"Oops! They've done it again"

Canada plays the same old song - tries to incite rioters to attack Six Nations

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com

MNN.  April 25, 2006.  The people of the town of Caledonia went out to the fairground last night to vent their rage against the Six Nations people.  They are mad about the lowering property values [of their mostly old houses] and loss of business.  [Tim Horton's is doing a roaring business where Indians, police and local people gather every day].  What are Tim Horton's rules for keeping order between these factions? 

"Hey, let's get good and mad, go over to the barricade and taunt those Indians.  We'll call them down and insult them.  Maybe we can get them to do something stupid [like what you're doing right now, huh?] and give us a good reason to beat the crap out of them".  They did go to the protest site and stood about 100 feet away from the protesters, doing their worst to get our attention.  We just stood there and stared at them, shaking our heads at the craziness unfolding in front of us.  In the end the Caledonian rioters smashed an Ontario Provincial Police car and one individual was arrested.

When it comes to Indians, they arrest not only the fighter, but us communally and every Indian within a mile.  Failing that, they'll lock down our community and declare Marshall law.  We don't even have to do anything, just sit on lawn chairs and have a barbecue.  We're always suspect!

It takes some work to make a crime out of passive occupation of your own land.  But those beavers are industrious.  They plan it out.  When you can't get the natives to act crazy, they've got to make crazy things happens.  When the cops botch up the job of attacking innocent people, you have to make sure the "Indians" get the blame for it.  They have a tired old script left over from colonial days that they follow faithfully, even though it doesn't work.

What's happening now at Caledonia reminds me us of the people of Chateauguay during the Mohawk Oka Crisis of 1990.  They were on the edge of Kahnawake, rioting, burning our effigy every night, throwing bricks at the RCMP and screaming for the Canadian Army to come and grind us under.  How else could we look at it but as nightly entertainment?  Watch them watching us and how they react.  After the crisis was over, we refused to shop in their town.  Guess what?  They tried to sue us for $25 million for not shopping there.

At Burnt Church the federal government went charging in like the Keystone Cops.  They messed up.  Then they decided they had to instigate the French fishermen to get mad so they could blame the Indians and attack them.  They always get some hotheaded nobody to mouth off for them.  If it doesn't work, there will be anyone but the government to blame.

When things got hot at Ipperwash it was the same old song.  They called a big public meeting at a nearby arena so they could turn ordinary workers into "red neck" rabble.    After Ipperwash in 1995 our supporters went to a meeting of "Onfire", a white supremacist group.  They were venting at the Ojibway Indians for their taking back Stoney Point and devaluing their cottages by their presence.  Canada forever brings tourists in from all over the world to tell them about our rich Indian history.  But when they see us in person, they're scared to shake our hands or look us in the eye.  They certainly don't want us as neighbors even though the Indigenous people had never bothered anyone.  This kind of attitude feeds on ignorance of the true historical role that we played in history.  There was complete and utter disrespect for and anger at native people at this meeting.  Our people asked for one minute to counter the emotional diatribe.  The minute was taken to remember Dudley George who had just been shot by the OPP.  They just went on with their meeting as if they were never asked.  

Today on the CBC they had the two Henning brothers, Don and John, of Henco Industries on.  We think they fancy themselves building 'Wisteria Lane" for "Desperate Housewives" from Toronto.   Both had their hair expertly coifed and wore brand new golf shirts that had just been bought at a corporate sports store.  They said they now realize that the Crown protecting the Six Nations title might be still valid.  "Just pay us for our bankrupcy", was their message.  They are going to lose $6 million [plus all the profits].  "We don't want to see anyone homeless", they said [Yeh!  No one around here can afford those mansions].

The script went on, "We want a peaceful resolution and go back to work", [meaning they want the Six Nations people to stay quiet while they rob us blind!].  The Haldimand Mayor,  Maria Trainor, wearing a gaudy gold mayor's neck piece, took a shot at the Six Nations people.  She said, in effect that "the people of Caledonia are losing their weekly pay checks because they don't automatically get money every month [like those injuns]".  [Hey, I'm waiting for mine.  I've been waiting all my life.]  In her mind, we're all welfare bums.  She's trying to get everybody fighting against each other.  A few minutes later, she told some Six Nations people that she never said that.  So she thinks we don't have jobs and we don't have televisions either.  Mrs. Trainor should step aside so that the person responsible for Britain living up to its promises to us can fulfill Canada's obligations, like the Governor General.  We really don't want her to postpone her trip to Haiti, but the honor of the Crown is at stake and it's her job to maintain it.

Our people showed the utmost restraint.  We can deal with international issues in a diplomatic way.  The bottom line is that when they're up against it and don't know what to do, they want to get everyone fighting against each other.  When the dust settles they don't want everyone to see what a botched up job they've done.

Contact at Six Nations:  Dick Hill 519-865-7722 thebasketcase@on.aibn.com