Thoughts of an elderly Mohawk man
Sometime in the 1960’s, Little Jimmy Dickens sang a song about a man who chased and caught a pretty woman and chickened out when the woman said, yes!. When the man refused [her advances], the woman said: “if you can’t bite; don’t growl”! That phrase sounds a lot like the non action antics going on around the Six Nations of the grand river as this note is being typed.
The author has been informed by several local residents that some mischief is afoot concerning the ongoing, age old confrontation between the legal government [elected council] of the Big Six and its arch opponent [the old chiefs council]. These two entities have each governed here at least once.
The chiefs council governed in the late 1800’s until 1924 when the chiefs council was given its walking papers by the new Six Nations elected council; which has governed continuously since 1924 until here in 2021, [97 years]. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to see that the current elected council is much more adept at governing the Rez than the old chiefs council which appears to lacks any modem of governing ability.
By taking a look at the recently concluded McKenzie Meadows fiasco, one can or should be able to clearly discern that the well reported on, land dispute was, in reality some followers of the chiefs council trying to claim that the chiefs were in control of the situation and were the real government along the grand river.
Everyone who knows how governments function knew that the Feds and the province would never go to Caledonia and talk with the unorganized mish-mash of native and non native people who occupied the housing project.
Governments talk to governments; a reality that continued on even as the malcontents in the meadows were attempting to say that they, were in charge.
The media personnel who devoted their time to the occupation must have known or should have known that there was much more to the story than what was actually being said regarding the incident. However; most modern news outlets are more interested in selling sensationalism than reporting on the truth of an incident like the McKenzie Meadows situation.
Way back in 1995 while the Ipperwash Incident was underway here in Ontario; it seemed like every newspaper and television station in the country had at least one reporter covering the land dispute and reported both sides of the story 24/7. And yet; while all eyes were on Ipperwash, the RCMP in British Columbia had 100 ERT teams and one battalion of soldiers from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment backed up by 9 Armoured Personnel Carriers and 7 combat helicopters using a small number of Indians as live targets in live fire exercise/standoff at the same time. Who knew? Almost no one, as the RCMP media relations office controlled every news story coming out of the area.
That story went almost unnoticed at the time because the media was controlled. At the McKenzie Meadows incident, the media was give free reign to report on anything which appeared to be news worthy; but never reported the truth of who was fighting whom. During the B C standoff, during a news release about telling the truth, RCMP SGT.
Peter Montague said, “sometimes the truth is brutal; but, it is still, the truth”! Doneto!
