Caledonia'"Lord of The Flies" Strategy At Six Nations

[Gayogoho]

03.09.2006 08:09:41

"The Lord of the Flies"

CALEDONIA’S “LORD OF THE FLIES” STRATEGY AT SIX NATIONS

MNN. Sep. 2, 2006. We bought an interesting video* on Thursday, August 31, at the Six Nations information session at the Montreal Native Friendship Center. The land and historic issues behind the reclamation of land at Six Nations were well explained. It showed how, early in the land dispute, hundreds of young people from the nearby non-native town of Caledonia were lured to the Indigenous barricade by such enticements as beer, marshmallows and hot dogs. At first the kids were reasonable and talked about how they wanted to organize things. As the night wore on, things started to break down. The crowd became loud and raucous. Soon they were reverting to their lowest instincts, mostly racial hatred, in this case. These sorts of behavior usually come out when people are abused in a hierarchical society that doesn’t care for those at the bottom of human society. It is nurtured behavior.

This breakdown of social order and disrespect for fellow human beings reminded us of those kids in the famous film, “Lord of the Flies”. All those kids were British, from rich families and went to private boarding schools. Their plane crash landed on an island. In the jungle they eventually reverted to behavior that reflected the way they had been mistreated in their boarding schools.

As indigenous people we know something about the problems caused by boarding schools which were modeled on the British system. They were designed to shape children so they could grow up to commit genocide. True to form the children in the film started to kill each other off.

The Caledonia youth became increasingly angry. They didn’t know how to deal with difficulties without vilifying each other. Their models of social order is based on a quest for dominance.

The Caledonians became excited and worked themselves up to a fever pitch. All their lives they have been oppressed. Here, for once, they were not the target. They had a chance to experience the other side of the evil hierarchical game. As the evening wore on, the kids got drunker. They started to realize they were being empowered by authority and their ravings towards Indians became increasingly hysterical. One girl who began by crossing back and forth between both sides got caught up in the frenzy of her Caledonian neighbors. The cops had harassed her when she tried to follow her natural instinct to play a mediating role.

Whoever organizes these events knows how to incite this aggression inside of these young people. They know how to foment riots, trouble and get people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. They wanted to turn their aggression onto the intended victims, in this case, the Indigenous people. The kids were frustrated by the police blockades which stopped them from getting home or made them travel 35 miles out of their way. They correctly identified the police blockades and not the “Indians” as the problem. Whoever was fomenting civil disobedience deftly manipulated their frustration into hatred of “Indians”.

Some lost control. Unobstructed, uncivilized behavior became the norm. Their thinking became irrational. They clutched at straws and imagined mountainous cultural barriers where there was nothing but molehills. With a little help, no doubt! They went from one extreme to another about the land issues and the “Indians”. Their cultivated hatred of “Indians” began to blossom. These kids have been told what to do all their lives. Now all of a sudden they're important because they put Caledonia on the map with their unruly behavior. After their hangover, if they thought about what they did, they would probably have been embarrassed, we hope. Unfortunately, though, they’re probably too indoctrinated. “Indians” have become their scapegoats every time they stub their toe.

In the meantime, the Indigenous people were sober and stayed peaceful, just watching the craziness. Drugs and alcohol are not allowed on the Indigenous site. We have a lot to be proud of.

R.G., from a union in Hamilton, stated that these instigators are set up by the "political police". He has seen this in both Canada and the US. They organize others to intimidate anyone who shows signs of independent thinking. While they prime the rioters to attack, they unsettle their victims. For example, the first story was that the police were being withdrawn from Six Nations/Caledonia during the Labor Day weekend, at which time they could bring in the skinheads and allow a riot to take place. Then the army would be called in to declare martial law.

After the MNN story on the “vigilantes” became public, the state had to change its course and send in extra police. On Friday night, September 1, three busloads of skinheads were stopped from going to Six Nations to stir up trouble. Now the police have to make sure there is no riot.

The Toronto Globe & Mail on September 2nd states, “Residents are ready to turn their guns on the Indigenous People”. This message is repeated a few times in the story by Alex Dobrota for those who did not get it the first time. Who knows! Someone who is weak minded may pick up a gun and start shooting! Mayor of Caledonia, Marie Trainor, said that two women told her they are, “Ready to arm themselves and clean it up since nobody else will”. The instigators get vulnerable people to do the dirty work. If things backfire, the mobs take the blame. The people who create the situation always get off Scot-free, i.e. Ipperwash where the Ontario Premier Mike Harris got away with murder.

Indian Affairs called a meeting after they received the August 25th MNN vigilantes story. They had a big problem on their hands. They’d been found out. If anything happens, they will be held accountable. Parliament is reconvening at the end of the summer. Their committees will be investigating what’s been going on all summer. Now the Opposition can ask some stiff questions.

R.G. understands the difficulties of oppressed social classes like the Caledonians. Their manipulators have made them feel they are one notch above “Indians” in the hierarchical order. Colonial society is designed to enslave them. The only difference is the kids don’t know what’s happening. We do. We refuse to be enslaved. The Six Nations people have always challenged this idea that social order has to be hierarchical. We are the original democrats on Turtle Island.

The Caledonians are angry and upset about having to reinvent themselves. They bought houses on the Haldimand Tract which were cheap because there was no clear title. Crooks conned them into thinking this would not be a problem. The fear that they will lose all their homes and their savings feeds their hysteria. Their houses have gone down drastically in value and they’re blaming us. They aren’t asking why they were misled by the Ontario government. This is the same government that paid off Henco, who were knowingly involved in the con game.

To resolve issues, Canadian institutions use force to deflect attention to the real questions. R.G. saw that the solution is not to oppress us. An alliance between the Indigenous people and the unions is needed if the abuse of people like the Six Nations and the Caledonians is going to stop. Like my father and family, most of the Iroquois belong to these unions and know what it means to be a hard worker and to be loyal to our fellow members. None of the mainstream media have published the fact that many large unions support the Six Nations. The unions understand the complicity between government institutions, developers, multi national corporations, banks and the armed forces in the oppression of all people of Canada. Unions have been fighting this for hundreds of years.

Canada officially endorsed the principle of human equality in Section 15 of the Constitution Act, 1982. This means the law and the way people relate to each other has to change. Canada and its provinces have to sit down and talk to us as equals.

To have a good look at the conflict, there needs to be a public inquiry about the history of land title at Caledonia and Six Nations. We have to go right back to the beginning. The first survey was the Jones Survey where the boundaries of the Six Nations territory and the surrounding counties were set out. [This is probably in the Land Claims Office at Six Nations].

There also needs to be a public investigation into Henco Industries which tried to illegally build a housing project on Six Nations land. Henco and Ontario knew that the title of that land known as “Douglas Creek Estates” was not valid. Henco was conning people into buying luxurious homes on land it didn't have title to. Henco wrote to the Six Nations band council and went ahead with construction even though they did not get a reply. There’s plenty of hard evidence on this fraud.

The Supreme Court of Canada has staunchly upheld the principle of human equality. It knows that sorting things out is an ongoing process. Canadians and Indigenous people have to work together to come up with a solution that is equal and fair. This can't happen when the Canadian government institutions are supporting fraud. The days of colonial oppression are over.

The people of Ontario ended up paying over $15 million in compensation to Henco for this duplicity. Ontario is trying to plaster over the fraud. It’s like putting new aluminum siding over rotten wood. Henco may have also knowingly destroyed an archaeological site and a gravesite. Desecrating graves is a criminal offence. They should be investigated and charged.

The opportunists and oppressors are pushing for this issue to generate into a fight between the people of Six Nations and Caledonia. They want to divert attention away from the real issue of the phony title and theft of land. The megalomaniacs want to build more houses to bring more people into the same false title situation as in Caledonia. If it's true that Jane Stewart, former Minister of Indian Affairs, who sits at the table on the “negotiations” with Six Nations, wants to build 23,500 houses at Paris Ontario overlooking the Grand River, it’s loathsome. Is there a doctor in the house? This woman’s head needs to be examined!

Other developers on the Haldimand Tract [southern Ontario] must be hysterical now! Our questioning of their schemes will interfere with their fantasy of having obscene buckets of money. There is a basic standard of decency that is not being met here in relations with Indigenous people. These developers don't really have to die and take enormous pots of money to heaven or hell! They have caused serious problems for us and other people here on earth. Look what they’ve done to the Grand River! They’ve turned it into a sewer that has killed who knows how many people, animals and natural life. Cleaning the rotten wood out of Canadian governmental institutions will pave the way for cleaning the environment.

Kahentinetha Horn

MNN Mohawk Nations News

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*Video: Struggle for the Land. Footage of and Statements from Participants of the Six Nations Land Reclamation (April – June 2006). http://auto_sol.tao.ca - [email protected]

poster: Thahoketoteh