Kahnawake excludes students on basis of blood content
Windspeaker Staff
KAHNAWAKE, Que.
There was a new twist in the debate over Mohawk ancestry in Kahnawake when the local school authority moved to bar students not on the Mohawk Registry from the community's schools.
The directive affects 39 out of the 850 students now enrolled in Kahnawake who are considered to have less than 50 percent Mohawk blood.
The Kahnawake Education Centre issued the directive on instructions from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. The education centre isn't taking sides in the debate, reported The Eastern Door, a Kahnawake weekly paper. The centre's director, Mike Diabo, said the directive was motivated by political and not financial considerations. Essentially, the directive said students presently in school may finish the year but can't come back next year.
Privately, band officials say all students already in the system will be allowed to stay, but that no new non-registered students will be allowed to enter.
Students not on the community's Mohawk Registry were allowed to enter the Kahnawake school system after the 1990 Oka confrontation. There was concern for the children's safety if they were to go to an out-of-town school, but at the time the move was seen as being temporary. Not all of these students are still in the system.
The move by the school's authority comes in the midst of a long-standing debate within Kahnawake over membership in the band. At issue are concerns over assimilation and financial questions. The debate has been fueled by Bill C-31, which reinstated Native women who had lost their status, putting pressure on the band council to integrate new band members with the community's limited resources. Like many First Nations communties, Kahnawake is struggling to accommodate a ballooning population with inadequate federal funds for housing.
The memberhsip debate was further fueled when Kahnawake Peacekeeper Kyle Cross Brisebois was fired by the community's police force after he was ruled to have only 47 per cent Mohawk blood, less than the required 50 per cent.
Brisebois' ancestry was checked for seven generations to determine his blood quotient.
In a letter to The Eastern Door, Brisebois wrote, "Being a Mohawk is not about how much blood percentage you have. It is in your heart, it's a way of life and something you are born with or into. It is who you are, MOHAWK."
5/95
Racism complaints lodged against radio stationsBy Debora Lockyer
Windspeaker Staff Writer
KAHNAWAKE, Que.
Kahnawake councillor Billy Two Rivers is still waiting for a response from the CRTC regarding his complaint that two Quebec radio stations were in contravention of radio regulations when they broadcast racist and disparaging remarks about Indians over the airwaves.
The CRTC is investigating numerous complaints about program content from Chicoutimi radio station CJMT and CKRS of Jonquiere. The offending broadcasts were made as long ago as March 1993 and as recently as November (1994).
Two Rivers said Natives were often referred to as 'savages' on the air and, in the case of CJMT, listeners heard a regular contributor to the program suggest a good way of solving Quebec's problems would be to arm a couple of white people and kill a couple of Indians.
"I think there are going to have to be a couple of rifles that come out. And after that - I know the Indians, I've studied them for 500 years - the very minute one falls, the others flee," said CJMT's Serge Cloutier in a November 1994 broadcast.
Two Rivers said the stations have tried to make light of the remarks. He said someone even got a professor to say that 'savage' in Old French meant something that was free. But words change meaning over the years and the argument doesn't hold water, said Two Rivers. Today the word 'savage' has a derogatory connotation, he said.
Two Rivers isn't sure how the station intends to pass off the comments made by Cloutier.
"I have to ask:Who is the savage? In today's terms: Who is the savage?"
Cartoon meant to be commentary - artist
By Debora Lockyer
Windspeaker Staff Writer
SASKATOON
The reputation of Canada's only national daily newspaper took a nose-dive July 6 (1994) when the Globe and Mail published a cartoon many Native people found offensive.
"I think it's very racist," said Isadore Campbell, vice-chief of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council in Saskatchewan. "It's a direct shot at the Elders and a direct shot at Indian people as a whole." He said the attack infuriated him.
"I used to read the Globe and Mail everyday, until I saw this," Campbell said. The Globe and Mail is usually a credible newspaper, but now it's showing its true stripes, he added.
A group of Elders attending the Assembly of First Nations convention in Saskatoon took time to discuss the cartoon. They felt the paper was making fun of their culture.
The 'white man' likes to make jokes at the Native people's expense, one man said.
The Elders are the community leaders in all aspects, said Jerry Arshinov of the Plains Indian Cultural Survival School in Calgary.
"I really don't understand why the Globe and Mail would print such a cartoon. I always thought it was well above that kind of crap."
Arshinov said it was something one might expect from other newspapers, but not the Globe and Mail.
Tony Jenkins, the cartoonist, defended his work, saying it wasn't racist but based on fact or real life. He said the inspiration from the work came from a story about the Kahnawake community's rejection of a casino project. There are about 60 bands waiting in the wings to get into gaming.
Natives are into smoking, drinking and now gambling, Jenkins said. At one time, Elders would pass on information about hunting and trapping. Now the knowledge that will be passed down will be about gambling, the cartoonist said.
Jenkins attempts to take the political issues of the day and make people laugh and think. It's one man's opinion, and is expected to be taken with a grain of salt, he said. The intent wasn't to mock, but to shed light on a different viewpoint.
Globe and Mail Associate Editor Sarah Murdoch concurred. Racism is not allowed in the paper, but 'fair comment' is and Jenkins is given a lot of latitude, she said.
"If we thought it was hateful it wouldn't be allowed," Murdoch said.
The essence of editorial cartooning is to take an idea, simplify it and then exaggerate it, she explained. What results isn't always something that pleases, but it wasn't intended to be hurtful.
7/18-31/94
