Reprinted without permission from some golddigging journalist's
book which was out in time for Christmas last year.
This is the Mohawk version of the events leading up to Oka:
When the whiteman came to settle he asked if he could use our land
to build a cabin for shelter and grow food for sustenance. We saw
that he had need and we said yes. We could not conceive that he
would neither give it back nor acknowledge us as owners. But that
is what he did. He just kept it for himself. He reported back
to the old world that there was land for the taking and plenty
for everyone. He was encouraged in this practice by his church.
It declared itself owners of huge tracts of our land. Their
spokesmen said that the King Of France, who we never had met,
had given it to them. When the church needed money it sold the
land it never owned to parishioners or newcomers to the area
who built homes and businesses and eventually golf courses.
That is how it happenned in Oka. The whole village was built on
Indian land. They used and enjoyed our forest land, too. We
welcomed them. Then they wanted to add an extra nine holes to
their private golf course by cutting down the sacred pine
forest we planted. It is one of the oldest hand-planted forests
in North America and our ancient burial grounds are within it.
This was too much to swallow and we refused to let our dead be
disturbed or to let them use the land for that selfish purpose.
In 1718 a few Mohawk, some Huron and a branch of the Algonquin
from the settlement at Sault au-Recollet, were moved to Oka.
Sixty-one years earlier, in 1657, the Sulpicians had been made
temporary managers of the island of Montreal with a mandate to
protect it from the Indians. In 1666 this was confirmed by
the King of France. For years the Sulpicians had tried to get
grants of land in New France. But they were in competition
with the Jesuits who were more powerful in the French Court.
Unable to win the grants, they instead asked for lands for
an Indian Mission. The King of France agreed to provide a nine-
square mile tract of land for the mission. It would later be
doubled in size. But the grant came with many restrictions,
the main one being that the Sulpicians would only hold the land
in trusteeship for the Indians. In 1720 the Chruch insisted
that about 200 Mohawk religious dissidents from Kahnawake be
removed from their village and sent to live at Oka on the shore
of the Lake of Two Mountains. It was the principle of divide and
conquer.
The Iroquois were frequent invaders of the settlement and it was
the Oka Indians who bore the brunt of the attacks on the
community. They became its defenders. But as time went by,
more and more Iroquois converted to Christianity and many of them
gathered at the settlement. The former enemy had now become the
settlement's chief strength.
By this time, the Sulpicians in Montreal had become so wealthy
that they surpassed the Jesuits. Among their prized pieces of
territory was the land bordering the Lake of Two Mountains on
part of which dwelt the Oka Indians. But according to the
terms of the original grant, the Indians had a claim on the land
that would expire only should they leave it or die out. The
Indians loved their home and could not be induced to leave. The
Sulpicians hoped to change their minds. Privilege after privilege
was taken away from the Indians. Grants they were entitled to were
stopped. Tithes for the church were collected with great vigor
at a time when income was stopped. Through the government, the
church offered to settle the Indians elsewhere. They were even
stopped from cutting wood to repair their homes. They grew
poorer and poorer.
Eventually, a Protestant Mission came to the area. And in 1869,
the Methodists took up the Indian's cause against Rome. But the
Catholic Church was powerful in Quebec, and in the 1930's the
Sulpicians began to sell off land they were supposed to be
holding in trusteeship for the Indians. Some land exchanged
hands several times although the original sale was not valid as
far as the Mohawk were concerned.
And so the fight over who holds title to the land at Kanesatake
continues today for the sixteen hundred Mohawk living there.
The preceding was a compilation of interviews from several
Kahnawake/Kanasatake Mohawk.
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Reprinted without permission!
When Methodist missionary Amand Parent (named Look to Heaven by
the Mohawk) met Chief Joseph Onasakenarat in 1870 he described
him as a fine, intelligent-looking Indian who was a born leader.
Chief Joseph became the first man to translate the New Testament
into Iroquois (ed. Mohwak?) Recognizing his leadership qualities
the Sulpicians sent him to school in Oka and then college
Montreal to prepare him for the priesthood. For a time, he was
a professor of theology but he became disillusioned with the
Sulpicians' treatment of the Mohawk. In 1868 his people asked him
to be their chief after he led them in demanding their rights
from the Church:
"We have come to inform you first, that you have not dealt justly
with us, and that we want you to leave our land, as we do not
want to be robbed of our heritage; and you are yearly robbing us
of the best of our property, therefore we would like to have it in
more honourable hands.
"This land was given to you in trust for the tribe to whom it
belongs; and how have you betrayed this trust? By selling the
timber and filling your treasury with the proceeds of stolen
property. This land is ours - ours by right of possession; ours
as a heritage, given us as a sacred legacy. It is the spot where
our fathers lis; beneath those trees our mothers sang our lullaby
and you would tear it from us and leave us wanderers at the mercy
of fate."
The church responded by demanding that Quebec send an armed
police force to arrest the dissidents. The provincial police
force went to Oka and by force of arms imprisoned many of the
Indians, including three chiefs. In prison, they were told by
the brother of the bishop that unless they obeyed the priests
he would have them shut up in the Kingston Penetentiary for the
rest of their lives. He informed Chief Joseph that the church
had obtained some land in Doncaster, Ontario and they should all
go there. Chief Joseph replied:
"We will never go there. To go there means extinction. We will
not exchange a productive soil for barren rock in order to suit
the whim of the pope. We will die on the land of our fathers,
and our bleaching skeletons shall be a witness to nations yet
unborn."
The Mohawk were charged with having the intention of killing the
priests and driving them away. They were kept in jail in St.
Scolastique for about seven days. It was during this period
that Chief Joseph began his tanslation of the New Testament into
Iroquois which had been forbidden by the Sulpicians.
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Reprinted without the author's permission>
Another Mohawk named Gabriel who lived in Oka a hundred
years ago (ed. from now that is) was also a spokesman for his
people. His story is told by missionary Amand Parent in his
autobiography:
Parent describes Gabriel as "industrious, one of the better
class of Indian." In 1873, writes the missionary, Gabriel refused
to return to the Roman Catholic Church. He and many other Mohawk
had converted to Methodism in part because they believed the
Sulpicians were cheating them. Late one night, in the presence
of his family, a baliff took Gabriel from his one-room home to
jail. There he was visited by a Priest and offered his freedom if
he woudl go back to the church of Rome. It would be an example
to other Indians. But the Mohawk was adamant. He said he would
rather die.
Eventually he was freed. Soon after his release, he began to
rebuild his one-room home in preparation for the winter. For
this he needed lumber. On the pretext that he had cut wood without
the church's permission, he was again jailed. In fact, he had
paid a priest a sum of money in advance to cut the trees he
needed. While in jail, he contracted pneumonia. By the time
he was released, it was winter and he had to walk from Ste.
Scolastique through the snow to Oka. His poor house was little
shelter from the cold and he died at home eight days later. But
to the end he had been a thorn in the side of the Sulpicians.
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The preceeding articles do not necessarily reflect my personal
opinion and probably not my boss'. hence, please do not flame
me for what I have merely taken the time to reproduce for you.
Unfortunately, I cannot find anything about the time the
Oka Mohawk got hold of a cannon and blasted down the doors
of a Catholic Church. This happened during the 1880's or
1890's. I will search through my archives and hopefully
find that info!
--- (hitchhiker) a user of skyview, running waffle 1.64
E-mail: hiker@skyview.bison.mb.ca
Compu Team Systems BBS