[SISIS note: The following mainstream news article is provided for reference only. It may contain biased and distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context.]

MONTREAL - Ottawa has agreed to buy a parcel of land from Oka to settle one of the outstanding issues from the bitter Mohawk crisis of 1990.

The approximately 12,000 square metres of land will be used to expand the existing Mohawk cemetery.

A long-simmering land dispute erupted in July 1990 when Quebec provincial police bungled a raid on barricades erected by militant Mohawk Warriors to prevent the town from expanding its golf course on land claimed by natives.

The golf course expansion in Oka, west of Montreal, would have encroached on land in and around the cemetery.

A Quebec provincial police officer was killed during the raid. The Canadian army was eventually called in to resolve the 78-day standoff.

"This is a significant purchase in regards to satisfying the requests from our community to expand the cemetery," said James Gabriel, Grand Chief of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake.

The current Mohawk cemetery is overcrowded.

"Considering we've been putting the issue on the table for six or seven years, it's a very significant step," Gabriel commented.

Montreal lawyer Eric Maldoff, the chief federal negotiator, said Ottawa has been trying to "target things that were the greatest sore points, things with the potential to reduce tension and so, put things on a more normal footing."

The Mohawk community of Kanesatake is not officially a native reserve, but a patchwork of lands inhabited by Mohawks and non-aboriginals.

Since the crisis, Ottawa has been buying non-native properties to create a continuous land base for the Mohawks, who number 1,200.

Ottawa and the Mohawks have been involved in extensive on-again, off-again talks over land and self-government issues since the early 1990s.

Gabriel, who has been Grand Chief since July 1996, explained there has not yet been an agreement on the final status of a consolidated Mohawk territory.

"Overall, negotiations with the federal government have been going very well in the last year and a half," he said.

Maldoff said a December 1996 agreement between Ottawa, the Quebec government and the Mohawks to allow the natives to set up their own local police force was crucial in getting things moving again after years of mistrust.

The Mohawks view the cemetery lands as part of their overall claim to the Seigneury of the Lake of Two Mountains, a territory dating back to the French Regime.

The Seigneury claim covers more than 673 square kilometres, including many Montreal suburbs.

Oka Mayor Jean Ouellette could not be reached for comment Monday.

[SISIS note: The following mainstream news article is provided for reference only. It may contain biased and distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context.]

The dead of Kanesatake can finally be buried in peace.

It took seven years, but an expansion - legal this time - will go ahead of the cemetery that was at the centre of the Oka Crisis, the 78-day armed standoff in 1990 that pitted militant Mohawks against the Surete du Quebec and the Canadian army.

Ottawa said yesterday the town of Oka has agreed to sell 12,335 square metres of land for $230,000, including the site in the pine forest adjacent to the town's golf club where Surete officer Marcel Lemay was shot dead in July 1990 in a botched raid on Mohawk barricades.

The purchase - pending formal approval by the Quebec government, which has been quietly encouraging the sale for months - will allow local Mohawks to more than double the size of their ancestral cemetery, next to the golf course.

It was the town's plans to expand the golf course on to that land, a move vigourously opposed by the Mohawks, that triggered the crisis seven years ago.

Now overcrowded with graves, the site has continued to be a flashpoint. In the past few years, Mohawks have cut down trees on the adjacent Oka land and illegally buried four of their dead, including two men who died in a boating accident in 1995.

Until now, deploring the "provocation" of illegal burials, the village's elected leaders had refused to cede the land, an uninhabited, semi-forested area directly to the north and west of the cemetery.

Not any more.

At a council meeting two weeks ago, after checking with Quebec that there would be no opposition, the deal with Ottawa got Oka's unanimous approval. It went unreported until the government's announcement yesterday, however, as the two parties took pains to draft a carefully worded press statement.

"This is a significant purchase in regards to satisfying the requests from our community to expand the cemetery," said James Gabriel, grand chief of the Mohawk council of Kanesatake, the patchwork of lands settled by Mohawks and non-aboriginals. It is not an official reserve.

"Considering we've been putting the issue on the table for six or seven years, it's a very significant step," Gabriel said.

Montreal lawyer Eric Maldoff, the chief federal negotiator, said Ottawa has been trying to "target things that were the greatest sore points, things with the potential to reduce tension and so, put things on a more normal footing."

In an interview last night, he said: "Aside from its immense symbolic value, in terms of 1990, this attacks a core issue. The cemetery now is full and this land will be used very, very quickly to expand what's there."

Oka Mayor Jean Ouellette, who two years ago said the Mohawks were carrying out a "disguised appropriation" of the land with the connivance of the federal government, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But a federal source inside the negotiations said Ouellette, with his council's approval, already has met with the Quebec government, which, by law, must approve any contract signed between a municipality and Ottawa.

"Quebec has been encouraging the negotiators to settle this issue; it shouldn't take long to approve it now that the offer to purchase has been signed by everybody," the source said.

Since 1990, Ottawa has been buying non-aboriginal properties in Oka to create a continuous land base for the Mohawks, who number 1,200, and has been in extensive talks over land and self-government with the aboriginal community.

The Mohawks view the cemetery lands as part of their over-all claim to the Seigneury of the Lake of Two Mountains, a territory dating back to the French regime. The Seigneury claim covers more than 673 square kilometres, including many Montreal suburbs.

Settling the cemetery issue is a symbolic gesture, but no more than that, a source close to the Mohawk side of the negotiations said yesterday.

"It's a symbolic piece in the puzzle, but it is only one piece," she said.

"What's still in dispute is the entire original seigneury, which is huge; it goes all the way up to Mirabel. I mean, in comparison, 12,000 square metres is not that large."

There has not yet been an agreement on the final status of a consolidated Mohawk territory, said Gabriel, who has been grand chief since July 1996. But he is optimistic. "Over-all, negotiations with the federal government have been going very well in the past year and a half."

In December, Ottawa, Quebec and the Mohawks agreed to allow the aboriginal community to set up its own local police force. That deal was crucial in getting things moving again after years of mistrust fueled by the illegal burials on the disputed Oka land, said Maldoff, a corporate lawyer at the Montreal firm Martineau Walker.

"It was a very important step in starting to build more confidence among the parties and improve the over-all climate," especially the return to law and order in the community, he said last night from his office. "Progress is being made."