Michael Ahrihron Delisle: No racism, no hate, in Kahnawake | National Post

1.10.14

Michael Ahrihron Delisle: No racism, no hate, in Kahnawake | National Post: Ours is a community of approximately 6,500 people who have been relegated to a postage stamp of land, thanks to the lax immigration policies of our ancestors. Despite our Two-Row Wampum Treaty, in which, basically, our ancestors agreed to share this vast land with the proviso that neither side interfered with each other’s governance, Canadian and colonial governments have for centuries broken their word at every turn. And so, as we try desperately to hang on to our language, culture and “Mohawk-ness” on our remaining 35,000 acres, a 33-year-old community directive makes it clear that anyone who marries or cohabits with a non-native would be expected to live off the Territory. The community has never said that such unions were not allowed. The community did not say that the non-native partners were not welcome to visit. They just asked that, at the end of the day, those deemed ineligible to live here return to their own off-reserve homes at night.