STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Fluttering yellow tape
It was the spirit of the wind, sending me a message: “It’s time. You need to take those steps, and you need to move forward.” Not just moving forward on this bridge but truly moving forward on my path.
Those are our orders
One night, we tried to get in after work and there were big crowds of like 200 people at all the checkpoints. We didn’t even try coming in, so we went back to Valleyfield and found a parking lot to stay in. Maybe two or three in the morning, we heard knocking on the window and we were surrounded by the SQ.
Always something
There was another time when it was a hot day, and our bus was taking us down St. Germain Road to the back of the monastery where we were supposed to be meeting government officials for another day of negotiations. When we arrived, the SQ was there waiting for us.
Ice water in our veins
Our big negotiation was that we wanted food and medicine let in passed the barricades, as well as international observers. When we talked to news reporters about these demands and concerns, they took it as us saying we just wanted all of the land back. They totally misconstrued everything.
Pivotal moment in Indigenous history
In 1990, the people thought we’d just get arrested; we didn’t expect to be shot at. We didn’t know that the SWAT team would be the ones to do the politician’s dirty work or that they would open fire upon us.
Restore the friendship
When they had the crisis in Kanesatà:ke back in 1990, a lot of people had bad feelings towards us. So, we had powwows to restore the friendship. We said, “Come and find out for yourself.” And they did find out. They never dealt with people so friendly.
Echoes of a proud nation
We decided we would choose the second weekend in July to commemorate what had happened that weekend in 1990. We also chose to host the powwow in the same area that the army had tried to invade in Kahnawà:ke, honouring the resilience of our community.
Those guns won’t stop me
In 1990, we didn’t have any supplies in Kahnawà:ke because of the blockades. My husband Jimmy had a boat and my sister, Melissa, wanted to go shopping so Jimmy said, “Well okay Mel, get in my boat and I’ll take you.” She got on at Johnson’s Beach, and when they were halfway to the store, they had to land where the old movie theatre was in Dorval.
Gun to gun
Around the first of July, 1990, we went to Kanesatake. We set up patrols and camped out right there in the Pines. We didn’t expect the police to come the way they did. We thought the town workers from Oka were going to come up with chainsaws and bulldozers to start cutting down the trees and bulldoze the graves. That’s not what happened.
Tell them not to shoot
In 1990, in the middle of August, a month after the Kanesatake resistance began, I was at work. I was a council member.
How to run a powwow
We had a big problem here in Kahnawake and Kanesatake way back in 1990. After everything was over and the dust settled, we tried to reconcile with the neighbours and surrounding communities. We sent out an olive branch, figuratively.