One Nation Under the Gun: Inside the Mohawk Civil War

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.

As a reporter, Hornung spent a lot of time investigating the friction on
the Mohawk reserve of Akwesasne that escalated into violence in the
spring of 1990. Later the same year, when the 11-week standoff between
Mohawk Warriors and a combined force of police and army riveted
international attention on Kanesatake (Oka), Hornung perceived another
chapter unfolding in a saga of Indian militants combatting both
governments and more moderate forces within their own communities.

In One Nation Under the Gun Hornung recounts these struggles,
principally from the point of view of the more militant and more radical
elements within the Mohawk societies of Quebec. His sympathies clearly
lie with the pro-gambling and pro-smuggling forces in Akwesasne and
Kahnawake, at first in the friction with anti-gambling and
anti-smuggling forces that led to gunfire and the death of two men in
the spring of 1990, and later also in the confrontation at Oka, in which
members of Akwesasne’s Mohawk Warrior Society played a prominent role.
Part of the reason for Hornung’s identification with the militant
elements is his reliance on those elements within the Mohawk groups as
well as on their lawyer for information about the various struggles that
came to a critical point in 1990.

Although One Nation consequently provides useful information about one
side of what its author terms “the Mohawk civil war,” it does not do
justice to opposing forces among the Mohawk. The reasons why some
Indians tried to prevent gambling, tobacco smuggling, and frequent
recourse to arms never emerge clearly from Hornung’s account.
Therefore, while One Nation can profitably be read for an appreciation
of the motives, methods, and ideology of the more militant Mohawk, it is
not the definitive word on the eruptions at Akwesasne, Kahnawake, and
Kanesatake.