Letter to Le Devoir addresses fake colonial history

05/31/2018

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) wishes to advise the community that a letter has been sent to le Devoir newspaper to address/correct historical inaccuracies and untruths that continue to cloud the truth in the matter of the so-called ‘St. Lawrence Iroquois’ (click here to view letter). Certain influential scholars continue to hypothesize that the St. Lawrence Iroquois lived in this area at the time of contact but are somehow not related to ‘today’s’ Iroquois who continue to live here.

The letter to the French-language Montreal newspaper, signed by Grand Chief Joseph Tokwiro Norton and Ietsénhaienhs Christine Zachary-Deom, is specifically addressed to Luc-Norman Tellier, a professor at the Université de Québec à Montréal. In his letter published on May 23rd, he affirmed that an attempt to write a ‘fake history’ is currently underway under the pretext of good relations, peace and harmony between our communities.

“Ignoring Indigenous history and knowledge is a pretty poor way to create peace and harmony,” said Grand Chief Norton. “We will continue to make every effort to clarify and defend our history, which speaks for itself but continues to be pushed aside by many in influential positions.”

Archaeological sites dated between 1000-1500 A.D. in the areas of Kahnawà:ke, Akwesasne, and Kanehsatá:ke show a close cultural proximity with the Mohawks…(which clearly shows that) the establishment of Missions by the Sulpicians and the Jesuits are only an expression of the continued occupation, by Mohawk communities, of locations which had been inhabited in the past.  

The MCK letter closes with the following: “The practice of non-dialogue and exclusion in this Province based on this ‘fake colonial history’ must cease. Non-Indigenous scholars and governments must acknowledge and respect our positions on our history in order to achieve reconciliation and goodwill, peace and harmony between our peoples.”