[A-List] " We've 'had enough'"

["Macdonald Stainsby" <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>]

        March 18, 2007

            We've 'had enough'
            Year-long showdown in Caledonia has pushed tensions to the
boiling point
      By JORGE BARRERA, IN CALEDONIA

      Tacked to the plywood wall of the guard shack is a Henco Homes lot
number
placard with the message "who found who? 1492."

      A middle aged Six Nations man with large glasses says the words are
from a
song written by a local musician. He is sitting near a window that overlooks
the entrance to Douglas Creek Estates.

      Below the sign is a poster with the photographs of a half built
suburban home
and a logging clear cut. "American Dream, Native Nightmare," it reads.

      The place smells of woodsmoke and cigarettes. Another man nicknamed
Nish keeps
watch through the window for unfamiliar cars or people approaching the
entrance. He knows the local cars by the rumble of their engine. A
walkie-talkie with the word "frontline" taped to the side occasionally
crackles with code names, "huggy bear" or "megadeath." A short distance away
an OPP cruiser keeps constant surveillance.

      "I am here to protect this area and to protect this piece of land
too," says
Nish 47.

      An Ojibway, born in Toronto, the still birth of his child 15 years
ago put him
on what he calls the traditional spiritual path. That path led him to Douglas
Creek where the Six Nations confederacy has been on a year-long showdown with
the federal and provincial governments to reclaim the 40 hectare piece of
land
they say was swindled from them by the Crown.

      On the table below the window is a copy of Turtle Island News, "North
America's #1 Native Weekly," the local reserve newspaper, fresh off the press
this morning. The the first three pages offer a detailed account of the
political fallout from a shoving match between the band chief David General
and Six Nations community members during a negotiation session with the
federal and provincial governments. The incident magnified internal divisions
between the band government and the traditional government over who controls
the government money provided for negotiations and leads the talks.

      There is uncertainty about the future of negotiations if the rift
continues to
fester. There are worries government negotiators will use the divisions to
scuttle talks and heighten tensions that subsided at Douglas Creek over the
winter.

      When Six Nations members took over the 650 home Henco Industries
residential
development last February, it was feared the things could quickly turn
bloody.
The site was the scene of several bitter and sometimes violent confrontations
between Six Nations members, Caledonia residents and police.

      The calm, however, seems to be melting with the snow. Some now
murmur darkly
about fraying patience and plans to occupy other areas if negotiations
falter.
The OPP are now looking into a message posted on an Internet chat board
warning of impending escalation.

      "Watch the eastern front...we're planning something spectacular for
Canadians
to prove to them we are serious about getting our land back. It should come
off with quite a bang," read the post by Tsi Nikayen' Enonhne' that appeared
last Tuesday.

      "We have given everything. We have taken down barricades, we have
given a
buffer zone, we have done everything to try and appease and accommodate our
neighbors and we have been respectful," says Six Nations spokeswoman Hazel
Hill. "You are going to see that the people have had enough. We are not
taking
it anymore."

      The events of the past year left the relationship between Six
Nations and
Calidonia, a bedroom community of about 10,000 near Hamilton, in tatters. The
two have thrived side by side for over 200 years.

      As several people gather in the guard shack this morning talk turns
to coffee,
but a trip to the Tim Hortons minutes up the road is quickly dismissed.
Someone remembers the time when a cup of coffee came with a gob of saliva.
There is also the story of a ripped status card at the local Canadian Tire.

      "I don' t feel comfortable going there with the racism," says Six
Nations band
councillor Ava Hill. "We have been accused of destroying Caledonia. But if
their businesses are going down it is because our people quit shopping
there."


      Mending the relationship may take some time, says Hill.

      "There has been a lot of damage done," she says. Suspicion of the
non-native
world runs high here. Many believe the media is biased against them and that
non-native Canadians too easily turn into enemies. They believe the only goal
of the federal and provincial governments is to assimilate them and erase
their culture.

      "They want us to be Canadian. That's what it's all about," says an
older Six
Nations man.

      When I respond to a question from another man by saying I was born
in another
country but grew up in Canada, he shakes his head and turns away.

      The rules for staying on Douglas Creek are written in marker on a
large piece
of cardboard just inside the front door of a newly built house on the first
corner past the guard shack: no drinking or drugs, no profanity, no weapons
and children under 18 must be out by 8 p.m.

      Across the top of the inside door frame is a bumper sticker urging
support for
the Grassy Narrows logging blockade north of Kenora. In an adjacent room, a
young man peers through binoculars out the front window. In the basement the
Six Nations clan mothers have gathered for a meeting.

      There is food from a potluck and the place has the atmosphere of a
large
family reunion. Children run in circles.

      On one side of a large wooden table in what was designed as a living
room sit
four women and a man. They want to talk. On the wall above their heads is the
Dene Nation flag sent from the Northwest Territories. It is thick with
signatures and words of support.

      "I consider myself a freedom fighter," says Boots, 46, dressed head
to toe in
military fatigues. "They took our land, they tried to take our language and
our culture. We want to be left alone to do our own business."

      The rest nod in agreement.

      "We are a peaceful people and we have been, but at some point we
have to make
a stand," says Sheranne, 26. "We are a sovereign people who never recognized
the government, the border, they don't exist to us."

      The conversation comes to an abrupt end. The man who drove me to the
house
suddenly reappears.

      "You actually do not have permission to be here so I am going to
have to ask
you to leave."

      He drives me to my rental car parked near the guard shack and tells
me to
immediately vacate the property.


--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.