Police Barricade opposite the Mohawk Barricade, July 10 1990. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia.
|
About an hour outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada a small band of Mohawk stood up for their land rights. The small town of Oka was originally Mohawk land and included burial grounds. The town built a golf course and in 1990, they wanted to expand the golf course onto the Mohawk burial grounds. Starting in March, the Mohawk built a blockade to keep bulldozers away from the land. By June, a protest camp was established and warriors patrolled the area. In July, the mayor of Oka called the Quebec provincial police in. An early morning raid left one police officer dead and the police retreated. Other First Nations communities in Canada joined in solidarity and blockaded roads and railways as far away as British Columbia. Canada cut off food and supplies to the Mohawk and sent in the Canadian Armed Forces on August 20th. The military negotiated a deal for the Mohawk to take the blockades down and the town to permanently cancel the golf course expansion. This event led to the creation of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, set up to improve communication and cooperation between First Nations and governments across Canada.
|