The grand chief of the Kanesatake Mohawks said Monday the band council does not condone the actions of young band members who rammed two police cruisers early Saturday and set up fiery roadblocks on the highway near Oka, west of Montreal.
After a band council meeting, Chief Paul Nicholas said community leaders are looking for solutions to the problem, and will meet again on Thursday.
Quebec provincial police said a speeding car was stopped on Kanesatake territory Friday night, and pepper spray was used when the occupants were arrested.
A couple of hours later, police said, trucks smashed into two cruisers on a road outside Kanesatake. Then about a dozen people blocked highway 344 leading into Kanesatake for several hours.
Investigators are trying to determine if the incidents are linked, and whether charges will be laid.
Nicholas said he's saddened and disappointed by what happened, but is willing to listen to both sides.
In 1990, a dispute developed over native burial grounds at Oka, and sparked a 78-day standoff between the Mohawks and police supported by the army. It became known as the Oka Crisis.
Provincial police Cpl. Marcel Lemay was shot and killed during the standoff.