My name is Bill Sears, Skaghenhate’, War Chief since the 1990 Oka golf course crisis in Quebec. I was told by the women of the Longhouse and by Samson Gabriel that same day and later on after the summer of 1990 by Louie Hall that my War Chief position was for life and to be taken seriously.
Throughout the 90’s as tensions eased I didn’t like the way our role in history, meaning myself and 64 other men & women and 6 children, 9 months to 14 years old were being shoved to the background and our historical stand against 4400 Canadian troops with APC’s tanks, helicopters, 30 & 50 caliber machine guns and mortars for 78 days seemed to mean nothing. It was something in 1990 when The Hague, the World Court, The U.N., all condemned Canada for their treatment of a small band of freedom fighters.
We as a group of Indians formed under the warrior flag and I as war chief and having Bobby Skidders as a buffer between the press and army briefings let me place five bunkers in spots of our 7 acre fenced in area of razor wire, the army just didn’t get it.
They didn’t need to fence us in because we weren’t going anywhere. We were there to stop an expansion of a nine-hole golf course to eighteen holes and they wanted to relocate a 270 year old graveyard. We said no and that summer hundreds of Indians were in Oka banging their chests and spouting over them dead bodies but when the tanks and armor and troops moved on us 29 men, 31 women and seven kids were left and the real kicker was those tough talkers took the weapons and ammo with them while the press was fed propaganda that we had automatic weapons, grenades, S.A.M. missiles, when in fact I had an old AK-47 with one 30-round clip and four loose shells which in a fire fight would have lasted five seconds.
My pal Bobby Skidders should have been given a medal from Canada because it was he who kept the lid from boiling over time and time again. That is just a little background of part of my life and my life is being a warrior and I am presently putting in motion a revival drive to rebuild the Warriors Society as Louie Hall did in the early 70’s.
While we were in Oka we did our ceremonies every sundown after dinner and before patrols at night we would all form a circle around the humongous fire Bobby Skidders kept going 24 hours a day and I would remind people that at any given second our lives could end and everyone was ok with that; as Sitting Bull said before Little Bighorn, “Today is a good day to die,” and we said that Every day. For if you die defending Indian land the Creator will take care of us in the next life.”
There lies the problem in Akwesasne and I have lost so called friends because I believe Mohawks in majority are brainwashed by the Catholic Church that refused to give up pedophile priests and threaten Indians with hell if they don’t submit to its way of thinking, strike one.
Tribal council and band council which operate under State, Federal and Provincial government mandates to get funding and services. Strike two. When band council secret land and tax signing and tribal council secret compact signing looking for exclusivity in exchange for eventually goods being taxed with that tax going to the tribe to appease anger over tax.
Like the tribe needs more money as they signed a compact that gives most of the money to the state who doles it out to St. Lawrence and Franklin county.
How about us? Strike three. That is just the tip of the iceberg as I am on my mission to rebuild the Warriors Society and every day our numbers grow, and to be in the Warriors Society you must be willing to die and be Mohawk, you don’t have to run around with a gun, you don’t have to speak the language as some Mohawks think if you don’t speak the language you are not Indian, well where the hell were you when the call came to defend Oka. Only nine Mohawks from Akwesasne put their lives on the line and said today is a good day to die, half didn’t speak the language so screw you idiots that hid, speaking your Mohawk in safety.
Cowards. If anyone has a problem with that statement I’m not hard to find and I’m not afraid to call a coward a coward to their face.
Getting back to the issue, if you let everything that is being heaped on Mohawks which makes you lose your identity as an Indian, you very shortly will become just another Mr. & Mrs. America and if you’re ok with that then you should leave and join the other culture. We are Mohawks the only nation never to surrender to the government and never took an oath to surrender.
If you have that frame of mind then the Warriors Society wants you! I’ve always been a rebel and a lone wolf and I love Nationhood and I refuse to surrender to the State or Feds and haven’t changed my thinking since Oka, everyday is a good day to die. Before I close just a few reminders in 1990 before Oka here in Akwesasne the anti-gaming faction had around 20 leaders that set their roadblocks up on route 37 and cried to the press the Warriors Society were gangsters causing all the trouble.
We the Warriors were only observers that anti-gambling faction did all the arson, beatings, and staged shootings behind the police station in St. Regis by the St. Regis cops. When the community took the roadblocks down and drove the anti-gambling faction out peace returned to our territory.
Those leaders of the anti-gambling faction were being pressured by the press and their outside supporters, where is all the warrior retaliation? Among Peace and quiet we patrolled the roads and a camp was set up in Snye by the Anti’s fully armed by the police and with the leaders pushing confrontation, 2 young men were murdered.
When State, Fed and Provincial were contacted in the early morning hours they were probably ecstatic until they were told it was not the Warriors who did the shootings, two brothers and two police officers were arraigned but because this did not meet the government plan to squash the Warriors they were released. Maybe everybody has forgot or doesn’t care they have murderers walking amongst them but the Warriors do.
Those 20 or so conspirators of anti-gamblers seem to be dying one by one at young ages, early fifties to sixties, you don’t think the creator is going to forget your actions those of you who plotted are as guilty as the scum who pulled the triggers and I know who they are and they should never run into me alone with no witnesses as we as Warriors do not tolerate Indians killing Indians. Maybe the band council, tribal council, police departments and governments that pull their strings do but as I said one by one the guilty are falling because what goes around comes around.
Gonna go now I’m pissed off enough but remember you as an Indian still have a chance to stay Indian you must prepare your mind, your heart, your body and like I said the Warriors Society under the Great Law is going to rebuild for that day is coming, the day I mean is when you are told you are assimilated and taxation is here. Read your compact that isn’t available to the public.
In War and Peace
Bill Sears
Skaghenhate’
War Chief
Thank you for this message.
Blessings to you