ยป Kahnawake Evictions
The Kahnawake Mohawks are evicting all non-Mohawks from their reserve near Montreal.
This is somewhat controversial because the law they’re using to do it is more or less a racist one, in the sense that it actively denies housing to people based on their race, but as always with aboriginal issues it’s not necessarily that simple.
Prof. of Indigenous Governance Taiaike Alfred at UVic vociferously defends the measure as a cultural bulwark against assimilation, for example.
The Kahnawake are big in the online poker arena, occasionally for all the wrong reasons — they were deeply involved in the Absolute Poker/UltimaBet cheating scandal and last I recall didn’t really resolve the issue satisfactorily. Things are provably not all on the up-and-up amongst the Kahnawake.
That burned up a lot of my goodwill in a situation like this. Billions of dollars flow through online poker sites — billions. The tribe gets a cut of that, and is incredibly wealthy. I’m interested to see how that wealth is distributed and how these evictions impact those to whom it is, or isn’t, distributed.
That said, perhaps it’s not my business.
The scandal was certainly bad public relations, but are you sure that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has the authority to do the kinds of things people were calling on them to do? Their FAQ makes them sound like a regulatory agency. They fined Absolute Poker/UltimaBet a significant amount. I guess they could have revoked their licenses, but could they do anything else?
The sovereignty of the Kahnawake nation is unclear. It’d be interesting if the Supreme Court got a chance to look at the Treaty of 1760 as a result of these evictions.
Note that Kahnawake is a Reserve, so the government owns all the residences, which are managed by the Mohawk Council. Kahnawake status is established by the blood quantum formula set out in the Indian Act. It’s interesting to compare the Kahnawake’s situation to the Nisga’a.
Jared
17 Feb 10 at 1:49 pm
Members of the Kahnawake “regulatory” board played with accounts that could see other peoples’ cards, supposedly — allegedly. I could dig into 2+2 archives and find the results of the original investigations… But I won’t unless forced
Government ownership of residences is unfree — disagree with the government and lose your house! — so, especially in situations of one-man-rule, I don’t think it’s very ethical.
But, again, this is an internal tribal issue. I just hope everything is happening towards some greater good there.
Jack
17 Feb 10 at 2:11 pm
Property ownership on reservations is lose-lose-lose. The government is engaged in an activity for which they have no interest or expertise. The tribe doesn’t have autonomy. The residents have to accept whatever shitty housing the government provides, they can’t use it for capital and they don’t have protection from eviction.
That’s why the Nisga’a decided to use the same ownership system as the rest of Canada.
Jared
18 Feb 10 at 10:20 am
The online poker, MIT has nothing to do with the evictions. That is all run by individuals as far as I’m concerned. They say a tiny fraction is given to Kahnawake, but who knows where the money goes. That is besides the point.
I don’t want to be assimilated. I don’t want to be integrated. I don’t want to non-natives to be integrated in our community either. I have no where else in the world to go to learn about my culture, my language. Don’t the non-natives have enough land yet? You can’t allow us to reside, love and learn from our own Nation of people, without calling this racist. Why do we have to keep telling you we don’t want to become YOU.
Mohawk Lady
25 Apr 10 at 7:51 am
@Mohawk Lady, I can feel for you not wanting to be assimilated against your will. What about the Mohawk people that want to be a part of multicultural society that we currently have in Canada? What about the people from other races that want to be part of the Mohawk culture? Anything that is done based on Race and race alone is racist.
Lets look at this from the other side. If this was a condo building which was a coop and the strata decided to kick everyone of one race out of the building because they didn’t like the culture of that race. Do you think that that would be acceptable?
Fred
27 Apr 10 at 2:14 pm
It would be acceptable if it was an old age home and I wasn’t an elder. I wouldn’t be calling them racist because I didn’t quailfy. Your government has immigration. You also don’t throw all your animals together in a zoo do you? You separate them by the species. Humans have been cohabitating with their own races since the beginning of time. That is why we have a diverse world. We don’t all want to become one race. Get it.
For those Mohawks that want to be a part of multicultural society, then they can go and reside with them. That is our current law, you marry out – you move out!!
Mohawk Lady
7 May 10 at 11:18 am