The Legacy of Oka

J.R. Miller is a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan and
author of Skyscrapers Hide in the Heavens: A History of Indian-White
Relations in Canada.

The Mackenzie Institute, an organization for “individuals who are
concerned about the direction and methods of ‘low intensity
conflict’,” approaches the 1990 standoff at Oka as though it was
just another instance of “terrorist” violence perpetrated against
the state. Consequently, much analyzing of Mohawk Warriors as
“militants” and “extremists” is carried on, grave conclusions
about the media’s penchant for accepting uncritically such people’s
assertions are drawn, and a sober reminder of the importance of
maintaining the Canadian army’s strength for fear of similar outbreaks
in future is issued. The Mackenzie Institute misses the point.

Unable to think outside the framework of their concern about
“low-intensity conflict,” Tugwell and Thompson insist on seeing an
organized conspiracy behind the various steps the Mohawk took at Oka,
Kahnawake, and Akwesasne. The spontaneous seizure of the Mercier Bridge
by Kahnawake men after the Quebec provincial police moved on Mohawk
barricades at Oka on July 11 was in reality the first stage in “the
classic revolutionary formula” intended to win support and acceptance.
The hard line taken by Warrior representatives in various negotiations
with Ottawa and Quebec was not evidence of their conscientious adherence
to the Iroquois Great Law of Peace and their belief in Mohawk
sovereignty; instead, it was an unreasonable and self-serving posture
struck by an unrepresentative group of “extremists.” Never mind that
all available evidence points to the fact that the Kanesatake Mohawk
asked the Warriors at Akwesasne for advice and assistance in the tense
weeks leading up to the outbreak of violence in July.

Informed only by its own conspiracy view of radical politics, and by
police and army propagandists, The Legacy of Oka misrepresents the
nature of the lamentable events in Quebec in the summer of 1990. People
in search of an explanation of what happened, why it happened, and what
it all meant should look elsewhere.