At the end of the 1980s I had heard that there was a problem at Oka, north of Montreal, over the boundary of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) reserve Kanehsatà:ke, and I tried to get the Montreal Gazette to let me do a story. No luck. The same thing happened with the Toronto Star over Ipperwash. It became a violent conflict setting Quebec Police and later the Canadian Army against Mohawks, including the Warrior Society, which had supported casinos that were operating in Akwesasne.
Quebec Provincial Police rush towards Kahnawà꞉ke Mohawk Territory
RCMP tactical officers near border post on Cornwall Island, Akwesasne, 1990.
Kanienʼkehá꞉ka elder Sakokweniokwas (Tom Porter) removes caterpillars by hand from apple tree at his home in Akwesasne during Oka Crisis, 1990. I think he may have released them somewhere where they could find something to eat.
SS recruitment poster transformed into an anti Warrior Society poster. The Warrior Society sometimes called itself the Mohawk Sovereignty Security Force, which its opponents named the Mohawk SS Force - there had been objections to the Warrior Society name from some Mohawks because there was a veterans' association with a similar name, and that the Mohawk language did not have a word for someone who made warfare a way of life except for loan words from European languages. Shortly before the Oka Crisis there was an armed conflict in Akwesasne between a pro-gaming faction which the Warrior Society supported and the Anti (Gaming) faction, and some Mohawks said that the Warriors used Oka as a way of rehabilitating themselves in the eyes of the Mohawk public.
RCMP and Quebec provincial police check cars at the border between Quebec and New York State in St. Regis.
