeff Back sing “People Get Ready”. 
People get readyThere’s a train a-coming . . .  .

 MNN Court Reporter thahoketoteh@ntk.com

box 991, kahnawake quebec canada J0L 1B0 mohawknationnews.com

kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

Information:: www.mohawkmothers.ca