February 5, 2010
Graham Hughes for National Post
KAHNAWAKE, QUE. -- It sounds like something from a distant, darker time. Acting on anonymous calls to a snitch line, authorities single out people on the basis of their race and order them to leave town. "We trust that you understand the seriousness of this letter and will govern yourself accordingly," the eviction letters conclude.
But it was just this week that the letters were delivered by Mohawk chiefs to non-natives residing in Kahnawake, a reserve southwest of Montreal. The recipients' offence was moving in with a Mohawk lover, and they were given 10 days to pack up. As news of the band council's action emerged, its political press attaché, Joe Delaronde, was on the defensive. "We sound like a bunch of Nazis here," he said this week, "but really, they shouldn't be here based on any law, Canadian or Kahnawake."
Kahnawake law is clear that racial inter-mingling is forbidden on the reserve. Since 1981, a moratorium on mixed marriages has said that any Kahnawake Mohawk who marries a non-native will lose the right to live on the reserve. The principle was reinforced in a 2004 Membership Law, which was aimed at "fulfilling our responsibility to defend our community and our Nation from external threat." The federal Indian Act allows First Nations to establish rules for band membership, and a Department of Indian Affairs spokeswoman told La Presse this week that the eviction controversy is an internal Kahnawake matter.
The argument against mixed marriages is sometimes framed in terms of dwindling space. There is a housing shortage on the reserve at the foot of one of the main bridges onto Montreal Island. But what really seems to be driving the latest evictions is a preoccupation with preserving Mohawk bloodlines and culture.
Grand Chief Mike Delisle said in an interview that Kahnawake takes a harder line on these issues than most other native communities. "There are other First Nations where, in my opinion, maybe it's too late," he said. "They have been overrun by outside marriage, and a lot of the community members as well as the leadership don't possess the type of lineage that Kahnawake demands." There are fears in Kahnawake of "complete integration" into Canadian society if nothing is done, he said.
Jeremiah Johnson, a 31-year-old small business owner in Kahnawake, this week started a Facebook page called "Non-natives out of Kahnawake?" He supports the band's initiative to expel non-natives. "We don't want to stay 300 years in the past, but we don't want to be assimilated into the mainstream world either. It's not our way and it's not how we think," he said. He understands that outsiders might say, " ‘Oh my God those racist Indians,' but when you're here and you see it from our point of view, what we have left and what we're fighting to hold onto, it really is an invasion."
Comments on the page so far tilt heavily in favour of the evictions. "I know there might be a few people in here who would object and say that love is love no matter what race," one woman wrote. "Don't date white people and you won't fall in love with them." Others have questioned why the band council has limited it to the roughly 25 people sent letters this week. "There are a lot more than 25 people," one woman wrote.
The debate is unsettling to the editor of The Eastern Door, Kahnawake's weekly newspaper. In an editorial yesterday, Steve Bonspiel said relying on anonymous complaints to identify evictees "reeks of an old-fashioned, gruesome witch-hunt." (The band council said it received about 100 complaints over the past 18 months.) "So, now that meddling in our neighbours' love lives is applauded as protecting the Nation, what will come next?" Mr. Bonspiel asked. The editorial was printed beneath a cartoon showing a mob with torches.
In an interview, Mr. Bonspiel said he finds the band council's approach hard to swallow. The names of those facing eviction have been kept confidential so far, but they are said to include long-time community volunteers and people who are caring for disabled or seriously ill partners. "I know non-natives who live here, who are married and have kids here, and they're contributing to the community. They're giving back," Mr. Bonspiel said. "They're not taking anything from the community, yet they will be targeted in the future if the Mohawk council continues along these lines."
Sandra Schurman, 44, has a distinct perspective on the debate. Her mother is Mohawk and her father white. She is allowed to live in Kahnawake but is not recognized as a member of the band, meaning she cannot vote in band elections. When she dies, she will not be allowed to be buried in the Kahnawake cemetery.
A few years ago, after the latest membership law was passed, she appeared before a council of elders seeking to be listed as a Kahnawake member. Her application was denied because she did not have the requisite four Mohawk great-grandparents; one of her great-grandmothers on her mother's side was half-Mohawk.
"They even had my family tree displayed on the overhead projector," she recalls of the hearing before the elders. "My great-grandmother grew up here, spoke Mohawk and raised her children here, but they wouldn't accept her [as Mohawk.]"
She finds it hypocritical, considering how common intermarriage was in the past. "There are many people on this reserve who claim full native ancestry who are running around with red hair or blond hair, so I'm not the only one," she said.
"I can totally understand them wanting to protect, because the elders are scared how this place is going to be in 50 years. There are going to be hardly any Mohawks left, things will be lost and it will be mostly white people in this town. I can understand that too, but at the same time it's like, c'mon, this town is half-white anyway."
Julius Grey, a Montreal lawyer who specializes in Charter of Rights cases, questions whether a policy like Kahnawake's could withstand a constitutional challenge. "I think it's time to challenge that whole nation that they can remove people on the basis of percentage of Indian blood or whatever," he said. If people identify themselves as Mohawk and follow certain cultural pracctices, that should be enough, he said.
The argument that drastic measures are required for survival does not wash. "I don't believe groups have a right to survive," Mr. Grey said. "I think individuals have a right to belong to groups. There is freedom of individual association. If they wish to make it survive, then they will survive. If some other people who do not qualify by blood wish to join, that will in fact improve their chances for survival."