Whites Evicted From Reservation in Order to Preserve Indian Identity
Non-Mohawk Whites Evicted in Order to Preserve Indian Identity
The eviction letter tells non-natives they have 10 days to leave the reserve.
Saying there are too many non-natives living in Kahnawake, the local band council has issued eviction notices to 25 residents, giving them 10 days to leave the Indian reserve on Montreal’s South Shore.
About 25 non-natives - mostly white people involved in relationships with Mohawks - are being asked to leave the reserve because Mohawk law does not allow them to live there…
In a press release on the band council’s website, Grand Chief Michael Delisle said: “Every single Kahnawake Mohawk knows the law. It is unfortunate that some people have chosen to disregard the community’s wishes.”
In 1981, the community announced a moratorium on mixed marriages, which meant that non-natives who married Mohawks after that year would no longer have the right to live on the reserve. Any non-native who had married a Mohawk before the moratorium is still permitted to live on the reserve.
In the 1980s, some Mohawks contested the policy before the human rights tribunal, but lost. The courts have ruled that Mohawks can make any membership policy they deem necessary for their survival as a people…
“We are very proud of our heritage and protective about it. We don’t have a whole hell of a lot of it left. This is part of revitalizing the community.”
