Please post & distribute. Nia:wen.
MNN. 12 Dec. 2014. One day in 1975 while I was sitting at my desk in Indian Affairs, Harry Chapman, the Registrar, showed me a secret Band Council Resolution BCR initiated by Chief Andrew Delisle and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Inc. MCK. Everyone in Kahnawake would have their Indian status extinquished. The community would become a taxable municipality, open to development and condos for non-Ongwehonwe. Most Ongwehonwe could not afford to live here and would have to leave. MCK Inc. had put a monetary value of $600 million on Kahnawake. If there was no opposition to the BCR within 40 days, it would go into effect.
Hanging Tobacco: It’s you that’s gonna move, not us!
Chapman said, “This is the most callous thing I have seen in my life”. Kahnawake’ro:non,Taiotekane, took it high up in the government. He publicized it and there were lots of open community meetings. Local and national media publicized our strong opposition. Questions were raised in the House of Commons. The BCR was pulled. This stopped it. Canada through MCK is trying again. Delisle is still around.
Kahnawake is on the St. Lawrence River across from Montreal. Traffic from the West has to go through our community. I live within the half mile area between CP Rail, major highways and the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is the only community where the Seaway cuts through the middle of he community. Goods from the interior of North America have to go through here by ship, rail or truck.
Come on, MCK. All the dirty tricks are in the Indian Affairs training manual.
MCK was trained on how to deal with us. I was taught these tactics when I worked at Indian Affairs for 20 years. They sit behind a table at the front and declare everything is a secret. Some mouthpieces derail the audience regularly. They answer no questions. The agenda is restricted.
At the meeting of 30 people on December 2, out of over 10,000 residents, we were told about their instructions from the CROWN. They could not give us any details for fear that Canada would walk away from the table! We would be forced into their Admiralty court system where we would surely lose. Actually, this genocide attempt belongs in the international Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which is not an Admiralty court.
We are being told that we are going to be moved to land where we have no Kahnion’ke:haka interest. Our interest in the Seigneury tract would be removed. The MCK has already received about $5 million from Canada to get us to sign off on the Seigneury. Chateauguay, St. Constant, Delson, LaPrairie and the others have expressed an interest in joining us and create a new wampum based relationship. MCK said, “Three places are available for us to resettle on, with tax exemption” until the CROWN decides otherwise. Since it might be on Algonquin land, according to our custom, it must have an Algonquin name. If there is resistance from us, force is threatened. Video: This happened in Kitimat BC.
The new rez for the MCK and their CROWN buddies.
The media has always given us bad press to turn public sentiment away from our favor. When the time comes, nobody will help us, they hope. The current evictions issue is a smoke screen. We have been deliberately divided. It has made everybody quiet, afraid to speak out for fear of being attacked and bullied. All community workers can’t voice their opposition for fear of losing their jobs or being reprimanded institutionally or publicly. Same old. Same old. Starve us into submission!
The MCK sat up this scenario. The main issue is about taking the Mohawk interest off 55,000 acres on the south shore so goods can be moved from the interior of the continent for international trade without any Mohawk presence. We have been right here going on five suns. That’s why we’ve been placed here. It’s our job! Not theirs!
As Bob Marley tells us: “Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your rights. Don’t give up the fight. Most people think great god will come from the skies, take away everything and make everybody feel high. But if you know what life is worth, you’ll look for yours on earth. And now you see the light. So stand up for your rights.”
MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Archives. Address: Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L thahoketoteh@hotmail.com for original Mohawk music visit thahoketoteh.ws
Environmentalists more dangerous than radical Islamists. http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/canada-more-risk-environmentalists-religiously-inspired-terrorists-rcmp
