The eviction letter tells non-natives they have 10 days to leave the reserve.
Saying there are too many non-natives living in Kahnawake, the localband council has issued eviction notices to 25 residents, giving them10 days to leave the Indian reserve on Montreal’s South Shore.
About25 non-natives – mostly white people involved in relationships withMohawks – are being asked to leave the reserve because Mohawk law doesnot allow them to live there, said Joe Delaronde, press attaché for theMohawk Council of Kahnawake.
“They are people with no native ancestry at all,” Delaronde said in an interview yesterday.
According to Mohawk law, non-aboriginals have no residency rights. About 7,500 Mohawks live on the reserve.
Band council chiefs began hand-delivering the strongly worded letter on Monday and continued yesterday.
“Therehave been numerous complaints regarding individuals contravening Mohawklaw by residing in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake without a right todo so. You were identified in these complaints,” the letter says.
The eviction letter tells non-natives they have 10 days to leave the reserve.
“We trust that you understand the seriousness of this letter and that you will govern yourselves accordingly.”
If the non-natives can’t move by the deadline, they must contact the band council to make other arrangements, Delaronde said.
“We are not heartless,” he added. “We know that not everyone has a brother or a parent in Châteauguay they can stay with.”
Ina press release on the band council’s website, Grand Chief MichaelDelisle said: “Every single Kahnawake Mohawk knows the law. It isunfortunate that some people have chosen to disregard the community’swishes.”
In 1981, the community announced a moratorium on mixedmarriages, which meant that non-natives who married Mohawks after thatyear would no longer have the right to live on the reserve. Anynon-native who had married a Mohawk before the moratorium is stillpermitted to live on the reserve.
In the 1980s, some Mohawkscontested the policy before the human rights tribunal, but lost. Thecourts have ruled that Mohawks can make any membership policy they deemnecessary for their survival as a people.
“We’re very concernedabout protecting our identity because at a certain point, the Canadiangovernment will look at us and say: ‘You are not even Indians,’ “Delaronde said.
“We are very proud of our heritage and protectiveabout it. We don’t have a whole hell of a lot of it left. This is partof revitalizing the community.”
The band council decided to actafter receiving complaints from Indians who feel that too manynon-natives are living on the reserve.
“We are responding to what the community wants,” Delaronde said.
Although Mohawk law says that non-natives can’t live on the reserve, they are allowed to visit and stay overnight, he explained.
“Sleeping over or staying for a week is a whole different situation,” he said.
Delaronde said he hopes the non-natives accept the wishes of the community and leave peacefully.
If they refuse to move, their names will be “published locally,” he said.
“I know that’s not a nice thing, but if people refuse, names will be published and then it becomes a peer pressure thing.”