September 22nd Update from Hazel Hill

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Well, did everyone get to watch the 2nd part of the show 'Indian Summer, the Oka Crisis' which aired tonight on CBC. I am so emotional right now and my thoughts are everywhere I don't know where to begin. Watching them come out of the pines and the brutality used against our people who were only doing exactly what we have all been doing or trying to do, and that is to uphold our Law, and protect the future of our people. I cried so hard it made me sick. Sick to know that nothing, in the last 16 years has changed in the thinking of the canadian government. Nothing in their attitude toward the original people of this land. The force they used then is the same force they used on April 20th when they came in to Kanonhstaton. They beat people, they had weapons drawn, and they had no care of whether or not we were entitled and justified in our stand.

I think the trauma of being tackled and kicked and kneed by the police on April 20th has finally surfaced. I had the opportunity to speak at Guelph University a couple of nights ago, and recounting what had happened on the day of the raid; and then watching the Oka movie tonight brought out all of that mixed emotional baggage I've been carrying around since then. What do you do with those emotions but let them go, and gain strength in knowing that the power that they give to each and everyone of us by their actions will be what defeats them. I didn't recall the date when the people came out of the pines in 1990, but when I noticed the date tonight when watching the show, and realized that the appeals court date is September 26th, it resounded deep within the pit of my stomach and the date echoed throughout my mind like the ripples from a rock being dropped in the lake.

Co-incidence? Who knows. Perhaps another attempt at utilizing certain dates in history in the hopes of re-creating an outcome that absolves them from having to take any responsibility for their actions. They never resolved anything then, and they have no intention of resolving anything now.

I am filled with such an unbelieveable anger at the ignorance of this so-called country of Canada and the treatment of our people that I am left with an emptiness and numbness inside. They have no remorse because they continue with the same practices today. They would rather kill us than look at what they have done to the very people who welcomed them, fed them, and who supported their very existance since their arrival. Why is it they can't see that the lands which they built their country, the resources that financed their empire, and the freedom that they enjoy today, was built on the backs of the Onkwehonweh, our ancestors. They call us criminals and terrorists and yet they forget that they are the decendants of people who were considered criminals and diseased and were sent to this continent because they were unwelcomed in their own. They are afraid to look in the mirror because they cannot handle the truth of what is staring back at them.

Today, we sit at a table and we talk, we negotiate, about trivial things like the return of a bobcat, about the noise and lights that bother our caledonia neighbours, about police buffer zones, and relationship building; and always, always it is about their needs and in the best interest of their people who are now occupying stolen lands. Since 1784 when the land was granted through the Haldimand in one hand, they stole it and gave it away from the other. Even the so called Indian Agents at the time who were suppose to be looking out for the interests of the Six Nations, were looking out solely for the interests of the squatters and their compensation of improvements that they made to the land. It is exactly the same policy they are working with today.

Never mind the fact that we didn't ask them to improve anything. We didn't ask them to come and squat on our land, and honestly, we don't give two squats on whether or not they've been compensated for it. They don't give two hoots about what they did to our people, the frauds they committed or the negligence and downright theft of the lands, our trust monies and our resources. It is and always will be what is best for, and how it serves them. Not once have they ever considered how their genocidal and assimilation practices have effected our people. Not once in their manipulative ways of frauding away our lands did they consider the effects that it would have on our environment, on our hunting and fishing and our respect and relationship with the land. Today they want us to consider our neighbours on how the land will be used and how it will effect them. Did they ever give consideration to our people when they stole our lands, built their towns and townships and left us boxed in on a little 'reserve'. Did they ask us before they stripped the earth of our trees and polluted our rivers with their industrial waste? Do they ask us as they continually develop lands that they know they have no title to. And yet they want us to consult with and work together with the people of caledonia before we even plant a tree at Kanonhstaton. They want us to bring down the flags because some people don't like the looks of them, or they find them offensive. I guess when they bring down all of their canadian flags flying around our country we may consider it. I don't know if they've learned anything or not over the past several decades. I know they hoped that by now we would have been good little Indians and succumbed to the ways of the white man because afterall, they were the dominate and better race. They had to save us from our heathenistic ways, even ordering fumigation of our community hall after any of our gatherings and ceremonies. They had to beat our children out of using our language because it was for our own good. Why, they even had to steal our children and place them in residential schools so their ministers could rape our young women and educate us to their ways to make us a better people. They had to use their guns and force to bring in their Indian Act because it would help us to govern ourselves in a way that was more appropriate and more civilized than the Kaienerekowah, the law given to us by the Creator. They had to save us from our spiritual practices because they were considered evil.

Today, that word is still being used by some when referring to our Confederacy Council and the Onkwehonweh. We are an evil people because we dare to resist colonialism and oppression. We dare to hold on to the original teachings and Law that supercedes any man made laws. We dare to uphold our obligation and responsibility that was given to us not only for our own good, but also for the good of all of Creation, including all of the other races of the world. We are an evil people because we dare to resist the Indian Act and the imposition of foreign laws by our modern day indian agents. If upholding and respecting the oldest and purest law of peace and light and love makes us evil, then I guess that is what we are.

That Indian Act is still their trump card because they're hoping that that is what will continue to divide our people. It has been working since 1924, and they are counting on that to hold true. They are counting on us to get tired of the stall tactics that they use at the negotiations. They are hoping that if they wait long enough, we'll turn on each other and this will all go away. But I have faith in the people of Six Nations. I have faith that our people will realize that this fight is not between the Confederacy and the Band Council. This is about centuries of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical abuse and manipulation. It is about the arrogance and downright superioristic attitude of a race of people who abandoned the very Peace that we are trying to protect, who turned their back on their Messenger and hung him on a cross; all for a semblance of power and righteousness. Not in the spirit of which it was intended, but in the means of dominance and control and monetary gain.

They take innocent men and women and create armies and invade other countries all in the name of Peace. They have not learned that all of the riches of the world will never give them the peace that is suppose to come from within. I am asking all of the Six Nations people and our supporters to remember and look to that Peace that is within. Remember that if we continue to walk the path that the Creator set us on this earth to do, to uphold and respect the Peace with each other as we were instructed, and to remember those 5 arrows that He bound together as ONE in UNITY; that we will succeed in our duties of protecting the future for our generations to come, and we will have honoured the Creator in doing so. It does not matter if you support the elective system or confederacy council. If you go to church or follow the traditions of the longhouse. It doesn't matter if you're Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneido or Onondaga, Tuscarora or any of the other Nations who have taken shelter under the umbrella of that great tree. As Onkwehonweh we have a responsibility that cannot be left to our children or our grandchildren to deal with. We are the original united nations, the keepers of Peace, and we must continue to inflict peacein whatever we do. Having said all that, I only have one thing left to say, Peace on you Canada!

Hazel