[IPSM] Fwd: Six Nations "More dangerous than Oka"

Sat Apr 29 09:08:50 PDT 2006

Subject: 	Six Nations "More dangerous than Oka"
Date: 	Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:30:44 -0400
From: 	Orakwa International Indigenous Ent. <orakwa at paulcomm.ca>
To: 	ActionCanadaNetwork <actcan at web.net>

*This is the way things look to many of our people.  MNN sees that 
things are not so great for many Indigenous People in the U.S.  The land 
and resources of Turtle Island being claimed by interlopers is illegal.  
We agree that colonial settlers and their descendants should come to the 
table and discuss this.  Most of us are not getting benefits from the 
collective exercise of our sovereignty.  We should think about whether 
we want a resource and casino driven economy.  Do we need to get back to 
saving the environment as the spirit of the Kaianereh'ko:wa drives us 
towards?  It's obvious that the colonial way of doing things is a path 
of destruction that will destroy the world for everyone.  Kahentinetha 
Horn, MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com 
<http://www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com>     *

** 

* *

*ROSEAU** RIVER** ANISHINABE FIRST NATION GOVERNMENT*

*P.O. Box** 30**, GINEW, Manitoba R0A 2R0*

* *

*(204) 427-2312  FAX: (204) 427-2584*

* *

*(204) 427-2312    FAX: (204) 427-2584*

*More Dangerous Than Oka*

April 25, 2006

The potential flashpoint at Caledonia Ontario with the Six Nations land 
blockade is more dangerous than the 1990 Oka crisis.

In 1990 the town of Oka, Quebec, wanted to expand their nine hole golf 
course to eighteen holes over a known Mohawk gravesite. A police officer 
died to defend the right of the townspeople to tee off over grandma?s 
grave and 4,000 Canadian soldiers squared off against the Mohawks.

In 1990 most Canadian Indians were in shock that Canada would use the 
army against our people. In 2006 there is no longer any shock value, 
thereby allowing Indian people to be better prepared to respond to 
bloodshed and also Indian youth in Canada have more anger today than 
they did in 1990. Not only are Indian people better prepared, the 
strategy is much clearer.

Had then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney carried out his threat 
to send in the army to take out the last 25 barricaded Mohawks 
regardless of the consequences, it was very likely that burning cars 
would have blocked every railway line in Canada.

The protest at Caledonia has already caused a railway blockade with huge 
economic impact. Multiple that one railway blockade by 30 and you have 
economic paralysis in all of Canada.

Canada is America?s largest trading partner and of vital economic 
interest to every American. Canada is America?s largest supplier of oil 
with 97 per cent of all Canadian energy exported to the United States. 
Canada is also the leading buyer of American exports. Think about the 
Mayan uprising of 1994, multiply that by 10 and you have some idea of 
the economic impact of a similar crisis in Canada. American 
multi-national corporations, financed in the open market, with heavy 
investment in Canada, may not yet have realized the danger.

The difference in treatment of indigenous people between Canada and 
United States is shocking. In the United States, American Indians 
proudly fly the American flag in every Indian reservation. Thirteen 
thousand American Indians currently serve in the US military, and 2,000 
of those are serving on the front lines in Iraq.

Thousands of American Indians are millionaires, hundreds are 
multi-millionaires. Attend a National Indian Gaming Association summit, 
and you will see proud American Indians talking and making multi-million 
dollar deals. You will see trade shows that would be the envy of many 
countries. Not so in Canada.

You would be hard pressed to find a Canadian flag flying on an Indian 
reservation. You would be more likely to find a Mohawk warrior society 
flag in the window of native homes. With well over 50 per cent of the 
Canadian Indian population under the age of 25, what you have in 
Caledonia is a potential flashpoint that could cripple Canada.

Canada has had eight straight federal government budget surpluses. It 
has a 2005 reported net worth of $4.5 trillion, and a GDP well over a 
trillion dollars.

In 2003 the federal government raised $125 billion in taxes but took in 
$141.8 billion in its share of resource royalties. This does not include 
the provincial royalties or corporate resource sales profits. With oil 
now over $75 a barrel, up from $10 a barrel in 1999, and Canada claiming 
1.4 trillion barrels of oil in the Alberta tar sands plus hundreds of 
other oil and gas producing areas, this makes for a resource driven 
economy.

As the third largest producer of diamonds, with 10 per cent of the world 
forests, and over 60 metals and minerals, there is little doubt why 
Indian land claims are a big issue in Canada. The fact that there are 
over 6,000 land claims in limbo and that progress is so slow is not 
surprising given the numbers and the revenue generated for government 
coffers.

Canada was the United Nations choice as the ?best country in the world 
to live in? for seven straight years, but while Canada was number one on 
the index, Canadian First Nations communities mired in extreme poverty 
were set at the 63^rd level on the UN scale.

Amnesty International has written several reports citing Canada for 
human rights violations. In the case of the Lubicons of northern 
Alberta, Amnesty has forced the appearance of Canada before the United 
Nations for a hearing set for May 5^th . 

While Canada can laugh off the United Nations and weather international 
shame, E  it cannot ignore or laugh off the economics of a national 
blockade of rail lines that is potentially the result of the land 
dispute at Caledonia.

To understand the issue of land claims in Canada, one must see the 
numbers. Canada is the second largest country in the world, larger than 
China and larger than the United States. Canada is 3.83 million square 
miles of vast land mass, but the population is only 33 million, giving 
Canada the largest per capita land base of any nation in the world. 
Given the resource base, it is little wonder that net worth is $137,000 
per man, woman, and child.

In 1969, Canada issued the appropriately named ?white paper? on Indians, 
which identified that Indian reservation lands accounted for 
approximately one quarter of one per cent of the Canadian land mass. To 
state this more clearly, 99.73 per cent of Canada

was not reservation lands. Since then it has been a battle zone of land 
claims and frustration for indigenous people.

In the United States where Indian land claims are also contentious 
items, and where the population density is almost ten times higher than 
Canada, American Indian reservation lands accounted for 2.13 per cent of 
the United States land mass. Today that percentage has improved due to 
Casino generated revenue used to buy back land plus Casino revenue 
generated court cases and political lobbying that settled some long 
standing problems.

This is not to say that everything is perfect in US and American Indian 
relations but at least there is hope. It has been widely reported that 
American Indians spend more money to get Senators and Congress men 
elected than even Enron did its heyday. The lack of similar hope for 
change in Canada is what could trigger a crisis.

How Canadian media handles the situation at Caledonia can make or break 
the confrontation. In the Ipperwash situation where unarmed native 
activist Dudley George was killed by an Ontario Provincial Police 
officer and the Premier of Ontario allegedly shouting to ?get the 
fucking Indians out?, the issue of land claims couldn?t be clearer. 
Stoney Point First Nation lost land to Canada during WWII for an 
artillery range, with the promise to return the land after the war.

In over 50 years of Liberal and Conservative federal governments, none 
delivered on that commitment. Hence, there was direct action by Ojibway 
Indians to occupy the land, with the resulting killing of Dudley George. 
The same court injunctions issued by white courts and the public outcry 
to march the police and army into battle are now occurring in Caledonia.

As an elected Chief, I stand behind Mohawk people at Six Nations in the 
use of direct action regardless of the consequences. My community spent 
hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to settle a land claim from 103 
years ago; we hold the record of the longest file in the Indian Claims 
Commission process. We understand the need for direct action.

Elected native leadership risk their creditability in Caledonia. It is 
the people who suffer the housing crisis, the 80 per cent average 
unemployment, the health problems, the lack of educational 
opportunities, and every other form of extreme poverty while we as 
chiefs are paid for our work from government of Canada dollars.

To issue a call to our people not to attend the blockade and to question 
their right to protest is nonsense. To blame our unarmed people for the 
increase in tension is absolutely ridiculous.

It has always been the whites who first bring guns and the threat of 
violence into any confrontation. To declare that Dudley George got 
himself killed because he grew tired of ineffectual politicians is 
historically incorrect.

Hope is the only medicine for angry youth who see no other way but to 
take action. If it takes a national blockade to bring the world?s 
attention to the issues in Canada, we should be prepared to take that 
responsibility.

We must end the 80 per cent average unemployment in our communities. It 
is no longer enough to make empty promises, or to take the word of a 
government that will only delay settlement of long standing issues.

Now is the time we must stand together and take whatever consequences 
are necessary to ensure a chance for our future generations, in this, 
one of the wealthiest nations in the world. It is time to force Canada 
to the table and negotiate some real settlements of land claims instead 
of holding out for more false hope promises while we collect our pay 
from the government.

Chief Terrance Nelson

*Message from Chief Terrance Nelson, elected chief of Roseau River 
Anishinabe First Nation, spokesman for Anishinabe Warrior Society and 
Board of Director for American Indian Movement*

http://www.intercontinentalcry.mahost.org

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