How the Oka Crisis has shaped 4 generations in Kanesatake and Kahnawake

Warrior raises rifle from atop an overturned police cruiser at Oka roadblock in Quebec on July 1990. Photo by Tom Hanson / The Canadian Press.

‘You could say, it woke us up,’ says 72-year-old John Cree

by Jessica Deer, CBC News, July 11, 2018

Every year on July 11, Bryan Deer spends the morning at the foot of the Mercier Bridge connecting Montreal with Kahnawake as a reminder to his community and the thousands of commuters that pass through it of an important day in Canadian history.

The Oka Crisis in 5 minutes

 

The Oka Crisis was supposed to be a wake-up call. Little has changed in 27 years

A picture taken during the Oka Crisis on July 11, 1990. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

By Steve Bonspiel, for CBC News, July 11, 2017

“Just go in there and exterminate them like the rats they are.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of them.”

“Put them all in the Big O and blow it up.”

I heard these words from random non-Natives as a 14-year-old boy, 27 years ago to the day. I feel a mixture of pride, anger, sadness and resolve when I think of that fateful summer, and what went on for those 78 days in Kanesatake: the Oka Crisis.

Kanesatake hit by rising waters: ‘We’re working like crazy here’

Flooding in Kanesatake, May 2017.

by Tom Fennario, APTN National News, May 9, 2017

KANESATAKE MOHAWK TERRITORY – Drive past Torrey Daoust’s house from the back, and it could be mistaken it for an island. Brown water from the Ottawa River laps at his green lawn about a metre away from a row of sandbags.

Chief predicts Oka Crisis if feds impose Enbridge pipeline

Canadian soldier and warrior face off during 1990 Oka Crisis.

Leader says conflict will continue to escalate until the government decides to negotiate in good faith and honour First Nations rights

Erin Flegg, Vancouver Observer, Feb 26th, 2014

If Canada fails to respond to live up to its obligations to consult First Nations, British Columbia’s Grand Chief Stewart Phillip believes it will almost certainly see another Oka Crisis, referencing a 78-day standoff in 1990 between the Mohawk people, the Quebec police and the Canadian military that broke out when the province tried to build a golf course on a traditional burial site. 

Mohawk Warriors Society revival campaign notification

My name is Bill Sears, Skaghenhate’, War Chief since the 1990 Oka golf course crisis in Quebec. I was told by the women of the Longhouse and by Samson Gabriel that same day and later on after the summer of 1990 by Louie Hall that my War Chief position was for life and to be taken seriously.