[IPSM] Grassroots Indigenous Activism for Self-Determination

[shelly]

Grassroots Indigenous Activism for Self-Determination
An Interview with Io-nikonhratsha':ni
November 2004
By Jennifer Plyler, WHRnet
Io-nikonhratsha':ni is a citizen of the Mohawk Nation. She is a grassroots activist and Kanehsatake community member. 


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WHRnet: Can you please introduce yourself and your history in the Kanehsatake community? 

Io-nikonhratsha':ni: My name is Io-nikonhratsha':ni. I am a member of the Mohawk Nation. I reside in Kanehsatake, which is 50 kilometers west of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I have been living in Kanehsatake for the past nine years having moved here after the Oka crisis in the early 1990s. My reason for moving back was to bring my mother back to her home. She was born and raised here in Kanehsatake and lived here until the Canadian government stole her away and put her in a residential school in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. She is in her nineties now and it was her first time coming back to her hometown of Kanehsatake since the 1930s. We decided to move back here so that my mother could live out the rest of her life on her own land in her home community. 

The land that my grandparents built their home on should have been past down through the generations and given to my mother and her sisters and brother. However, after my mother and her siblings were put in residential schools and my grandparents died, their home was put up for sale on the market and sold. Thus, when we moved back here we were forced to live in homes owned by the Canadian government. The government demands that we pay rent to live in these homes. At first we did, but the homes are in such bad condition that now we've stopped paying. It seems unjust to me that my mother would have to pay rent to the same government that stole her away from this land in the first place. She's already lost so much. 

WHRnet: The community of Kanehsatake is currently engaged in a confrontational political standoff with the Canadian government. Can you please explain why? 

Io-nikonhratsha':ni: Part of the Canadian government's colonial policies inflicted on native peoples was that of Band Councils. The system of Band Councils was foreign to us and conflicted with the Iroquois Confederacy's traditional consensus-based decision making models. This colonial system also impeded women's and Clan Mother's roles and decision-making powers within the community. These policies, including the measures taken to convert native peoples to Christianity and the loss of our indigenous language, have resulted in disjuctures between 'traditional or Longhouse' members and 'non-traditional or non-Longhouse' members of the community. 

Kanehsatake's former Band Council Grand Chief, James Gabriel, entered into agreements with the Canadian government that infringe upon our sovereignty and control over our own land. Since these agreements are not in the best interest of the community, community members voted to have him removed from power in a vote of non-confidence. However, the Canadian courts overruled the community's vote and kept him in power against our will. Then last January, Chief Gabriel brought in an external police force that was composed of outside individuals as opposed to our local peacekeepers. This police force was both excessive and highly militaristic and only served to intimidate the community. In addition, members of the police force had not been trained properly and many had criminal records, including charges for violence against women. As a result, community members launched protests against the Chief and the police force and were successful in pushing them out of the community. 

Since that time, the community of Kanehsatake has been under siege with local Mohawk warriors, activists and community members on the inside defending the community's right to self-determination, and external police and Quebec authorities surrounding us. We demand control over our own land and sovereignty; including the rights to choose our own leaders and our own peacekeeping forces that will protect the self-determination and safety of Kanehsatake. 

The current situation is having a tremendous impact on the community's quality of life. It is very hard to go about your day to day activities when you are constantly worried about what is going to happen. Even if you are not politically active, the situation is still bad because it is all you see on TV and the conflict has heightened divides in the community, even between family members. I'm nervous to leave the community; even to go to the doctor or the grocery store, because I'm always worried that something could happen while I'm gone, even for a short while. There is a real feeling of needing to stay close to home and it is very hard to ever relax. 

WHRnet: What changes would the Canadian government need to make in order to improve its relations with the Mohawk community of Kanehsatake and ensure the rights of Kanehsatake's community members are respected? 

Io-nikonhratsha':ni: The Canadian government has a reputation at the international level of treating 'its' native people very well. This reputation is undeserved and does not reflect the ongoing injustices we are facing. The government does not treat the Mohawk nation as the independent nation that it is, but rather as a child who needs to be disciplined. The relationship between native peoples and the Canadian government is an abusive one; similar in many ways relationships filled with gender based violence. In order for the rights of Kanehsatake's native peoples to be protected, the Canadian government must recognize the Mohawk nation as a nation and interact with us on that level: nation to nation. 
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