Tag Archives: Ongwehonwe

SELL-OUT SYNDROME

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MNN. May 9, 2013. An Indigenous communal society is made up of humans with familial ties. Each is free, equal and has a voice. All work together to maintain the survival of the extended family. Some are good hunters, or woodsmen, or fishermen or medicine people or tradesmen. Some plant and maintain the agriculture. Some may not be able to contribute. They still have a right to an equal share of the proceeds provided by our mother earth.

Those who take more than their share and hide it or flaunt it violate the people. Someone with a secret stash often does not do their share. They become lazy, dulling their survival instincts. Their insensitivity might endanger the rest so they are banished. In the past it was a death sentence as they could not survive alone. mole

The Ongwehonwe are equal to our surroundings, the animals, fish, winged ones, the crawling creatures, rocks, trees, brooks and earth. No one is better or less than another. No leader exists. The non-verbal communication between us and the natural world is very real.   

The invaders brought an unnatural way, a one-god, individual-ego system. We are told to forget about our ties to our people, to follow their ways, to “better” ourselves and make our own decisions to be better than everybody else. We are trained to become self important and stop thinking of being an equal member of our group. 

Bird at the top: "Get me some more worms".

The invaders convinced some of us to go to their schools and churches to be brainwashed to their ways. Some are trained to think they are better than their people. To better themselves and be accepted by the European hierarchical system they marry an invader. A good job, a 2-garage house, cars and three children shows they have “made it” in the foreign ways. Their mates are  tough harsh people who protect them from their weaknesses, especially their desire to be among their people. 

 

After a while these modified Indians feel a need to go back and help their people become hierarchical like them. Their people see them as betrayers and will never accept them back. These Indians falsely figured they have to lower themselves in a downward spiral to make their way back into our society. It doesn’t work that way.downward spiral
 

They can’t come back to the one mind because they accepted the programming of the dividers. As the bottom rung in the pyramid, they get the most shit on them! The traitors amongst us are playing a dangerous crap game, as Mick Jagger sings: Tumbling dice “Honey, got no money, I’m all sixes, sevens and nines. Say now, baby, I’m the rank outsider, you can be my partner in crime. You got to roll me and call me the tumbling dice.”  

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Thahoketoteh@hotmail.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 1B0

 

 

 

 

WE HOLD THE ROCK [ALCATRAZ]

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WE HOLD THE ROCK [ALCATRAZ], SAID RICHARD OAKES OF AKWESASNE IN 1969
MNN. July 5, 2009. No Canadian or US government officials are talking to us. The guards and workers in the two checkpoints in Akwesasne have abandoned their posts since June 1, 2009. We can come and go off the island to the north. We can go off to the south but can’t come back. Our ancestors invoked some basic principles for us to use in such times.The federally run prison on Alcatraz Island in San Franciso Bay had been abandoned in 1963. In 1964 a small group of Lakota attempted to take the Island to invoke a principle in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie. All surplus abandoned federal land automatically reverts to the Indigenous nations.

On November 20, 1969 Richard Oakes of Akwesasne lead Indigenous People onto Alcatraz Island and held it until 1971. It was to prove a basic point. This event changed the relationship between Indigenous and the US government. Up to then it was negotiation, compromise and legal remedies forced down our throats by the government.

The Alcatraz Proclamation was signed, “In the name of all Indians … we reclaim this island for our Indian Nations”. Other abandoned federal facilities were reclaimed afterwards.

The US government knowing this principle was furious that the Indigenous would have the audacity to invoke it. This act focused the entire world upon this basic law. The US government was put on the spot. It could no longer be hidden in the dusty archives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs basement. In 1971 Richard Oakes was assassinated.

The Mohawks of Akwesasne have always asserted our rights for the world to know. The current Cornwall Island event reveals the nature of the relationship between the Mohawks and the US and Canadian governments. The Canadian government knows we can assert our rights over the abandoned buildings in the community, the highway and bridges that go through our sovereign land.

We can invoke the Great Law of Peace which all Indigenous people adhere to. We are one people by covenant.

The checkpoints have been abandoned because we won’t let their guards carry guns. We have not been violent in any way.

According to the principle, the abandoned US border checkpoint at Akwesasne irrevocably reverts to the Mohawk Nation.

The Canadian Twilight Zone check point in the middle of Kawehnoke on Cornwall Island was abandoned and irrevocably reverts to the Mohawk Nation.

The two bridges and highways onto the island are closed/abandoned by the US and Canada. They irrevocably revert to the Mohawk Nation.

The RCMP and other foreign police who patrol the foot of the bridge in the city of Cornwall are trespassers. This is disputed Mohawk land. They must leave.

None of these structures cannot be torn down because they now irrevocably belong to the Mohawk Nation. You build anything on our land, it’s ours.

The US checkpoint and bridge are patrolled by US Border Security Field Operations and a Mohawk Policeman. US Border Security is trespassing and must leave.

We can traverse the whole community of Akwesasne as one entity without borders. It was illegally divided by the US, Canadian and British governments into five jurisdictions – Ontario, Quebec, New York State, US and Canada. They legislated two separate councils, tribal and band, to divide us with their imaginary boundary line.

The outsiders cannot establish the perimeter of our territory to limit us to small areas of our vast Haudenosaunee territory. It is our right to decide who will cross the two bridges and enter our community and our territories.

The Mohawk elders and people made the initial demand for no guns in the hands of foreigners in our midst. Both US and Canadian band and tribal councils stood together and made demands on behalf of the sovereign Mohawk people.

The Akwesasne people took the initiative. This is an Iroquois Confederacy issue. It affects all Ongwehonwe, our friends and allies at the Canada- US and US-Mexico borders which were never meant for us. The visitors cannot apply their line to us.

Rumors has it that US and Canada might build a new bridge several miles west of Akwesasne. This is part of Haudenosaunee Territory. They have to consult us and get our permission. They think they stole this land outright. Not so! Most people in the world know that Great Turtle Island is ours. They cannot show any evidence that they’ve legally acquired any of our land. International law was violated by the US and Canada when they made laws to claim our land and resources.

Arrangements to speak with us must be made through the Governor General and US President. Mike Mitchell, the tribal and band councils do not speak for us. Under the Great Law, they have don’t speak for the Iroquois Confederacy or Mohawk Nation. Anything they decide is not valid because they represent the foreign US and Canadian jurisdictions. Our people sit under the tent at the crossroads at Kawehnoke and patiently wait for them to come and make valid and legal arrangements with us.

Kahentinetha MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
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poster: katenies