The Police Attack on Stoney Pointers: Sept. 6 - 9 / 95
Sep 6/95 - Dudley George murdered
Sep 8/95 - Five Nations letter to Jean
Chretien Sep 9/95 - Haudenosaunee
declaration of defence Sep 9/95 -
Eye-witness account of shootings
THE GOVERNMENTS OF CANADA WAGE WAR ON INDIANS
- by Ernie Yacub September
6, 1995, 6:00 pm pst One man is dead, another was badly beaten, and a 13 year
old boy is in surgery to remove a bullet from his back. The Ontario Provincial
Police killed 34 year old Dudley (Anthony) George, a member of the Kettle and
Stoney Point Indian Band in northern Ontario. He was unarmed. Bernard George,
a member of the band council, was severely beaten when he tried to help negotiate
at a road block at Canadian Armed Forces base Ipperwash. Nick George, who is only
13 or 14 years old was shot in the back. None of the victims were armed. The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, has had several different versions of the shootings
throughout the day on their radio news. The first said that the police were fired
upon first. Then they reported that a 16 year old boy was shot in the back when
he drove a bus through the barricades and hit a dumpster, one man was killed,
and a third badly injured. There was no mention of the police being fired upon.
The next report said that the police had moved in to protect some local people
in a car that was attacked by the indians with baseball bats. No mention of guns.
The latest news at 5pm returned to the "police returning fire" story. The Mohawk
Nation News Service report is very different. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)
tried to remove the road block A fistfight ensued, successfully driving the OPP
away. The police returned at 9:30 pm with 40 to 60 men in riot gear. They stormed
the gate and the people resisted. The OPP then opened fire on the indians in the
camp. After the attack aboriginal people stayed. They are not leaving and they
are unarmed. In an interview on CBC radio show Almanac, Globe and Mail reporter
Peter Moon said that here has been a two year occupation of Camp Ipperwash by
some members of the Kettle and Stony Point settlement. The Canadian Government
took 2000 acres of land in 1942 under the War Measures act to build the army base.
This was supposed to be a temporary occupation which has now lasted for 50 years.
22 families were moved in 1942 to the nearby village which is now overcrowded.
The Canadian government and the military have ignored the first nations claim
to the land until the people got fed up and occupied the camp, driving the military
out. The natives cannot take the matter to court because the land was taken away
under the War Measures Act. The latest confrontation with police is over another
part of the same land where first nations burial sites have been desecrated by
army cadets. They were using them for target practice. Assembly of First Nations
chief Ovide Mercredi is on his way to the blockade with other native leaders.
The premier of Ontario has refused to meet with them. 200 to 300 people have marched
into the camp through the police lines without any further altercations. Meanwhile,
at the siege of the Sundancers' camp at Gustafsen Lake,
the RCMP donned their flak jackets and camouflage and roared down the road in
armoured tanks early today. They claimed that one of their helicopters was fired
upon. The CBC did not bother to ask what the helicopter was doing flying close
enough to be shot at. Supporters of the Sundance defenders had to wait most of
the day to find out that the assault of the camp did not happen. The latest news
is that the RCMP are going to try to establish communications with the defenders
so that local first nations leaders can talk to them. Solidarity with the Mohawk,
Shuswap, and all indigenous sovereign nations!
FIVE-NATIONS LETTER TO JEAN CHRETIEN
September 8, 1995 Jean Chretien
Prime Minister Greetings in Peace and Friendship In regards to the most recent
defensive action taken by the true people of this land against your govenments
aggressive genocidal policies; We the people who have reclaimed "Odawa" (Victoria
Island, Ontario) express our outrage at your "third world tactics" against the
original people of this land, and express our solidarity with our brothers and
sisters at Stony Point, Ontario, who have the belief in the ideal of standing
up against the tyranny of a destructive and murderous government such as yours.
Since the Canadian Government, its people and its laws are still not yet independent
of the British Crown; the Queen of England remains your Sovereign, therefore (as
the so-called 'Canada Act of 1982' recognizes and re-enforces) the Royal Proclamation
of 1763 expressly states that "the Indians and their Territories shall remain
unmolested." Therefore, the lands which our brothers and sisters are currently
protecting from the terrorist actions of your governments armed forces, (who are
in the guise of police officers), are lands that are completely within titleship
of the Native Peoples. Thus, according to your own laws, those lands are to remain
unmolested by any subject of the British Crown, be they a private citizen, government
representative or armed forces. Consequently, the defensive action taken by our
brothers and sisters at Stony Point, Ontario, in defense of our Treaty rights
as recognized and affirmed by your own charter of rights and freedoms, (which
you are supposed to abide by), they are completely within their legal rights to
do so. Therefore, it is those, within your government and the armed forces who
have become the rebels and renegades, who are not only endangering the lives of
those who are immediately involved on either side of the issue, but are also threatening
the peace of countless others where issues such as this will inevitably arise
due to the misconduct in this fiasco. We advise that you seek out the appropriate
Traditional Chiefs, in accordance with the Two Row Wampum Treaty, in order to
peacefully rectify this and other similar issues that will arise in the very near
future, with the approaching political climate, no one can sustain another situation
such as Kanasatake, Kahnawake or Gustafsen Lake.
In Peace and Friendship fax copy signed by: Secretary, Stuart Mynow Mohawk Traditional
Council Box 531, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory JOL 1BO
EYE-WITNESS ROGER ABRAHAM GEORGE GIVES ACCOUNT OF
POLICE SHOOTINGS AT IPPERWASH
- by Ernie Yacub What
follows is a statement by an eyewitness to the assault by the Ontario Provincial
Police (OPP) on a group of First Nations people at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
Anthony (Dudley) Brian George, 34, was fatally shot by the OPP. He was unarmed.
Nicholas Cottrelle (14 or 15) was shot in the back. Bernard George (late 30's)
was savagely beaten. Mr. George's statement contradicts the OPP reports which
the media have been using to justify the beatings and murder. The propaganda that
the police at Ipperwash and Gustafsen Lake have been
disseminating tries consistently to portray the use of deadly force by the police
as a necessary response to indian provocation. Their lies will eventually come
back to haunt them. The Stoney Point/Ipperwash land was one of the 11 cases put
forward by first nations traditionals on appeal to the supreme court of canada
- and was rejected on July 6, 1995 as NOT IMPORTANT. Bruce Clark was the counsel
for the traditionals. Another affidavit is being filed. ******* Ipperwash Provincial
Park Occupation by Pottawatimi and Ojibway men, women and children September 9,
1995 Witness who was there from beginning - Roger Abraham George On Tuesday, September
5, 1995, a group of Stoney Point people including myself and a few supporters
were at the Parkview drive entrance to Ipperwash Provincial Park (Ontario Canada).
We had it blocked with a garbage dumpster. Police activity was heavy and they
left. We figured something was up. They returned around 11:10 pm. Bernard George
and others went down to the entrance. A few came back and reported phone wire
running along. They cut it. Bernard by himself went to the front gate and others
came back. He had a 2 way radio and another had a radio at another entrance. I
had a police scanner and heard the cops say, "There is one along the road. I think
he has a weapon." "Yes, he has a weapon." "No, it is only a stick." This is what
he heard. All he had was a 2 way radio. A car was coming down the entrance. Lots
of cops in riot gear, black in colour plastic shields line up from side to side
in 2 rows. There was 10 feet between us and them. We waited for them to ask us
to leave but nothing was said. They did not even try to serve any kind of papers
on us. We told them to leave and get the fuck off our land. We started to get
on the trunk of the car making noises on a garbage container trying to get them
to leave. I heard the cop yell "retreat as far as road." They went on outside
of fence. I got 10 feet away from them. The cops started hitting shields and metal
riot sticks. We heard, "ATTACK". They attacked us. We fought for a few minutes
but were outnumbered. They retreated. They yelled, "He slipped" (Bernard George).
They were dragging him toward a vehicle and started beating and kicking him. He
was on the ground and being kicked by a bunch of cops surrounding him. I heard
somebody say, "Get in the bus and run the bastards over." My son Nicholas Cottrelle
got in the bus and hit the garbage container pushing it towards the cops. The
cops were on each side of the road. The buses backed up when gun shots fired by
the cops. I assumed they were warning shots. I looked back at the flash from the
guns pointed at our direction. "Holy fuck, they're shooting at us. Run." Anthony
(Dudley) Brian George was between me and cops. Next thing I heard was that Dudley
George had been hit. They carried Dudley back to the park. I directed the bus
through. Put him in a car and wait for an ambulance. I was going to the store
in the park to call ambulance. Somebody was already there. My son said he was
Ok and I saw the blood spot on his back. "Come here," and lifted up his shirt
and saw a hole on the right side of his shoulder blade. "Does it hurt?" I pointed
to left, and saw a wound 2 inches long, jumped into a car to call another ambulance.
We arrived at the gatehouse. Dudley's brothers and sisters were already rushing
him to hospital. My wife told someone to call ambulance. We drove to the Hiway
21 roadblock. The cops refused to let us through and we almost got arrested. We
had to take him through the road block. The cops stopped us and made the boy get
out of the car and put his hands on the car. They finally took him to hospital.
Statement of Roger Abraham George of Stoney Point received by fax from Mohawk
Nation News Service (MNNS). Solidarity with the Mohawk, Shuswap, and all indigenous
sovereign nations!
