Alberta Indians back Mohawks

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The IAA and Indian bands across Alberta have thrown their support behind the blockade of a rural road near the town of Oka, Quebec by Mohawk Warriors.

The Lubicon Indians of northern Alberta were one of the first bands from the province to publicly offer their support to the Montreal area Indian band on Kanesatake Reserve.

"The Mohawks have been given no choice but to exercise the internationally recognized right of self-defense," said Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak, who hopes the dispute can be settled without more violence.

The Kanesatake Mohawks have defied a court order, which ordered the blockade removed.

Oka Mayor Jean Ouellette ordered Quebec provincial police to remove the barricade and they stormed the four-month-old Native blockade July 11 to enforce a court injunction that would allow the municipality of Oka to expand the golf course by nine holes. A gunfight erupted leaving Corporal Marcel Lemay dead.

The proposed site is located on 22 hectares of land claimed by the Mohawks.

Since the shooting both sides have been locked in an armed standoff.

But RCMP officers and Canadian armed forces units have been moved into the area surrounding the Mohawk blockade. It's feared the standoff will erupt in another gun battle if the federal government doesn't intervene.

Kahnawake Mohawks have blockaded the heavily-used Mercier Bridge in support of the Kanesatake Mohawks.

Lawrence Courtoreille, Alberta spokesman for the Assembly of First Nations, said national blockages by Canadian Natives are inevitable and civil war could start if further violence occurs at Oka.

He said railways and main highways running through Indian reserves could be shut down.

Blaming the federal government for not intervening at Oka, Courtoreille said if Indian people are shot at Oka, tensions would mount across the country.

Already 10 Indian bands in British Columbia have blocked roads and highways in that province in support of the Mohawks.

And in Alberta Chief Caroline Beaverbone of O'Chiese Reserve blasted the federal government for its silence on the Oka situation.

"Listening to the news I'd say a lot of people across the country are angry. It doesn't look good at all for them (Ottawa) to sit back and do nothing," said Beaverbone.

She said a letter of support from O'Chiese Band was faxed to the Mohawks at Kanesatake.

"We must do the same thing we did with Elijah Harper and back the Mohawks as much as we can, not as far as all-out war, but they must be supported," Beaverbone said.

Bigstone Band Chief Chucky Beaver also supports the Mohawks.

"If it takes people of the first nations to be aggressive in order to be heard, so be it.

"We've negotiated and sat down with both levels of government over the years but nothing is ever resolved for the aboriginal peoples of this country, except to be ignored."

"It's time for us to be recognized and dealt with fairly and the government of this country must fulfill it's obligation to the treaties. We support the Mohawk's position at Oka," Beaver said.

In the prepared statement the IAA said it supports the heroic efforts and the Six Nations traditional and hereditary chiefs of the Kanesatake Mohawk Nation.

"The prime minister of Canada and the federal Indian Affairs minister must immediately become involved directly to resolve this issue of Indian lands," said the release.

Indian Association of Alberta president Regena Crowchild said the federal government is dodging its responsibility.

"It is the federal government's responsibility to insure land claims by first nations' people are adequately dealt with and they are not doing this," she said.

But she declined comment when asked whether discrimination against Native people is rising across the country because of the Oka crisis. But she noted non-Natives are angry with the Mohawks "but also at the provincial(Quebec) government because they are not dealing with the problem at Oka.

Lubicon lawyer James O'Reilly said it was only a mattr of time before Quebec Indians rallied o demand their land claims be recognized. Land entitlement has become the most heated issue for Indian bands across the country, he said.

O'Reilly who has represented the Lubicons in their land-claim dispute with the federal and provincial governments, has also worked closely with bands in Quebec.

The disputed Mohawk land was granted to Sulpician missionaries in 1717 by the governor of New France to build a church for local Indians.

The Mohawks have always maintained it was theirs to begin with.

Several court ruling within the last century have ignored aboriginal rights to the land, but concluded the land should be used in the best interests of the Mohawks.