Twenty years later, a Kanesatake Mohawk recalls the infamous standoff against the SQ and the army
Almost 20 years ago, the serene hiking paths of Oka, just northwest of Montreal, were interrupted by a 78-day armed standoff between Mohawk warriors and a tag team of police and soldiers. The crisis was triggered when the town of Oka gave the green light to developers to expand a golf course onto pineland and burial grounds the Mohawk community of Kanesatake had been trying to reclaim for years. Clifton Nicholas was 17 when the Oka Crisis galvanized his community and marked a turning point in native struggles for self-determination in Canada.
“It injected some much needed courage to stand up and fight,” says Nicholas. “I was scared and proud the whole summer. Proud that my people were united standing up for a common cause but frightened that the police might come in and kill somebody.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment