Update from the Six Nations

received via email

SIX NATIONS BLOOD BATH AVERTED

THANKS TO POPULAR SUPPORT

MNN. March 23, 2006. It was a victory for the power of the people! It was a victory for Indigenous land rights. It was a victory for all those struggling for recognition of Indigenous jurisdiction. Since mid-February the Rotinoshon’non:we/Iroquois have been protesting the construction of a luxury residential subdivision on their land called “Douglas Estates” near Caledonia Ontario. With the Canadian and provincial governments intent on ignoring our rights, there were no options. We had to stop the construction ourselves. Our people braved freezing rain, snow, sleet and ankle deep mud. Many slept in tents and cars to keep the barricades manned. Supporters carried in pots of food and truckloads of firewood. We’re in it for the long haul! We are continuing the fight that our grandparents and great-grandparents fought and that our children and grandchildren are prepared to continue if the colonization doesn’t stop.

Henco Industries, the developer that is squatting on our land, went to court and got an injunction. Judge David Marshall of the Ontario Provincial Court thought he had a fool proof plan to get rid of the people protesting Ontario’s persistent violation of Six Nations Territory. On March 16 he issued a strange convoluted order. He announced that at 2:00 on Wednesday, March 22nd, the Ontario Provincial Police OPP would come in. They would read the order to us. Anyone who didn’t leave immediately would be arrested and taken to the police station where they would be photographed, fingerprinted and released. He also ordered that anyone who returned would be charged and placed on probation for a year. The trouble is he seemed to have forgotten about due process and the honor of the Crown. He didn’t mention a hearing or a trial. Neither Ontario nor Henco was required to prove they owned the land in question. This may have something to do with the report that Judge Marshall and the Crown Prosecutor, Owen Young, both claim parts of our land themselves.

The people weren’t frightened by Marshall’s attempt to bully us with his bogus order. We’ve seen it all before. Everyone rallied to support us. By 2:00 on Wednesday hundreds of people had converged at Douglas Estates. The Women locked arms together on the front line. It’s our duty under our constitution, the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law, to protect the land for our future generations. We were going to do our best. We weren’t alone. All across Turtle Island from the Dene of the Northwest Territories, the Western chiefs of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, natives and non-natives alike bombarded everybody they could with the message: "Stop the OPP bloodbath". It did not happen because as 2:00 came and went people continued to arrive to stand with us.

We lead ourselves, which we had every right to do. That’s autonomy and freedom of _expression. We found out that we all follow the same philosophy. We all want to protect the natural world and to live in peace and harmony together. We all have the same vision, to preserve our sovereignty in order to protect our land to ensure a future for our people, as creation intended us to do. We are not Canadians and not Americans. We have always rejected the genocidal colonial European vision.

Super Indian Cop, Jim Potts, a self-described expert on us, pulled himself and his Aboriginal mercenaries out of the protest at the last minute. He had set up a squad of his own people to attack their brothers and sisters at Six Nations. He said, "They aren't going to have any weapons", like we’re supposed to believe that the OPP is unarmed! That’s who he said was their back up. If anything happened, the Aboriginal inductees would take the flack and act as human shields for the provincial gestapo. Looks like he read Ward Churchill’s “A Little Matter of Genocide” and decided to be Ontario’s ‘Little Eichmann’. "We have a court order to do this", he said. That's the plan that was outlined in his report on "Dealing with Indigenous Protests and Occupations" that fell into the hands of MNN. It came from one of its most valued and trusted sources.

The OPP have no jurisdiction on land claimed by the Rotinoshon'non:we because we never gave any to them in accordance with our nation-to-nation agreement. The Ontario courts used to recognize that back in the 1920’s before Duncan Campbell Scott deposed the traditional Rotinoshon’non:we government.

Colonial practices have gotten worse since then. The popular action on Wednesday has turned the tide, we hope. Maybe Ipperwash made them think, finally! We will no longer be lead into the ovens by sell-outs like Jim Potts! When we pull together and assert ourselves, we will win by standing on our principles. Our path has been blocked for so long. We removed the ‘log’ on the road, chopped it up and used it for firewood. Yes, we are going to find non-destructive ways to get Turtle Island back. Every time we neglected our responsibility, hard times came upon us. But our duties and responsibilities were still there.

We lost our way because there was so much dust on our constitution. Generations were forbidden to speak our language. They were interpreting everything through residential school eyes. The Kaianereh'ko:wa was being used to control the people as if it was colonial law instead of helping us. The servants of the colonialists try to make the people serve them. On Wednesday no leaders showed up because the minds of the "leaders" are the minds of the colonialist.

In the early 1800’s there was a Judge Marshall in the United States Supreme Court whose reasoning is relied on to this day by courts that are trying to defend Indigenous rights in an honorable way. If Ontario’s Judge David Marshall is a blood descendant, he’s certainly not philosophical kin. This guy believes in “big gun” injunctions. He can’t be bothered with little details like legal proof. He was determined to charge people even if he didn’t know who they were. His orders were all made out mostly to fictional people called “John and Jane Doe”. He wanted to sentence them without a hearing or a trial. He threatened them with criminal records, bad credit ratings, inability to borrow money, border crossing trouble and lots more. Sounded like he said something like, "We’ll even hose you down with bad water if we have to". But he really wanted to “atomize” us! Oops! Hey! Isn’t that genocide again? He seemed to want to dump every kind of threat in his quiver to stop us from exercising our rights and to perfect Henco Industries’ theft of our land.

These kinds of things always attract scammers as well as serious supporters. This time we got one, Pat Holly, who claimed to be the trustee of Mohawk Nation Grand River and maybe even Mother Earth itself! He sure didn’t look like a clan mother! But this white guy thought he had a good thing going. He had two native fronts. Maybe he thought no one would find out he’d been caught selling fake Indian and Metis status cards in the United States. He served Henco Industries with Notices of International Claim for $110 million US through the Office of the Secretary of State of the State of Texas. He wanted a check made out to Pat Holly, Bill Squires and Thedawahka. Then the whole issue would go away. This sounds almost as legitimate as the previous “sales” of Six Nations land. Maybe this guy has an option on the Brooklyn Bridge too!

People are still at the site. They intend to stay. They invite supporters to come and stand with them. The injunction is not legal and is going to be challenged. We have the support of people across the whole of Turtle Island and beyond. Today even Indian Affairs Minister Prentice sent a representative to the site to open up a dialogue. They told him, “Give us your name. We’ll call you sometime”. I wonder if he would open up a dialogue if someone came to squat on his land and tried to kick him off?

Kahentinetha Horn – MNN Mohawk Nation News – kahentinetha2@yahoo.com – coming soon www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com