PEOPLE OF THE PINES, Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera, Little, Brown
and Company, Toronto, 1991

This captivating, highly informative and richly rewarding account of
the Oka standoff and its background begins with the customary
acknowledgements and Dan David's four page forward with its glimpse
of the struggle and its statement of the authors' professional
integrity in their writing of this book.

There is a five page list of those involved in the account.

Chapter One, "Get Ready to Rock and Roll" (pp. 19-41), describes the
morning of July 11, 1990, John Cree's dawn ceremony, Denise
David-Toller's ominous dream, the arrival of the Quebec police, the
dozen unarmed Mohawk women approaching the police, police insistence
for a Mohawk leader, faithkeeper John Cree's receiving forty five
minutes to complete his ceremony, Eba Beauvais sprinkling ashes in a
spiritual defensive line, the police use, without warning, of tear
gas, the call to Kahnawake War Chief Allen Delaronde, Kahnawake
warriors blocking of highways and of the Mercier Bridge, the police
attack at Kanesatake with the exchange of gunfire and the death of
Corporal Marcel Lemay, the police withdrawal, fifteen year old
Blondie joining the warriors and bracing for a second attack.

Chapter Two, "Golfballs among the Headstones" (pp. 42-53): thirty
years earlier, ignoring Mohawk protests, a golf course was built up
to the small cemetery. Oka's Mayor Jean Ouellette, without much
consultation, pushed to expand the golf course. The Mohawks
protested on April 1, 1989 and on August 1, 1989 strongly opposed
the symbolic first tree cutting for the twenty two acre project. A
federal proposal to consolidate Kanesatake territory at the expense
of Mohawk rights in Oka and the planned golf course extension was
rejected.

   By late fall, 201 out of 203 people who had shown up for the
   workshops had rejected the government's proposal. The other two
   had abstained. p. 50

Mohawk factionalism and Mayor Ouellette's keenness saw Oka council
approve the golf course expansion in March 1990. Mohawks protested
and on the night of March 9/10 establish watch at the Pines.

Chapter Three, "Camouflage and Ugly Sticks" (pp. 54-81), describes
the first night of the watch, the relative weakness of Kanesatake,
some eight hundred people scattered through Oka and the countryside,
the relatively small and unassertive Longhouse population, the
personal ties to other Mohawk territories with strong traditionalist
bases, Dennis Nicholas the leading Kanesatake warrior, the
persistence of the Mohawks in the watch, the participation of Joe
David, normally uninvolved in causes, the older women coming with
food, the eternal flame, appeals to every faction in the Iroquois
Confederacy with only response from the warriors. Akwesasne warriors
provided supplies, manpower and military expertise.

The Quebec police behaved less aggressively when they realized that
the media were present. There were attempted negotiations, rumours
and deep distrust. Allen Gabriel addressed an Oka town meeting on
May 7. The next day the town's mayor met John Ciaccia, provincial
Indian Affairs Minister more aware and sensitive than his federal
counterpart. Mohawks sought to ensure the police remained unclear on
the number of people protecting the land.

Tom Siddon, federal Indian Affairs Minister, met with some Mohawks
on June 21st, but ignored the Longhouse people. In late June
Akwesasne Warchief Francis Boots arrived with three others. His
traditional singing at the elementary school graduation ceremony was
greatly applauded. On June 29th a judge granted an injunction
ordering the removal of the barricade, but specified this injunction
did not authorize cutting down trees or extending the golf course.
Ronald Cross (Lasagna) went to the lacrosse match on July 1st, met
such warriors as Noriega and joined the struggle. Kahentiiosta and
other Kahnawake women came and joined. On July 3rd, the Quebec
police assured the Mohawks the police would only intervene in
criminal circumstances. Sam Elkas issued an ultimatum on July 5th
and the Mohawks prepared for a police raid. John Ciaccia urged Jean
Ouellette not to call in the police. Ouellette heeded not that
appeal.

Chapter Four, "The Two Dog Wampum" (pp. 82-98), begins with an 1877
land dispute. An English speaking jury acquitted Mohawks accused of
burning a Catholic church after Quebec police called by the priests
had arrested some Mohawks. Archaeological remains indicate
possession of the land from time immemorial. Mohawks with Algonquins
and Nipissings settled at the mission in 1717 having been moved from
elsewhere, including Mt. Royal (1694). The Two Dog Wampum marks the
land held for the Natives, but the priests never passed on a deed.

The British conquest brought recognition of Mohawk claims to
Akwesasne and Kahnawake, but not Kanesatake. In 1868 Indian Affairs
Superindendant William Spragge assessed no difference in the Oka and
Kahnawake French land grants, but Ottawa rejected Indian claims to
Kanesatake. In 1869 the Algonquins left for Maniwaki. When Chief
Sose Onasakenrat (Joseph Swan) insisted on his land claim, he was
arrested. Most Mohawks converted to Protestantism. Priests charged
Mohawks for using wood cut on their land. Priests sold land to
French Canadians. In 1875 Oka was incorporated.

Mohawks were encouraged to leave. Whites felt Manitoulin Island and
land near Nipissing better than Indians deserved. In 1881 thirty
five Mohawk families went to Gibson in Muskoka. Conditions were
poor. Some returned, discouraging others from leaving Kanesatake.

Chapter Five, "Bulldozers in the Pines" (pp. 99-113), begins with
Chief Kennatossa's (Joseph Gabriel's) 1902 trip to London, his
halting the railway, his fifteen years eluding police until at last
he gave himself up and charges of stealing wood were dropped. A 1912
British Privy Council ruling upheld the priests' title to the land.
In 1936 the priests sold land to a wealthy Belgian. Mohawks
continued to assert use and right to the land. Some of this land
passed to Oka. A sawmill begun in 1950 on some of this land drew the
vehement protest of Lena Nicholas, a daughter of Chief Kennatossa.
She was arrested, but the sawmill moved away.

In 1945 the federal government bought from the priests town lots and
farms Mohawks were using. In 1959 Oka decided to build a golf course
and Mohawk appeals were ignored. Ignored also were Mohawk protests
when their land was used for Mirabel airport. A 1975 comprehensive
Mohawk land clain was rejected. A 1977 specific Kanesatake land
claim was at last rejected in 1986.

Largely forgotten at Kanesatake, the old ways were relearned at
other centres of the Iroquois Confederacy. In 1964 a longhouse was
built and eight chiefs and clan mothers condoled. Traditional
ceremonies pulled at some people, but most remained part of the band
council system. In 1969 an effort was made to render the band
council more in accord with traditional ways. A council faction
opposed this, as did the deeply traditional Longhouse people. There
were a number of factions all agreed on the land issue.

Chapter Six, "Cowboys of the Sky" (pp. 114-144), begins with the
Kahnawake relative submission to the 1950s Seaway expropriation and
strong modern assertiveness.

   The youngest generation at Kahnawake is the most militant of all.
   Many of the Mohawk youths have cut their hair into the
   traditional scalplock of an Iroquois warrior. From an early age
   they have absorbed the ideology of Mohawk nationalism. In many
   cases, their parents have abandoned the Catholic church and
   converted to the Longhouse, the national religion of the Mohawks
   and other Iroquois nations. A large percentage of Kahnawake's
   children have attended Mohawk language immersion programs in
   elementary schools, and they are fluent in the language of their
   forefathers. When they enter grade seven, about two-thirds of
   them attend the Kahnawake Survival School, which is entirely
   controlled and supervised by Mohawks from the community. "It
   gives them the backbone of their identity," says Alex McComber,
   principal of the Survival School. pp. 115-116

The Survival School was founded in 1978 and now (1991) has some 230
students in grades seven to eleven. Children are exposed to guns
young.  Many homes have police scanners and CB radios and hundreds
can be mobilized very quickly.

Originally a Jesuit mission site, Kahnawake lost much land,
including the some five hundred hectares taken for the St. Lawrence
Seaway. The Longhouse religion was driven underground. There were
many confrontations with the RCMP. In 1969 a Mohawk police force was
formed at Kahnawake. Clashes with Quebec police continued and
resentment festered, flaring with the 1979 SQ shooting of Mohawk
David Cross. This was followed by the formation of Kahnawake's
Peacekeepers replacing the old police force and their assumption of
duties previously never acknowledged to Kahnawake by the SQ. After
the 1981 SQ brutality against the Micmacs of Restigouche,
Kahnawake's various factions co-operated in a confidential defence
plan.

A 1979 well-attended meeting on Kahnawake's future reached the
consensus of striving for more traditional governance. The trade in
tax free cigarettes, annually generated some seventy five million
dollars for Kahnawake. This funded much useful activity. There was a
large RCMP raid on the cigarette trade in 1988 and the industry
collapsed in 1990.

War Chief Allen Delaronde is introduced. He helps focus Longhouse
meetings, acts as liason between ordinary people and the Longhouse
chiefs and co-ordinates Warrior Society activities. Warriors police
Longhouse followers, although the elected council's Peacekeepers
police the entire community. Peacekeepers ignore SQ and RCMP
warrants for cigarette smuggling. The War Chief has an assistant
from each of the three clans: Mark McComber (Turtle), Donnie Martin
(Wolf) and Michael Thomas (Bear). Warriors have trained in Tai Kwan
Do. There is traditional hunting and warrior prowess, historical
skill in canoe trading fleets, steel work up high with its losses
(the Quebec City bridge collapse of 1907 is mentioned) and service
by some in the US army.

There is the growth of traditional ways and the Longhouse now
favoured by elected grand chief Joe Norton and former elected grand
chief Andrew Delisle Sr.

Chapter Seven, "Romans of the New World" (pp. 145-166), begins with
traditional society with women growing crops and men hunting and
fighting, initial low scale warfare, growth of feuds, Deganawidah
the Peacemaker. The Mohawks were the first to accept him and the
first supporters of the Iroquois Confederacy. The philosophy and
justice underlying the Confederacy favourably impressed European and
American thinkers and likely influenced the American constitution.

Peace within the Confederacy permitted external conflict. Mohawks
first encountered guns in a 1609 battle against Samuel de Champlain.
The Mohawks traded with the Dutch at Albany, New York. In 1645 the
Two Wampum Treaty with the Dutch was signed. Hurons were defeated in
1649 and through the next half century Iroquois extended their range
to the Ohio Valley, to Tadoussac, to Lake Mistassini, to Georgian
Bay's shores. There was very fierce fighting with the French in the
late 1600s.

Iroquois supported the British against France and against the
Americans. The Six Nations Reserve, originally 570,000 acres, was
one result. However, another was division between Six Nations and
Onondaga. Mowhawks fought as British allies in the War of 1812. Some
350 warriors joined in the victory in the Battle of Chateauguay and
400 in the victory at Beaver Dam.

   The federal Indian Act, which came into effect in 1876, was the
   primary instrument of the government's attack on Indian
   sovereignty. The Act created a system of elections, alien to the
   Iroquois tradition, and imposed this system onto the Iroquois
   nations. It was designed to strip away the power of the Longhouse
   chiefs and the clan mothers and to destroy the matrilineal
   structure of Iroquois society. Under the new system of elections,
   women would not even be allowed to vote. p. 158

Objections to the Act were rejected. Resistence to elections
continued at Akwesasne and Six Nations, where Deskeheh in the 1920s
and Mad Bear in 1959 were prominent in asserting Iroquois
sovereignty.

Chapter Eight, "The Psychology of Fear" (pp. 167-190), begins with
the 1968 protest on the Seaway on the Seaway International Bridge at
Akwesasne. Fifteen year old Paul Delaronde, the family's
participation in the 1957 protest near Amsterdam, New York, Mohawk
leadership in the 1969 seizure of Alcatraz Island near San
Francisco, the founding of Kahnawake's Singing Society to learn
traditional songs and its evolution into the Warrior Society are
outlined.

Mohawks occupied two traditional islands in the St. Lawrence in
1970. In 1971 they aided the Onondaga oppose a New York construction
project. In 1973 Kahnawake warriors urged the departure of non
Native residents from Kahnawake. This led to a large Quebec police
intervention, a week long standoff and increased support for the
Longhouse. In 1974 Mohawks occupied Moss Lake in New York State. In
1977 this was traded for land near the Canadian border. Mohawks
transferred their name Ganienkeh to the new site.

In 1979 there was  a confrontation at Raquette Point on Akwesasne
with New York state police. In the 1980s Akwesasne factionalism
intensified with the dispute over gambling. There was violence. The
community at Kahnawake was more united and some proceeds from the
cigarette trade financied the Longhouse and the warriors. On June 1,
1988 the RCMP launched a massive raid on cigarette merchants.
Mohawks at once closed roads and the Mercier Bridge.

In March 1990 there was a confrontation over an alleged shooting
from Ganienkeh at a helicopter. On May 1, 1990 two people died in
factional fighting at Akwesasne. Promptly US and Canadian police
moved in.

Chapter Nine, "Food Smugglers and Gun Runners" (pp. 191-224), begins
with the immediate aftermath of the raid by Quebec police on July
11, 1990 at Kanesatake. Lawyer Jacques Lacaille convinced Premier
Bourassa to call off a second police attack. There was strong
support for the warriors and some who had previously opposed now
joined them.

Ellen Gabriel was named to communicate for Kanesatake. There was a
keen watch that night. The next afternoon four police cars
approaching from the north did a quick reverse when they encountered
a sentry. The police began preventing groceries from entering
Kanesatake.

Ciaccia negotiated, but he had little support from his cabinet
colleagues and from his federal counterpart, Tom Siddon. Band
council chiefs were at a Montreal hotel. Mavis Etienne and Maurice
Gabriel joined Ellen Gabriel, other women, Kahnawake Longhouse
advisors in mediating. On July 14th agreement was reached, but John
Ciaccia lacked support. Significant police withdrawal, upon which
opening the Mercier Bridge, etc. hinged, did not happen.

Manitoba's Elijah Harper came to a peace rally at Kanesatake. Police
held reporters at gunpoint while their film was seized. They were
prevented from easy access, but snuck in. A White youth also snuck
in. He joined the warriors. The elected council returned and there
was an impressive unifying community meeting. There were strenuous
efforts to get food into Kanesatake: food from Six Nations, food
from the Red Cross, food transported by boat, food carried through
the woods. Hundreds of Indians came from across the country.

   A few weeks into the siege, native spiritual leaders arrived from
   Micmac communities and from Mexico. The Micmacs built a
   sweatlodge in the Pines and prayed for the warriors. A Buddhist
   monk and a Filipina acupuncturist sneaked into Kanesatake and
   stayed at the Treatment Centre. p. 215

Mohawks set out their conditions: title to land, withdrawal of
police from all Mohawk territories, two days for people to leave
Kanesatake and Kahnawake without being arrested and submission of
the dispute to the World Court. Preconditions were international
observers, access to food and access to spiritual leaders. Quebec
rejected these. Federal Minister Tom Siddon met with assistant war
chief Donnie Martin and with Andrew Delisle Sr., but Siddon seemed
uncompromising. He did order the land bought by the federal
government.

The ongoing siege began to fray Mohawk harmony. Restrictions on the
press were not favourably received. Manitoba's Ovide Mercredi came
on August 1st and called in three Assembly of First Nations experts,
who were, however, mistrusted. On August 5th, Premier Bourassa
issued a 48 hour ultimatum. Eighty families fled. On August 8th,
Bourassa called in the army. Prime Minister Mulroney appointed Alan
Gold to negotiate.

Chapter Ten, "Buck Fever" (pp. 225-251), begins with the fury of the
residents of Chateauguay over the closed bridge. There were non
Natives such as Betty Coles who were shocked at the anti-Mohawk mobs
they saw and brought food, with difficulty, to the Mohawks.

Joe Norton, council grand chief in Kahnawake, on July 11th was
threatened by Bourassa and offered help from the Prime Minister's
office. Consultations within the community and the descriptions of
the raid by Ellen Gabriel and Denise David-Tolley led to a consensus
of continuing to hold the Mercier Bridge and supporting Kanesatake.
Police, mobs and military opposed the functioning of Kahnawake's
hospital.

Some hundred and twenty veterans, Mohawks in the US army and Mohawks
in the Canadian armed forces joined the warriors protecting the
land. About a hundred Oneidas came to assist on the barricades.
Military expertise went into the defence preparations. Psychological
warfare was employed. The Mohawks used their monitored
communications and skillful imitation to trick their enemy into
thinking the Mohawks had heavier weapons than really they did.

   The warriors covered empty shoe boxes in black, strapped them to
   their backs, and clambered over the Mercier Bridge to make the SQ
   think they were planting explosives on the bridge. They used
   welding torches on old scrap iron, behind a blind, to make it
   seem as if they were cutting the anchor bolts of the bridge to
   weaken it. And they wandered around an empty field, looking at a
   map, to pretend they were picking their way through a minefield.
   p. 245

As time went on some Mohawks left. White mobs made it difficult for
travel to and from Mohawk territory. On August 1 some ten thousand
Chateauguay residents demonstrated. CJMS radio host Gilles Proulx on
air and with demonstrating Whites was a prominent anti-Mohawk voice.


PEOPLE OF THE PINES part 2 Second part of review of this book.



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