'So I look like a murderer?' asks Mohawk

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Kanesatacke Mohawk Harvey Nicholas reacts angrily and swiftly to criticism of his people. He takes criticism of Warriors personally.

"Do I look like a murderer? Do I look like some kind of an animal? I don't think so. I'm fighting for my land. I'm protecting what I've got. We have to stand up for our rights.

A senior Indian affairs official, Harry Swain, said recently the Warriors were "a gang of criminals" who had hijacked negotiations at Kanesatake.

And some reporters have painted very unflattering pictures of them implying they are nothing more than thugs with ties to organized crime.

"We're not animals to act like this. It's like we're in another country. This is not Oka. This is not Kanestake any more. We've got armed peel down there, who are looking at us like we're just about ready to attack. They're trying to make people believe we're like that. But we're not, we're not bad people. We never meant harm to anybody," said Nicholas, who is always ready with a hello for journalists behind the lines and willing to help line up interviews. "This is the fault of the mayor of Oka. He sent the troops and they came in here armed to the teeth shooting at us. There were women and children who were going to have breakfast in that camp when they started shooting. They came here to kill us," he said in an interview behind the Mohawk blockade.

Quebec Native Affairs Minister John Ciaccia sent the Mohawks a letter the day before the attack promising it wouldn't happen, said Nichoas. "The next morning we were attacked." The children were but a hundred yards away, he said.

He has harsh words for Premier Robert Bourassa and the government of Canada. "He (Bourassa) comes over here, tries to kill his Native people, shoots at us, throws concussion grenades and then he expects to negotiate for new dams up north (in the James Bayu area of Quebec) to make their pockets bigger. Now they're thinking of separation. Well, they've go to think about the Native people in Canada."

With other reports circulating about another attack on the blockade imminent, he warns "if there's any more bloodshed, the government will have to pay a heavy duty (price)."

"We want to negotiate, but they don't want to genocide," he said.

"I hope the federal government listens. We don't need a bloodbath. We've go to sit down and talk. This isn't working out."

"I get up in the morning and go to the blockade. I've got my binoculars looking down at the police. The police are down there with their binoculars looking at me. We've got guns pointed at each other. This isn't Canada. This is like when the Berlin Wall was up."

"I don't even believe I'm doing this."

The incident has put Oka and Kanesatake on the map, but also made Canadians and government sit up and take serious notice of Native concerns, he said.

"We open the door. Now let's get down to talking. It'd be better talking than shooting. We never wanted to shoot. We never wanted to be the aggressor. They shot at us."

He refutes any suggestion the Mohawks are responsible for the death of Cp;. Marcel Lemay, 31, in the July 11 assault on the Mohawk blockades.

"We never shot directly. If we would have shot directly more than half would have fell. We shot at them over their heads and they ran. They really ran. They left their vehicles."

He suggested Lemay was felled by a bullet from a 2-22. "We don't carry 2-22s. We have AK-47 assault rifles. They're very good weapons. They're good for the bush."

The Quebec government insists Lemay was not killed by a police bullet.

Nicholas rejected charges of disunity at Kanesatake. "We're very close. We're all working together."

Ad he dismissed charges the Warriors have taken control of the community. "We need the Warriors to protect us. Without them, the police would have ran us right over. They did that before. They keep coming back. That's the third time they did that to us. Now we fought back," he said.

Nicholas was angered at Quebec's attempt to starve the anesatake residents into surrendering. Government policy in the first two weeks of the blockade securely restricted the flow of food and medicine to the Mohawks.

"When the white man came (to Canada), they were starving and we fed them, we clothed them we trained them how to survive in the winter and we fed their kids. This is the thanks we get from Quebec, try to starve us out. This isn't a free country. It's run by lunatics.

"It (the policing) costs them $1 million a day. If they can afford a million a day, we can hold up. It would have been cheaper if we had sat and talked. White people like to spend money, so they're spending money."

Asked where Canadians Indians will be five years from now, he said "I hope we're not here. I hope we won't be fighting. I hope we don't have to pick up arms to talk any more and that Canada will listen."

Nicholas offered thanks to the Native people of Western Canada, who were so quick to support the Mohawks. "I hope they will stick with us. We do think of them and if they ever have any problems, we will be up there if needed. We're all Indians, we all got to stick together. We're all brothers."