Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is doing just that to mohawk people returning to their homes in Kawehnoke. understand, this is not entering canada. it is traveling from one part of our territory to another part without ever leaving it. this is revenge for not allowing them to have armed guards on our sovereign territory. the CBSA has been seizing their vehicles since september, unless a $1,000 bounty is paid to CBSA.
this is just their latest tactic. a few months ago they surrounded our community, isolating it from the usa and canada. they also had military drones flying over us just like they use in afghanistan and pakistan. after all, canada lists mohawk people as terrorists with al qaeda.
so what are your thoughts about this? this is happening on the border between new york and canada. how many americans have even heard this is going on within your sight? do you condone your government treating people like this? or does the silence say it all? why are people concerned about human rights in distant countries but ignore these violations that continue in your own?
are you calling me a liar?
Mohawk border crossing blocked
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/06/01/akwesasne-guards-border-guns001.html
Army manual lumps radical natives with Hezbollah
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070331/native_manual_070331/20070331?hub=CTVNewsAt11
U.S. launches another drone plane to patrol Canadian border
In eastern Canada, the focus of the Predator is the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, which straddles the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall, Ont., and sprawls across the border of New York state.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/22/drone-great-lakes022.html?ref=rss
so tell me mr i-lived-through-idiocy, since you lived through oka, would i recognize you? would a rock in your hands make that easier?
we have contacted "her majesty" several times, and sent wampum carriers, official spokespersons to see her and she remains silent. its apparent her majesty doesn’t give a sh**
it is amazing that some will say if they are seizing your cars you must be smuggling. because we all KNOW the government would never do anything wrong..especially canada right? can’t handle the fact that the world is finally seeing the real canada that first nations people have seen all along? no response to the news stories showing that what i say is truth? perhaps you are too busy piling stones..you know just in case.
for those who may want to start following some things:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GWYA_enUS348US348&q=native+american+news+sites&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
cher..your suggestions do make sense. and many of them we have in place in one form or another. with the internet, we are geting the word out through our own news association, various action groups, and yes…the UN has heard from us many many times. we have come to the conclusion that if WE don’t do this alone, it won’t get done. in canada this is all over the news, as the first answerer shows, they don’t listen toboth sides, just the propaganda. whenever a country or state gets into financial trouble, they MUST find someone to point a finger at. one would think us natives spent all their money and left them nothing the way they come at us because we will not collect taxes for them. but this issue is about putting armed guards on our sovereign territory without our permission. we said no. imagine russia drawing a line through anchorage and then sending armed soldiers to patrol and decide who can pass through one side to the other.
the word is out there and all over the net. therre are native news sites that do carry this type of news, not just for us but for all nations. but i see the problem like this; in the minds of most non native people we are rooted only in the past. they see us only as ghosts of a former era. the media stereotypes and mascots keep us there in their minds. so if we are from the past, why be concerned about us in the present? i’m sure you know just by YA how little people really know about us even though they live in the same country. i don’t believe it is a matter of information not being out there so much as people simply do not think of us as 21st century nations facing unique issues.
if i am not mistaken, a goup of mohawks has gone to geneva recently to take canada to the world court. i will have to find out the results and get back to you.
thanks for all the suggestions and the "outside insights"
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November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I call BS on the whole story.
If Border services is seizing cars, it is for smuggling. They did not ’surround your territory’, a logical impossibility when the territory straddles the Canada US border. They did not use surveillance drones. The Canadian government does not list ‘Mohawks’ as terrorists. They consider the so-called Warrior Society as groups of interest, due to their large scale involvement in illegal activities, but the government realizes that the majority of Mohawks are law abiding individuals.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
There is not much I could do if the government seized any property from me. If you resist you will be slaughtered like a pig in a hail of bullets.
We must see the government for what it is, evil people with guns and a legal right to initiate violence.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
the only news stories i can find affirm that the canadian government has been breaking treaties, so how much of a stretch is it for them to start impounding personal property? it’s no surprise that even events i’ve seen documented in video clips aren’t covered by the media. it’s less painful for us descendants of europeans to pretend none of it is happening. but it is. angry french canadian mobs threw stones at mohawks attempting to evacuate their homes while the canadian military stood by and watched, just ten years ago. meanwhile, what few stories you find have long lists of comments from whites criticizing the mohawks for trying to protect sovereignty that was guaranteed to them by treaty.
it’s disgusting and an embarrassment to anyone who considers himself canadian or american.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Just like the issue you brought up a few months ago, about the warplanes flying over your towns and homes, we have never heard of it. The news is a black hole on these issues, and tell us nothing. I can only assume that the Canadian govt is worse than the American govt in dealing with native rights. Is this both govts, or only the Canadian? Human rights are supposed to be for all people, in all countries, and the Mohawk are being attacked by the govt of their own country, this is an abomination in the free world! If this gets out in the media, and the world knows, Her Majesty will have to do something to stop this.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Well pissed of course. Everything going on down there right now is comming strictly through the moccasin telegraph. Nothing on the news of course. Whites if you try to talk to one, they don’t believe it because the news didn’t tell them…duh canadian news is governed by CRTC which is Canadian radio and television commision, a legislative body that is a branch of the government…and to think they were not reporting on themselves for their bad behaviour (sarcasm). Yep, they are attacking nearly everything comming in and out of Kawehnoke (Akwasasne). And the rest of the Mohawk rez’s are under thumb too. Our van gets searched when leaving the rez now (We live just off Tyandinaga). We are just a Native family going about our regular buisness, they are just scaring the crap outta our kids…for what you ask…guns?…drugs?…nope it’s about cigarettes. Yep. Ask me it’s the canadian government who is the uncivilized terrorists.
EDIT—-Cher, the reason the Mohawks go to the Queen is simple, their treaties are with the crown, not canada.
MORE EDIT—Cher, I agree. I think a new approach would be good. Personally I think we should go to Geneva and fight for recognition of our rights and Nationhood under International law. The Queen doesn,t care and the trips to the UN are a waste of breath and money as that is not the correct forum. I have often brought this up.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
To get heard, I’d suggest:
- Forming an organization that coordinates & sends out the info. Then get that organization known among non-NDN. Post it on forums, pay for google ads, get good mailing lists of interested non-NDNs to cold mail to. Flyers dropped on local neighborhood doors (same thing campaign workers do).
- Contact media, & contact them again & again. Give them the info. Eventually an interested face will show up. If someone is media savy (a trained journalist) there are ways to frame stories so they have a better chance. Even if it may not make mainstream, but there are other venues.
If you could get the mailing lists of the guy who puts out those fake charities (I’d asked about) – that would be a good one for you guys to have.
I’m trying to think in terms of actions that can eventually make a dent, in a bigger way. Samples of Jewish-topic organizations are Honest Reporting (.com) & Palestinian Media Watch (pmw.org.il – the .il is needed) & CAMERA (.org). Maybe they’ll have some technqiues evident you can add to your current organizations’ processes.
There are plenty of people who would be agast if they knew. There is room for momentum to form. I think it’s very important to know that.
A good organized resource front with singular messages works the best. (Just one word of caution – Jewish folks are known for not knowing how to do PR well. We just stink at it (too much detail, too little solid simple emotional messages, too much introspection.) – so our organizational skills can be good to copy, but that’s the limit. Read a few Israeli papers – & watch us bite ourselves in the butt constantly.)
It’s important too to find messages that resonate with people. The one’s Jewish folks thought should work on israel, turned out to be not so effective. A group the Israel Project (theisraelproject.com or org)’s founder Ms. Mizrahi got the idea of using focus groups – & found much better messages. I’m not suggesting that extreme, but to look from that perspective if doing a compaign, not too angry, but angry enough, something people can relate to their own lives… For Israel it turned out good messages were that she’s a democracy, want’s peace, & is filled with hard working people.
Hope something in here was useful.
PS One thing Ms. Mizrah (I think it’s Jennifer but I’m having a mental block) figured out is that Palestinian Arabs were stationing their offices right down the street from media, calling them with videos, making sound bits available… Israeli & Jewish folks were obsticales & not getting the info out.
Going to the topic such as the Queen, often doesn’t work well, until there’s other momentum…
Edit: I wasn’t questioning Queen vs. Canadaian gov’t. I was suggesting it takes common momentum to impact -either- one. That’s sadly a political history in life on any issue… Again, I’m trying to suggest ways to move past the current techniques to look for more… The current ones result in no one knowing what’s going on outside the local community. There are people who would get behind you – but they don’t have any idea there is something to get behind. Is that something you know already? I take it from the lack of TUs that none of these ideas sound interesting at all?
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" people simply do not think of us as 21st century nations facing unique issues."
Then that’s the first message to get out there. (It’s a great slogan.) The info isn’t out there. It feels like it is to you, but I’ve never happened on it – & I would have noticed it & know people who would have brought it to my attention. I’m not trying to be dogged. I’m trying to offer an outside look, so you can see where the holes from here, are so you can gain in effectiveness.
Is there one website you can plaster all over the internet with basic messages & backup details to go with it? (Plus a way for people to donate on it.) You may have this – so the question becomes, why isn’t the message getting out there visibly even to people who would get it. (I’m not at a level of PR quality of knowing the answers – but sometimes good questions help..
There’s no question your rights are violated & people don’t want to look & see it for what it is. It’s just that people who would care, aren’t getting the picture either… (When I found NARF, that was the first I’d heard of much & somehow I dropped off their mailing list almost immediately instead of getting contacted by additional legit organizations.) On approaching legistatures it does take years of persistence with the same messages, sadly.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I am shocked, but then again greed to bail out a country that is broke can bring out the best thieves there are, the Politicians and the Lawyers. Has anyone in the Nations brought this to the World Court or the United Nations? I know that plans for cell phone jammers are common on the web, and with just a bit of tinkering perhaps these spy planes flying over your Nation Illegally can be crashed? A spinning Mirror with a simple laser pointer can be made directional for having fun with their pictures…
In Truth, I do not know what I would do. Who do you use to get information out on this where the up and coming elections could make a difference? Start yelling War Crimes? Seems to me that many Governments and Nations have gone to War over far less…
ME!
It seems to me that another Berlin Airlift to bring in supplies might be in order… Just a thought.
While looking for an update on the "group of Mohawks has gone to Geneva recently to take Canada to the World Court" I came upon this, and even though over a year old, I thought it worth sharing here.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE: U.S. and Canada Found Guilty of Racism ~By Haider Rizvi http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43487
"Governments in the past have been complicit in genocides, land seizures, massive environmental degradation, and many other human rights abuses because [indigenous peoples] were denied their fundamental rights and freedoms," said Powless, a Mohawk whose nation’s territory is now divided between modern-day Canada and the United States.
Last year when the 192-member U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, both the U.S. and Canada were among a handful of countries that voted against it.
"This shows how far we still have to go to make sure that states acknowledge and protect indigenous peoples’ rights, for if they continue not to, we have many examples of the grave results," said Powless.
Recently, both the U.S. and Canada were found guilty by a Geneva-based U.N. rights watchdog, which keeps track of violations of the 1968 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) told Canada to take "appropriate legislative or administrative measures to prevent the acts of transnational corporations on indigenous territories."
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