Mohawk Nation Calls For Immediate Action Against The Infringement Of Its Inherent Indigenous Rights

[IndigeNews]

Press Release
Mohawk Nation Calls For Immediate Action Against The Infringement Of
Its Inherent Indigenous Rights

Akwesasne Mohawk Territory – Onerahtohkó:wa (May) 7, 2013

Greetings from the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation of the Haudenosaunee
Six Nations Confederacy. Straddling both sides of the Kania’tarohwá:nen
(St. Lawrence River), the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory exists within the
ancestral homeland of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, which has never been
ceded by any legitimate authority of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Without the free, prior and informed consent of the Kanien’kehá:ka
Nation, both Canada and the United States have since unilaterally drawn
their national boundaries directly through our traditional and
ancestral territory and now limit and disrupt our free and unobstructed
movement within our own territory. Despite this challenge to our
territorial sovereignty, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation continues to retain
and assert its inherent sovereign and indigenous right to cross freely
into all Haudenosaunee territories.

Since the imposition of the Canadian Port of Entry within the Akwesasne
Mohawk Territory, the Kanien’kehá:ka have experienced and endured
racial harassment and mistreatment, the denial of their Haudenosaunee
citizenship, arrest, and the confiscation of property by the Canadian
Border Service Agency (CBSA). Since the Port of Entry was relocated to
Cornwall four years ago, this mistreatment and abuse has intensified.

Therefore, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
are calling upon all people to join us in a call for action on May 17,
2013, to bring an end to Canada’s abuse and mistreatment of our
citizens and their refusal to respect and honor the inherent sovereign
and indigenous rights of the Haudenosaunee to freely move about its
traditional and ancestral territory without hindrance. Despite the
Government of Canada’s commitment towards truth and reconciliation with
the Indigenous Peoples of this land, these regularly unprovoked and
insensitive acts by the CBSA are another demonstration of Canada’s
indifference and lack of respect towards indigenous peoples and
demonstrate its callous disregard towards resolving these issues in
good faith.

To resolve the border issue the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires the
following:

1. To begin the process to rectify this longstanding conflict between
our peoples, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires an immediate meeting
between the Government of Canada and the traditional leadership of the
Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy.

2. In keeping with the principles of coexistence and non-inference as
embodied through the Two Row Wampum, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires
a commitment by the Government of Canada to retain a nation-to-nation
relationship with the traditional Haudenosaunee Six Nations
Confederacy, as their British fathers had in the past.

3. In order to preserve and maintain the distinct identity of the
Haudenosaunee as a sovereign people, the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation requires
the Government of Canada to recognize Haudenosaunee citizenship, by
virtue of whatever identification issued by the Haudenosaunee Six
Nations Confederacy.

The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation calls upon its people to gather at the Mohawk
Nation Longhouse at 9am on May 17, 2013, for a peaceful march across
the imaginary line that cuts through our nation, to let all know that
we shall continue to exercise our inherent sovereign and indigenous
rights and uphold them for future generations.

For more information, please contact the Mohawk Nation Office at
518-358-3381

http://intercontinentalcry.org/mohawk-nation-calls-for-immediate-
action-against-the-infringement-of-its-inherent-indigenous-rights/
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