A defiant group of Kanesatake Mohawks erected a sign on 150-year-old pine trees yesterday instructing a developer not to build houses on disputed land across the street from their ancestral burial ground, which was the flashpoint of the 1990 Oka crisis.

"Our ancestors planted those trees. It is part of our land claim and we are going to defend what is ours," said Maria, a Mohawk woman who refused to give her last name.

She and a handful of other residents of Kanesatake, about 55 kilometres west of Montreal, turned up on Highway 344 yesterday, just minutes after three men had arrived to cut down a few pine trees that the land's owner says are in danger of falling on a neighbouring property.

But the Mohawks' message was clear: They don't want any non-natives cutting down pine trees on the 9,290-square-metre piece of land.

"We have chain saws, and if it is dangerous, we will take care of it," Maria said to Luc Côté, a manager at Norfolk Finance, the company that bought the land 18 months ago for $200,000.

After listening to the Mohawks' objections, Côté and two workers with him left the property yesterday without felling a single tree.

Twenty years ago, Mohawks were involved in a 78-day standoff with police and the army during what became known as the Oka crisis, which occurred after Oka town council wanted to expand a golf course on to the Pines, a tree-covered land adjacent to the burial ground.

The Kanesatake band council referred to events during the 1990 Oka crisis when it sent a letter last month to Norfolk's owner, Normand Ducharme, demanding he not develop the land.

"The Mohawk Council would like to prevent a repeat of the events similar to those of 1990 by having an open dialogue with you and the appropriate authorities in order to resolve our issues in an expeditious manner," the letter said, adding that they would be happy to provide Ducharme with historical information about Mohawk land claims in the area.

After receiving the letter from the band council, Ducharme wrote back to say he was prepared to meet with the council to discuss the situation. He said he is still waiting for a reply.

Kanesatake Grand Chief Sohenrise Paul Nicholas was not available for comment yesterday.

Ducharme said yesterday he was surprised that Mohawks are objecting to the development of the land, which calls for three homes to be built on the property.

"The land that is sensitive (the burial grounds and the Pines) is across the street," he said. "There are no legal claims (filed) on my land. The land is our property and I am within my rights, according to the Quebec Civil Code."

Ducharme said he is waiting for the town of Oka to deliver cadastral numbers before trees are cleared to make way for driveways and foundations for the three houses.

Ducharme said he may construct the houses himself or sell the land to a developer, who will do the building.

He said he doesn't know what he will do if Mohawks try to block his men from working on the land. "It is their rights against mine," he said of the Mohawks. "I don't have an army with me. It is a question of civil rights."

Signs of potential trouble over the disputed land surfaced in November, a few weeks after For Sale signs were erected on the property.

Local Mohawks attached Warrior Society and Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy flags to the pine trees in Kanesatake, a community of 1,400 residents.

Ducharme said he understands the Mohawks claim the land as their own, but added: "If there is a problem with ancestral rights, the Canadian government should do what it has to do."

The federal government has given him no indication it plans to buy the land and give it to the Mohawks, Ducharme noted. "Ottawa may have promised them things, but that has nothing to do with me," he said.