Shawn Brant and the Native Question

[RNK]

Lately up here in Canada, the media has been abuzz about an increasingly popular Native and some might say "revolutionary" figure in the Mohawk community, who has been carrying out several high-profile attempts to screw the government (to put it bluntly).

Last week Shawn Brant turned himself into police after warrents were issued for his arrest, dealing with his role in Mohawk 'insurrection' during the Native National Day of Protest and other events which saw Mohawks in south-eastern Ontario block highways and rail line, blockage mines and other cool stuff.

I don't know much about Brant, but I do know that he has been an activist for years now, and works with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty quite a bit. To me, he seems like a very important figure in contemporary Canada. Here's a recent quote by him from a Globe & Mail article:


"You know, when they brought out the DND [Department of National Defense] training manual, listing the Mohawks along with Hezbollah and Taliban, most people were so offended by that," Mr. Brant said. But he wasn't. "It was the first time I felt happy for being identified as what we are - not terrorists, but as an insurgency, people trying to overthrow this government."

Brant doesn't just rub the Canadian government the wrong way. He's just as willing to flip the bird to other Natives who he feels are stupid.


Before last Friday's protests, Mr. Brant mocked the value of peaceful rallies, such as those suggested by Phil Fontaine, head of the Assembly of First Nations. "Phil doesn't f---ing understand nothing," Mr. Brant said in a combative speech to OCAP last spring. "... He was saying, well maybe instead of shutting down the trains we could have strawberry socials or pancake breakfasts."

Brant was also involved (in a minor way) in the 1990 Oka Crisis in Quebec, and he's had his fair share of street violence fighting skinheads with the ARA in Toronto.

Anyway, enough information, now discussion. I really like this guy based on what I've seen. He's a fighter, and a lot of us could learn from him, and I think he deserves our very active support. So, how can we go about giving that support?

[coda]

interesting , I'm a Mohawk on the US side. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Can't say I've heard of him before. I support his insurrectionary efforts... starting NOW!!!!

Yes, Up the struggle of the First nations and the six nations and all other indigenous groups all over the world!

[RNK]

He hasn't really gotten major press until the past month or so, when he helped organize a group of Mohawks from Tyendinaga to start some 'insurrectionary' struggles against the Gov't... mainly blocking rail lines, roadways, blockading mines etc.

Anyone know if the OCAP is going to be doing anything in the near future?

[coda]

I found some articles, photos and video of Shawn Brant.

Pretty inspiring! I'd like to see some of that native action done over here in the US.

I also find the name Brant very interesting. Is he, by any chance, a decendent of Mohawk Chief joseph Brant?

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national...2612c87&k=22087 (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=e88b9cad-4793-4b41-9707-8f9112612c87&k=22087)

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national...783553d&k=51035 (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=81ea431d-e8ca-4387-8638-f4141783553d&k=51035)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Pag...9.wvprotest0629 (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20070629.wvprotest0629)

[RNK]

Yeah, I'm surprised to see there isn't much Native action in the US; here in Canada, it's practically a daily occurance... Oka, Ipperwash, Caledonia, Gustafsen Lake... and in a lot of cases it gets really violent. At Oka, Mohawk forces shot and killed a Provincial Policeman, prompting the Army to come in... at Ipperwash an unarmed Native was shot dead, and at Gustafsen the RCMP deployed 400+ officers, nine APCs by the time it ended had fired 77,000 rounds of ammunition (and managed to kill... a dog!)

Right now there are two disputes going on in Ontario, at Caledonia and Tyendinaga.

[RedKnight]

From the pictures, he looks as much a Mohawk, as I am a Crow. In otherwords he looks mostly white. If he cut his hair, he could pass for white easily.

[coda]

Whatdaya expect? Loin cloth and a mohawk hair cut? :wacko: he looks very typically mohawk to me.

[RedKnight]

No. But I think that I look just as native as he and I don't live on a reservation or consider myself to be an "indian". I just think that he looks more like a counter-cultural hippie than a mohawk. He has white skin for crying out loud. If I hadn't known that he was of aboriginal heritage I would never have guessed. I think that Hugo Chavez looks more like a mohawk than he does. http://weeklyecho.com/blog/media/1/20061017-hugoChavez.jpg-Chavez http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/images/shawn.jpg-Brant

[redterror19]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11, 2007 02:11 am
From the pictures, he looks as much a Mohawk, as I am a Crow. In otherwords he looks mostly white. If he cut his hair, he could pass for white easily.
From a recent MIM article on Cherokees, the excerpt quoted below is from a Time article:

"Both sides, oddly enough, agree that tribal membership is a political designation, rather than a racial one. No one wants to use a strict blood quantum — say, a requirement of 1/16th Cherokee blood — to determine who belongs. 'I refuse to create a sieve through which our grandchildren will fall out,' says David Cornsilk, a Cherokee-by-blood who sides with the Freedmen. But each side sees very different implications. 'What is identity?' posits Smith. 'What is an Indian? What is a Cherokee? I would say it's someone part of a recognized community.' Recognized, though, meaning on the proper Dawes List — not meaning active members of the tribe, as Vann asserts it should."

Lifted from: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/mn/sept1...1/wc062507.html (http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/mn/sept112001/wc062507.html)

[coda]

<<From a recent MIM article on Cherokees, the excerpt quoted below is from a Time article:>>

that is true in part. I don&#39;t know about tribes in Canada. But here in the US blood quantum is a mandatory BIA US Government regulation for recognition. There are strict requirements among the established tribes to get enrollment. One is to prove blood quantum; the percent varies from tribe to tribe (some require atleast a full parent, some to 1/18.) another is identifying as native, and more importantly identifying culturally to that particular tribe. There are a lot of indians without a legal tribal affiliation, and aren&#39;t recognized as part of a tribe.

<<No. But I think that I look just as native as he and I don&#39;t live on a reservation or consider myself to be an "indian". I just think that he looks more like a counter-cultural hippie than a mohawk. He has white skin for crying out loud. If I hadn&#39;t known that he was of aboriginal heritage I would never have guessed. I think that Hugo Chavez looks more like a mohawk than he does..>>

you probably don&#39;t consider yourself indian or live on a reservation because you probably aren&#39;t descended from Indians or therefore identify as one.
Hugo Chavez is partially native South American.

There is pretty wide variations among indians these days-- and features and characteristics peculiar to distinct tribes. But particularly with the iroquois (mohawks and Eastern US indians) have had centuries of racial integration and assimiliation long before other tribes and genes have an interesting way of presenting themselves.

[RedKnight]

As I posted above, I am of native american descent. I&#39;m just not registered with my tribe. My great-great-great-great grandmother was a full blooded Crow amerindian. I was just wondering how someone can be discriminated against based on tribal status, when one can not even tell that you are a member of a native tribe. I consider the greatest problem that native people face to be mistaken for being mexican. Funny how the more ethnic american you look, the more likely you are to have people think that you might be here illegaly. I&#39;m like this IS our land. It&#39;s all of you europeans that are here illegally. :P I don&#39;t know what other problems native americans might have, in comparison to the general population.

[RNK]

It&#39;s very odd, the differences between Natives in Canada and the US. I don&#39;t hear much at all about Natives over on the other side, but from what I can tell, especially if RK is saying that he considers the greatest problem facing Natives is to be mistaken for Mexicans, Natives here in Canada have definately gotten the short end of the stick...

Don&#39;t have time to explain fully but essentially, every Native I&#39;ve spoken to from Canada has one horror story or another to tell about their past; forcefully being taken away from their families, placed into abusive white adoptive families, given sub-standard education in run-down schools by apathetic nuns, complete social segregation - most white employers wouldn&#39;t dare hire a Native, which, of course, leads to them huddling in reservations in which running water and electricity are NOT universal... all the while, the gov&#39;t or some gov&#39;t-sponsored corporation is trying to expropriate this plot of land for a golf course and that plot of land for some gigantic hotel or some such. And mind you, the forceful abductions and failed indoctrination went on until atleast the 1970s if not later.. and, obviously, the land-stealing continues today.

And of course every time something like this pops up, so does the anti-Native sentiment in the right-wing press, and suddenly you have white supremacists and national socialists counter-demonstrating outside reserves, Native activists getting arrested or, in some cases, shot and killed by police; harassment, intimidation, riot squads and every once in awhile a gigantic military operation to quash some native insurgency.

Of course, 90% of this happens in Mohawk territory. Leave it to the Mohawks to stick it to the man so damned often. :)

[coda]

Red Knight,

<<I was just wondering how someone can be discriminated against based on tribal status, when one can not even tell that you are a member of a native tribe.>>

i am not sure of what you&#39;re saying here... But, this is where blood quantum comes into play. I don&#39;t agree with that policy at all, but that&#39;s another story. it still is unfortunately practiced to prove indian bloodlines, no other race, nationality, ethnicity has to do such stuff. it&#39;s a very Nazi-ish white supremacist type policy that the US should not be enforcing whatsoever&#33; in theory it&#39;s good to keep the native population at a minimum, because if they recognize them, than they also have recognize the broken treaties and make some offer of restitution, etc. So, better to have as little natives to deal with as possible, in their eye.

Check out what Ward Churchill has to say about Blood quantum, which is a policy being used against him right now to try to terminate him from his tenure as professor of native and ethnic studies at the University of Colorado.

&#39;The Crucible of American Indian Identity&#39;

pt. 1
http://zena.secureforum.com/znet/zmag/articles/jan98ward.htm

pt 2
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/feb98ward.htm

i think a lot of the discrimination native people face goes a lot farther than surface discrimination, it violates the rights as a human being. Amazingly, Native American&#39;s are still not treated as People or citizens --- the sphere of US government that deals with native Americans is the Dept. of Interior, which basically is the department for national parks and land&#33;&#33;&#33;

here is the site to the BIA, with list of Federally recognized tribes, etc.

http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html


RNK,

it&#39;s basically the same shit on this side of the creek. The treaties all broken and the reservations deplorable. none of the sovereign tribes have membership in the UN or anywhere else. they have no real self-determination and still controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

most of the insurrectionary uprisings ended here with the Reign of Terror, following the occupation of Wounded Knee (1973). Since then, very little activity due in part to police repression, extreme abject poverty among some tribes and the casino culture at the other end, and the inactivity and eventual split among leaders of the American Indian Movement, AIM.


for anyone interested:

brief outline of native American activism up to 2002. http://www.pbs.org/itvs/alcatrazisnotanisland/timeline.html

native American treaties
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Treaties/Treaties.html

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/ntreaty.html

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler..._files/toc.html (http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/toc.html)

And a list of the systemized screwing of ceded lands

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/llss_browse.html

[coda]

<<I consider the greatest problem that native people face to be mistaken for being mexican.>>

ha ha&#33; yeah, i get what you mean. My sister, 1/4 Mohawk is always mistaken for Puerto Rican :unsure: See, that&#39;s where ignorance really comes in. puerto rican (& mexican) is not a race&#33;&#33;

http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/legal22x/native.htm

[RedKnight]

OK, I stand corrected. THat is what I consider to be the greatest possible problem, outside of the reservation. I&#39;ve read that conditions on the reservation can be far worse. I&#39;ve never even seen the Crow reservation in Montana. I believe that my ancestor was sent to the Carlisle Indian School (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_School), but I&#39;m not sure.