MNN Indigenous Backbone Applauded

6.6.09

MNN - June 3 2009. As long as we stand up for peace, democracy, human rights and sovereignty, we will win. We can’t be enslaved, even if the colonist war lords put guns to our heads. Historically, millions of us were killed for resisting subjugation.

We will not let them put guns in the middle of Akwesasne. Because we are standing up to tyranny our community is being held hostage. It’s still closed down. We still can’t get on or off unless we walk. A few cars are let through the police blockades.

War lords think all they have to do is hire heavily armed guards and police to beat us into submission. It’s not working on us or anyone else. Everyone is starting to stop bending to these monsters. The colonists have seen their bosses give themselves million dollar bonuses and raises. The whole capitalist machine is coming to a grinding halt.

We Indigenous have to be treated respectfully. If not, we will fold our arms, cross our legs, sit down, do nothing and say, “I’m not going to be moved”. For hundreds of years our colonial visitors have been watching us resist abuse. At first they were scared and resented us. They couldn’t stand to see us running around free and suffering the consequences. They wanted us to be in the cage with them. They learned we can’t compromise our will. Even they are starting to take on this spirit. “Treat me right or else”.

Megalomaniacs beating their employees doesn’t work anymore. They are going to lose everything, businesses, properties, companies and whatever.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a promise in the last election to give border guards guns, to toughen laws against child molesters and keep young people in jail longer. He’s going to make everybody tow the line, so he thinks.

Harper is finding out that if he has no compassion, no one will back him up or work hard for him. It’s like beating a slave. If they refuse to obey, Harper says, “Put them in jail, take all their money and give it to the rich”.

He’s imitating Obama, who says, “If you can’t cut it, then starve to death”. If you’re poor, it’s your fault.

In the US, if you make it big, you can stomp everybody. Pop culture reflects this mentality. It’s fire them, kill them or knock them off the boat or island to drown in the water. Survival of the fittest and to hell with the losers! This self-centered attitude is destroying them.

The poor are starting to say, “I’m not moving”. No matter how hard you beat me, you can only kill me once. Our colonial visitors are getting stubborn like us against their oppressors. Rich guys’ factories are closing down, cars can’t be built and sweat shops are being closed.

GM, the largest company in the world, is going bankrupt. The workers refuse to be slaves anymore. They would-be slave owners did away with many unions so they could take advantage of the poor. People are not spending money, mostly because many don’t have it.

Like the Depression, the poor in the US and some parts of Canada are living in tent cities, slums and alleys. They are out of work with gaunt faces like a third world country.

Harper wants to import this social and economic disaster into Canada. Canadians think differently. They’ve been influenced by the Indigenous egalitarian philosophy in which people don’t threaten one another, try to work things out and help each other. In Canada there are more social programs and medicare.

A top Canadian Border Services Agency official has allegedly agreed to meet with us. They found they can’t dictate to us. Their union ordered the guards to walk off the job on June 1. Both US and Canadian border crossings have been shut down. It is so peaceful on Cornwall Island. Maybe it will stay that way for good. They think we are suffering because they cut us off from them. We don’t miss them at all!

CBSA president Stephen Rigby is still saying they intend to arm the guards no matter what. The Mohawks say never.

CBSA officers are willing to take cultural sensitivity training. We will teach them how to work without guns, how to smile at us and keep their slimy hands off us. Some guards at the customs building are "hotheads" and racists against us who try to provoke us into confrontations. Guards with guns will make some of them even more dangerous than they already are.

There are suggestions that the check points could be moved off Cornwall Island. Good idea!

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, whose oversees the border crossing, said arming of the guards will go as planned when the Mohawks agree to peacefully allow armed goons onto their territory. We know it’s all a Trojan Horse. They come in and sit inside the walls. While we’re asleep, the soldiers will come in and kill us. These people have already shown how much they hate us. Hundreds have been brutalized. How can anybody have that much hatred? It’s not our way.

Canada knows they can come over and talk to us anytime. Those affected by the bridge closing and the general public on both sides of the border see that the Mohawks are right. Canada doesn’t see that we represent all those everywhere who are standing up to tyranny. They are applauding us.

514-269-1400. Contact Chief Nona Benedict 613-551-5421 613-938-8145 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca, go to www.akwesasne.ca

. Chief Wesley Benedict 613-551-2573; Larry King 613-551-1930; Chief Joe Lazore 613-551-5292.