The Kanien'kehá:ka, better known as the Mohawks (also called Mohawks in French), are one of the six great Iroquois nations, which are, from east to west:the Tuscaroras, the Senecas, the Oneiouts, Onondagas, Cayugas and Mohawks.
Etymology
Mohawks whose meaning is "man-eater" in the language of their hereditary enemies, the Algonquins. Kanien'kehá:ka or Kanienkehaka is the name used by the Mohawks to call themselves, it meant according to the context and the interpretations:"people of the light", "lightning men", "people of the flints" or even "children of the stars”, in the Iroquois language of the Mohawk Indians of southeastern Canada. They are also called Mohawks in French and Maquas in New Netherland.
Current situation
Having adopted the English language, they now call themselves Mohawk. They live mainly in the territories of
Ganienkeh and Kanatsiohareke in upstate New York
Tyendinaga and Wahta (Gibson) in southern Ontario
Kanesatake Reserved Territory for the Mohawks, but which does not constitute an Indian reserve within the meaning of the Indian Act. Near Oka.
Kahnawake (formerly Caughnawaga), near Châteauguay - reserve.
Akwesasne (shared between Quebec, Ontario and the State of New York), also known as St. Regis - reserve.
Six Nations Reserve, where they form the majority of the inhabitants of this mixed Iroquois reserve, in Ontario.
In 1985, the National Assembly of Quebec officially recognized them as one of the ten Aboriginal nations of Quebec (Abenaki, Algonquin, Attikamek, Cree, Huron-Wendat, Micmac, Mohawk, Innu, Naskapi and Inuit).
History
At the beginning of historic times, the Mohawks settled in Upper New York, in the Mohawk Valley. The anthropologist Pierre Lepage recalls the first places of occupation of the Mohawks, beginning with the period of New France, during which they successively occupied a place near the Mountain in Montreal, then Sault-au-Récollet north of Montreal near of the Rivière des Prairies to finally occupy the Seigneurie de Deux-Montagnes, located at the mouth of the Ottawa River.
All these trips were made at the request of the Congregation of the Fathers of Saint-Sulpice who convinced the Mohawks that it was for their own good and lastly by promising them land of their own at Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes. In addition to this promise, a history thesis published in 1995 proposes that the presence of the Mohawks at Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes dates well before the arrival of the Sulpician mission in 1721. According to these two arguments, the promise and prior occupation, present-day Mohawks would therefore be entitled to land in this area.
However, what complicates things is the change of regime in 1760. This new British regime began by giving full possession of their lands, the free exercise of their religion as well as free movement throughout the American territory to the natives of the region, including the Mohawk people, in order to garner their allegiance. (Johnson in Lepage, 2009:122) However, these commitments were not fully respected.
From the 1780s began a long resistance of the Mohawks which is in continuity with their contemporary struggle. The resistance reached a peak on June 21, 1877 with an insurrection of 250 armed Mohawks. (Lepage, 2009:119) On the side of the authorities, we are moving further and further away from a recognition of Mohawk claims, with in 1840 the adoption by the Parliament of Lower Canada of an ordinance in support of territorial rights of the Sulpicians, and in 1912 the Privy Council in London again confirmed these rights. In 1911, just before this London decision, the words of the Mohawk chief Sose Onasakenrat illustrate well the discouragement and doubts of their struggle:
“I would like to sum up in a few pages the horror of the situation that was ours, but I am not sure I will succeed... Our fathers had placed themselves under the protection of the French at Fort-de-la-Montagne as early as 1662. When they became too cumbersome for the colony of Ville-Marie, they were moved to Lorette, which has since become Sault-au-Récollet. And when we realized that the lands of the Sault were the most fertile in the region, we thought it best to move us further away to concede these lands to the French settlers... it was then in our name that the Gentlemen were granted the seigniory of Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes. They have always claimed that it was given to them on the condition that they take care of our spiritual and material well-being. We have always claimed the same thing and when we wanted to emancipate ourselves, when we wanted them to stop caring about us, we rightly claimed lordship. We claimed it from 1760 to 1911 but the courts never agreed with us. As for the gentlemen, they were too attached to the land to leave the place, however much contempt they had for us. »
The situation changed again in 1945, when the federal government bought the rest of the former Seigneurie du Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes. According to Lepage, this is simply a change in trusteeship, with little real change for Mohawk rights. The Aboriginal territory is not considered a reserve under the Indian Act and therefore does not benefit from the same administrative autonomy. (Lepage, 2009:123) In 1974, the Federal Office of Native Claims was created but the Mohawk claims were rejected twice rather than once.
It was in 1985 and 1986 that the direct context for the Oka crisis to come was established. The Regroupement des citoyen d'Oka was founded in response to the establishment of a detoxification center for Aboriginal clients. The municipality of Oka supports the citizen group in its efforts, and the dispute extends to questions of zoning and construction. (Ibid.:125) At the end of 1988, the Kanesatake Band Council published a study stating that the community would double in population in 1996 and therefore needed more territory. The Council is looking for lands that would meet their needs and proposes lands bordering the golf course. The conflict broke out when in 1989 the Town Hall of Oka announced an expansion project for the golf course in question as well as a related residential project. Lepage also addresses the issue of an explosive context of police-Aboriginal community relations in the years preceding the crisis. In Kanesatake alone, a major police operation took place on September 29, 1989, resulting in seven arrests, and this was just six months before the start of the Mohawk civil disobedience campaign in March, which would lead to the Oka Crisis. .
Oka crisis of 1990
Believing that their ancestors were robbed in the past by settlers who appropriated vast “lordships” to then resell them to whites, natives went back to war to assert their territorial rights. The Mohawks, partly from Kahnawake, Akwasasne and other provinces of Canada, armed with automatic weapons (AK-47, M16 and Browning M2 machine gun) occupied a pine forest sheltering a cemetery in Oka, village close to Montreal. The conflict erupted in the spring of 1990 when the municipality wanted to expand a golf course and sell part of the land for a housing project by razing a century-old pine forest4. However, this pine forest had a lot of value for the Mohawks, using it as community land and having been planted by their ancestors a hundred years earlier. ( Faced with the refusal of the Amerindians to evacuate the land, the authorities launched an assault during which a policeman was killed. A part of the Amerindian community gave its support to the "warriors" of Oka. At the end August, at the request of the Prime Minister of Quebec, the Royal 22e Régiment intervenes and installs a veritable state of siege. On September 26, 1990 the Warriors lay down their arms.
Expulsion of non-Mohawks from the Kahnawake reserve
In February 2010, the band council of the Kahnawake reserve decides to expel anyone who is not Mohawk, including those who have a spouse from this nation, and prohibits "foreigners" from settling on their territory. .