Oka Crisis
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Seton_blockade.jpg
The Oka Crisis was an event which began on March 11, 1990, and lasted until September 26, near the town of Oka, Quebec. The town planned to build a golf course over a burial ground and sacred grove of birch trees near the Mohawk town of Kanesatake, resulting in the Mohawks blockading a road. In an initial confrontation between the Sûreté du Québec and the Mohawks, a police officer was killed.
The ensuing standoff and crisis caused a confrontation between the police, the Canadian Forces that had been requisitioned by the government of Quebec in "aid of the civil power" and the Mohawk tribe.
Other Mohawks at Kahnawake in solidarity with Kanesatake blockaded the Mercier Bridge between the island of Montreal and the South Shore suburbs. They were able to do so since the southern end of the bridge passed through their territory. Enormous traffic jams and frayed tempers resulted as the crisis dragged on for many months before being resolved peacefully.
The Oka Crisis precipitated the development of Canada's First Nations Policing Policy (http://www.psepc-sppcc.gc.ca/abor_policing/fir_nat_policing_e.asp)
See also
External links
- The Mohawk Defense of Kanesetake (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/350.html)