Report On Recent Events In Kanehsatake, Mohawk Territory

Note on what follows:

Over the past week the Canadian public awoke to find the struggle of the Mohawks of Kanehsatake as front page news. The trigger of events was a secret deal with the Feds signed by Grand Chief James Gabriel (who was ousted by the community by way of a non-confidence vote this past summer in Kanehsatake, only to have him re-instated by the Feds based on an obscure legal technicality) to bring in an outside, invading and illegal police force to occupy Kanehsatake at a cost of $900,000.00. In response, members of the community torched Gabriel's home, and the invading cops were forcibly confined in the Kanehsatake police station for over 24 hours. This compelled the Government of Quebec to broker a deal and remove the occupying force. The mass media has portrayed this as a dispute between law-abiding Mohawks and criminal factions within the community with connections to organized crime. However, all credible reports indicate this event was only one in a series based on the sincere and genuine desire for peace and stability in the community to which James Gabriel, in collusion with Federal and Provincial government authorities, continues to stand as the impediment.

January 17, 2004

Re. Kanehsatake

I have had the opportunity to visit with my brothers and sisters in Kanehsatake and would like to share that experience and insight into the current situation.

Within the whole of the Mohawk Nation, we have been waiting for such an event. Since the failed Military invasion of our communities in 1994, which included some 6,000 troops and months of training, the Federal Government has been quietly organizing a new strategy to deal with its approach to "organized crime" within all Mohawk communities. The crime that was alleged to have been committed in 1994, and as government suggests, continues to be committed is the manufacturing and sale of "Native Cigarettes". One report suggests the need to "target the Indians' claims to the inherent right of inter-tribal trade with sister Mohawk communities and the native run tobacco manufacturing industry as a whole." It is concluded that the organized aspect to the criminal offense exists because all distributors in Kanehsatake charge the same price of $25.00 per carton thereby suggesting collusion between proprietors.

The government has successfully transmitted its media message of "law and order" and "organized crime" to the public and they do so at any cost. I sat through a Kanehsatake Police Commission press conference and witnessed a proud Mohawk man give his story on serving his community, as a member of the Police Commission and with no criminal record, and watched him break down when he told us how he had to explain to his children that he was not a criminal. Each of the members recounted similar stories.

I personally recall in Sept/95, reading government propaganda, endorsed by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), that specifically stated, "There is no burial ground in Ipperwash Provincial Park. These people are on the fringe and are not supported by the council for the Band." A few short days later, three Anishnawbe were shot, one fatally, and people who tried to help were beaten. The most severe beating was in-fact reserved for a band council member. Then Minister of Indian Affairs, Ron Irwin, was forced into admitting that there was in fact a burial ground in the park, after proof was presented.

During Gustafsen Lake, supporters behind the lines were presented as terrorists, dissidents, and on the fringe. The public as a whole failed to question the legitimacy of the government reports and allowed for an invasion force to attack and shoot the defenders of the land. A U.S. court however, after being asked to return one First Nations man for trial who was involved, ruled that the people of Gustafsen were engaged in a legitimate and political action to force the government of Canada from power and advance the cause of the people who lived in squalor on Indian Reservations. The court further found that the information relayed to the public at large was not truthful and was only intended to discredit the people involved and to create a feeling or sentiment of lawlessness and imminent peril for the Canadian people as a whole. There was no prospect for a fair and impartial trial and the Canadian request for extradition was refused.

I cite these two examples of struggle to illustrate the ignorance of the general public at that time and their inability to determine fact from fiction. It further illustrates the government's willingness to engage us, even in the most righteous of situations and including those that have been likened to the protection of a cemetery from commercial development.

Today in Kanehsatake, the government propaganda is "organized crime" and "Hells Angels connection". For us living on Nation lands and within Mohawk communities, this type of rhetoric is laughable. We know that families with children run the convenience stores. In the year 2004, Mohawk people have developed their mental capabilities to be able to establish stores that sell pop, chips, newspapers and cigarettes without mob involvement. There are craft shops, smoke sh\ops, wood shops and others that don't charge taxes on their goods or services and are all perceived as organized crime because they agree collectively not to collect taxes.

There is no lawlessness in Kanehsatake. There are no Harleys running up and down highway 344. I would suggest that the recent Barrie, Ontario "Molson's Pot Bust" would not fit in all the basements of the few homes in Kanehsatake. In that situation, I would hardly think that the Barrie Chief of Police was fearing for his job because he didn't know it was happening right under his nose or that the people of Barrie would have tolerated the city being surrounded by military while every house and person was searched.

The issue at hand is simple. It is an attempt to curb the sale of cigarettes, made by First Nations people and industries, and sold throughout First Nations communities in every province.
The issue of solidarity and understanding is always difficult, despite the lessons learned from 1995. If good Canadian people are tricked once again by their government, then people in Kanehsatake and elsewhere will be subjected to further despair, intrusion, and violence. That being said, we can all rest assured that some report, sometime in the future, will reveal once again how the government lied to its people and justified its assault on the Mohawk Nation. Perhaps in a few years we can have some speakers come out to a workshop who will speak first hand to the bullshit and injustices that are being faced today by the people of Kanehsatake, but however it may be billed at the time, "Aboriginal solidarity" and Mohawk sovereignty will be determined over the next few days and weeks.

This issue has not concluded. Let us govern ourselves accordingly.

- Jake Brant