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(filmmaker): The story you will see takes place near Montreal,

in Kanehsatake, a Mohawk village near the town of Oka,

and in Kahnawake, a Mohawk reserve south of the city,

at the Mercier Bridge.

70 km west of Montreal, the municipality of Oka

has approved a luxury housing development

and the expansion of a private 9-hole golf course

to 18 holes into The Pines,

which is part of the Mohawk Nation's land.

In the early morning of March 10, 1990,

the people of Kanehsatake began a protest

on a dirt road leading to the golf course.

They were given until Monday, July 9 by the mayor of Oka

to obey a court injunction granted to his municipality

before calling for police action.

(reporter): Are you ready now to abandon the project?

(Ouellette): No... Is that clear?

(filmmaker): In the early 1930s, some people in Oka

began playing golf on The Commons.

The Mohawks complained that their cattle

were being chased away with golf sticks,

and that there was nothing for the animals to eat.

In 1947, the municipality expropriated The Commons.

Even the Mohawks' burial ground became the property of Oka.

By 1961, after many trees were cut,

the private golf course was completed.

(Mohawk chant)

(Mohawk chant continues)

I came up here and I says, "So, where's the road block?"

They said, "It's right here."

I said, "This is the road we're blocking?

This is the road you've been blocking for three months?"

It's a dirt road.

I thought it was maybe a highway, you know... geez.

(Ellen Gabriel): John Cree, our spiritual leader,

had just started burning tobacco.

And he was giving thanks...

and about 5:15... that's when the Tilden trucks

rolled in and the swat team came out.

There was three of us that just looked at each other.

And one of the women said, "Holy shit, they're here!"

Our instincts kicked in

and we said the women have to the go to the front,

because it's our obligation to do that,

to protect the land,

to protect our mother.

And I can remember looking at the faces of the SWAT team.

And they were all scared.

They were like...

they were like young babies

who had never met something so strong,

who had never met a spirit.

Because we were fighting

something without a spirit.

There was no thought to it. They were like robots.

Now when they kept advancing, we asked for a chain saw.

We notched the first notch

and we started the second notch here.

The wind picked up and made the upper part of the tree

sound like it was falling...

a cracking sound like the tree's comin' down.

They started, and they started screaming

and takin' off.

And they started trippin' and everything else,

running back to the road, but as they were running,

they tear-gassed us,

and percussion-bombed us.

For sure, we weren't moving, no!

They can try whatever they want to get us out,

but we weren't leaving.

(filmmaker): The Pines are still when the police

threw tear gas at the people standing there.

Suddenly, the wind comes and the smoke turns

towards the police

and onto highway 344.

In support of the Kanehsatake people,

the Warriors of Kahnawake block all highways

leading into their reserve.

By 7 a.m.,

they close the Mercier Bridge, which handles

over 65,000 vehicles a day.

Get down, everybody get down!

So they start running.

I says, "Hit the ground, you've gotta lay down,"

cause there's shots, huh.

I didn't know where they were firing.

But once that first shot, that first bullet...

then our men start shootin' back.

(mixed voices)

(gun shots)

(filmmaker): The people in The Pines are very sad

when they hear that Corporal Lemay has been shot and died.

And they know that they will be blamed,

no matter where the bullet came from.

After Lemay was hit,

they came in with an ambulance,

removed Corporal Lemay

and they all retreated immediately.

I believe when the firing started

was when they started jumping them shrubs.

And any hitting of a tree, any hitting of a shrub

or falling would fire it.

It could have been by accident... on their part.

Whoever had the car keys must have took off.

And he left the men, their own men.

They couldn't run away.

I mean, they couldn't drive away.

They couldn't drive away 'cause it was all locked.

(filmmaker): The Warriors react immediately.

They use a front-end loader

abandoned by the Surete du Quebec

to make several barricades,

This time on the main highway, the 344.

(guitar music)

The first stand is made in The Pines

by the Longhouse people.

The Mohawks now present a united front,

in spite of tensions among different factions

in Kanehsatake.

Warriors from other communities come to support

their brothers and sisters in The Pines.

I think we all conducted ourselves

in a very honorable way,

'cause we did try to avoid violence.

And we knew what they came there for.

And we knew that, as it progressed,

something really bad could happen.

We just felt it.

It was something that you could taste, almost, in the air.

(filmmaker): A very tense atmosphere prevails.

More than 1,000 police officers

arrive in Oka, a village of 1,800 people.

Heavily armed police set up roadblocks

about 5 km outside the village.

I already had enough trouble this morning.

As soon as they found out I was a Mohawk, they told me,

"No Mohawks today... out!"

Qu'est-ce tu veux que je fasse, crisse?!

Oui, mais mets-toi a ma place, sacrament!

Osti! y veut que j'aille mener ca tout seul, tabarnac!

(filmmaker): All non-residents

and all First Nation residents of Oka are turned back.

The way they treat the media reminds me in some ways

more of a police state than a democracy.

On veut l'armee!

(filmmaker): Residents of Chateauguay are furious

because the Mercier Bridge is still blocked.

The crowd vents its anger

on the effigy of a Mohawk Warrior,

yelling "Savages!"

(crowd cheering)

(rooster calling)

Seven mayors from surrounding municipalities express support

for Mayor Ouellette's decision to call in the Surete du Quebec.

(filmmaker): Mr. John Caccia, Minister of Indian Affairs

for the Quebec Government, comes to Kanehsatake

for the fourth time

in an attempt to negotiate with the Mohawk people.

In his letter of July 9 to Mayor Ouellette, he wrote,

"This People has seen its land disappear

without any consultation or compensation,

which I consider unfair and unjust,

and all for a golf course.

Once again, I request that you postpone

the golf course project indefinitely."

We have an agreement to re-open Mercier Bridge shortly,

subject to the working out of some practical details.

I also believe that we have the beginnings of a proposal

which would settle the entire situation

with the people of the Mohawk Nation.

The people in Kahnawake did that in support of us.

And as long as our demands aren't being met,

the bridge will remain closed. I mean,

we're talking about human lives,

we're talking about our rights.

This is our territory,

and the government has to acknowledge that.

(filmmaker): Many residents of Oka and Kanehsatake

have left, fearing another attack.

After eight days in hiding,

Mayor Ouellette reappears in Oka.

I'm angry at the Mayor because he started the whole mess.

They know very well what they're fighting for,

and it's probably worth much

than just nine holes in the ground.

(filmmaker): A Peace Camp is established in Oka.

On this first weekend, more than 2,500 people

come from across the continent

to show their support for the Mohawk Nation.

(Chief Bill Traverse): For over 100 years,

they have tried to look after us,

but they have failed miserably.

It is us who can determine what is best for us.

We will determine our own future.

The greatest threat to unity and democracy in this country

is not the Aboriginal people, nor the Quebec,

but rather the lack of leadership

of the Government of Canada.

(applause and cheering)

We should wake up and learn

that history can teach you many things,

but you've got to listen.

This is an opportunity for Canada

to express whether it can live up to its almighty mandate

for human rights

that it's so well known for throughout the world.

Why is it that we live in a country where the police

never come to the aid of the Aboriginal people?

And yet we see them across this country being utilized

by Provincial Governments

to suppress the rights of the Aboriginal people

of this country.

(chanting)

The purpose of today's statements by myself,

in the presence of Father Sauvageau,

in the presence of my colleague, Mr. Sam Elkas,

and Claude Ryan,

is to clarify once and for all... and I will repeat...

there is free circulation of food on both sites.

(filmmaker): To bring food and medication

into the community is a constant problem.

Volunteers with donations from Montreal

always had to argue their way past police roadblocks.

People think the Red Cross is helping,

and they're not helping.

So far, they've come in with only food

to feed a 110 people.

They told us on Friday when we started this operation

that they would bring our food in for us.

Then they told us no, they weren't gonna come in

because we might be bringing in guns and ammunition.

(filmmaker): 6 km away, they are stopped

at an SQ road block, where every item is checked.

They wait for 7 hours, and then they're turned back.

There will be no restrictions in terms of the delivery of food.

It has never been the policy of this government to do that,

and we want to clarify this once and for all.

(filmmaker): The truck load is taken to this farm

where Mr. Martin agrees to store the food.

(Gordie Oak): All of a sudden the government

has decided to get involved in all of this.

Where have they been for the last 14, 15 days?

We've been out of food for a while.

This is maybe the third official truck load

that has come through.

We've got very little to give to many.

(filmmaker): In the federal school at Kanehsatake

a food bank is established

for those who are afraid to leave the community.

The people are determined to protect The Pines.

Judge Allan Gold is appointed as mediator

by Prime Minister Mulroney.

It is also announced that the army will replace the SQ.

The Warriors reinforce their barricades.

I'm willing to be here right until the end.

If something does go down where we get shot up,

fine, you know.

But as far as being afraid, I mean, I think fear

is a very big part of what keeps people alive.

And hopefully I'll come out of this alive.

Warriors, go home! Warriors, go home!

(filmmaker): A group of Oka residents demonstrate

against the Mohawks,

while in Chateauguay people march in support.

(crowd): Solidarite! Quebec!

(filmmaker): Across the country, Aboriginal people

blockade roads and railway tracks

in solidarity with Kanehsatake.

After four days of intense negotiations,

Judge Allan Gold succeeds in bringing everyone together.

There is a feeling of hope and reverence

as John Cree leads Mohawk negotiators and representatives

of both governments across the original barricade.

(Joe Deom): These barricades will come down

upon mutual agreement of the terms of disengagement.

These barricades are just a physical manifestation

of the barricades that have existed between our nations

since contact occurred in the Western Hemisphere

almost five hundred years ago.

(filmmaker): The three preconditions

to negotiations being signed

are: one...

the International Federation of Human Rights will choose

24 representatives to observe the negotiations;

two... Spiritual Leaders, Clan Mothers, advisers and attorneys

will be free to come and go;

three... Kanehsatake and Kahnawake will have

unimpeded access to the basic necessities of life.

I am proud to say that...

I am a Mohawk...

within the Mohawk Nation...

of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.

When we started this blockade,

something had to come out of it that would progress

our cause...

and unite our people.

This agreement is something that our nation

has been searching for for many years...

recognition of who we are as a People.

Not just as Mohawk People,

but as the first people of this continent.

The struggle is not over.

As we say in Mohawk, skennen,

which means peace.

(Tom Siddon): I think there's something especially significant

in being here

in this pine forest this afternoon

to witness a step which we hope will ensure,

as Ellen Gabriel put it, that there will never ever again

be another July 11th.

This is a place of tranquility

and great historical and spiritual significance

for the people of the Mohawk Nation, and we respect that.

We must live side by side with the Native People,

with the Mohawk Nation.

And I'm very hopeful that we will be able to arrive

at a peaceful negotiated settlement

in the mutual respect of all the peoples that are involved.

As far back as I can remember, there has always been a struggle.

I hope that The Creator will give you the integrity

to fulfill these things.

My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father

have been fighting over this and I never thought

I'm going to see it myself, to come up like this.

(filmmaker): On the same day, protesters occupy

the Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague Bridge

west of Chateauguay. They demonstrate against

the continuing blockade of the Mercier Bridge.

In Chateauguay, the rioting escalates.

Anti-Mohawk protesters take over a semi-trailer

delivering vegetables.

It is estimated that on one night,

more than 7,000 people took part in the rioting.

Three days after the signing, the army makes its move.

2,600 troops of the Royal 22nd Regiment are deployed

in positions near Oka and Kahnawake

and await further orders.

I myself am a traditional Native.

(soldier): Chargez! Chargez!

And I follow our constitution

which was given to us by The Creator.

And in there it states that roti'skenrakehte,

in our language, roti'skenrakehte,

as close as I can bring that to mean in English would be

"the men."

It's our responsibility to protect the people within.

There is a place in our constitution,

and when our services are needed, our help is needed,

we have to go.

(filmmaker): Despite the presence of the army,

talks begin between Mohawk negotiators

and Provincial and Federal representatives

at the Trappist Monastery in Oka.

The Mohawk people have always had good relations

with the Trappists, and this place is considered to be

a neutral zone.

Back in Kanehsatake behind the barricades,

the Warriors get ready

as the army takes over the town.

At the bottom of the hill, General Roy meets

with three Warriors flown in from Kahnawake,

two Warriors from Kanehsatake, and three from Akwesasne.

They are given an ultimatum:

they have three days to open the Mercier Bridge

before the army moves in.

After the meeting, the three Warriors

are flown back to Kahnawake by army helicopter.

They asked me to move out and go to a hotel somewhere,

just in case something happens.

What's the use to run away?

If God's willing to die here, I'll die here.

(filmmaker): The irony is that the army helicopters

are landing behind the Sulpicians' Church

where the trouble all began 270 years ago.

For thousands of years, all this land was Aboriginal land.

Long before the White Man came, the Kanienkehaka,

people of the Flint, known as Mohawks,

had governed themselves

within a Confederacy of Five Nations they called

haudenosaunee.

The Mohawks were the Keepers of the Eastern Door

of the Five Nations territory.

In 1535, on his second voyage to Canada, Cartier reached

the main Iroquoian village, Hochelaga, now Montreal.

At the foot of the mountain,

he saw about 50 Longhouses in the middle of corn fields.

In 1663, the gentlemen of the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris

were named the Seigneurs of the island of Montreal,

and so began the dispossession of the Aboriginal people

of this country.

In 1676, one of their missionaries began visiting

the Mohawk village located where downtown Montreal is today.

The Mohawks were displaced from their homeland

and moved several times by the Sulpicians.

Finally, they were told to move

to a settlement on their hunting grounds

at the mouth of the Ottawa River,

or Lake of Two Mountains.

The settlement was called Kanehsatake.

In 1716, in the name of the King of France, Louis XV,

who was then six years old,

a written promise

was made to the Mohawk Nation

of land nine miles square on condition that,

should the Mohawks leave,

this land would revert to the King.

The King also accorded the Sulpicians

one and half miles by nine miles next to the Mohawks' land.

But the Sulpicians were not happy with this decision;

they wanted all the land

because it was a well-established

meeting place for trading.

A year later,

they succeeded with the help of the Governor

of Montreal and the Intendant

to have the entire tracts of land granted to themselves.

They did not inform the Mohawks of this action.

The deed was sent to France for approval.

It was pointed out that this move would help

in the conversion of these savages,

and that in time of war

they would offer protection

against incursions by other Iroquois.

And so, the Sulpicians became the Seigneurs

of Lake of Two Mountains on land that had been

the hunting grounds of the Mohawks

from time immemorial.

Not knowing of this treachery, the Mohawks remained faithful

to the Catholic Church and the King of France,

and fought on the side of the French against the English.

By 1721, the last Mohawk families were persuaded

to leave the island of Montreal and move to Kanehsatake.

Understanding that they would not be asked to move

or be molested again,

they made a wampum belt as a record of their rights

to the land.

Just to the west, the Algonquins

and the Nipissing People had hunting grounds

on both banks of the Ottawa River,

and they were also on Lake of Two Mountains.

By 1760,

the British had taken control of New France.

A notice was sent to Kanehsatake

that unless they pledged allegiance

to the King of England, their village would be destroyed.

The Chiefs met in full council with Sir William Johnson.

They were told that title to their lands

and freedom of religion were guaranteed in the King's name.

All those who did not wish to be subjects of the British Crown

had 18 months to sell their land.

The Sulpicians were in trouble.

They couldn't sell the land

because the Mohawks were still living there.

So, four months before the deadline,

the head of the seminary in Paris

transferred title to the land to the seminary in Montreal.

The Superior of the Order then swore allegiance

to King George Ill.

On February 8, 1787,

after years of being told by the Sulpicians

that they did not own any land, not even a shrub,

the Mohawks used the wampum belt to convey concern

to Superintendent General of Indian Affairs,

Sir John Johnson.

Said Chief Augnith,

"You see this white line, which shows the length of our land?

The figures holding hands who rejoin the cross

represent the loyalty which we owe to the faith that we hold.

The body represents the Council Fire of our village.

The two dogs on the outside

are supposed to guard the boundaries of our land,

and if anyone attempted to interrupt our possession,

it is their duty to warn us by barking."

(filmmaker): For the Iroquois, the wampum belt

was a record of laws governing

a Five Nation confederacy

ruled by a Council of fifty Chiefs.

This system of government would influence

the future establishment of a democratic charter

in North America.

As the years went by, every Chief took up the struggle

to have their rights to the land recognized.

Notable among these

was Joseph Onasakenrat, a young Mohawk.

The Sulpicians noticed in Joseph a man of more than

ordinary intelligence and influence with his tribe.

They immediately began to patronize him.

They sent him to the College de Montreal

in order to prepare him for the priesthood.

In 1868, at the age of 23,

Joseph was made Head Chief of Kanehsatake.

There was a nobility in his character that scorned

anything that was false.

For the first time, the Mohawks had a Chief

who could read and write the White Man's way.

As secretary to the Sulpicians, he soon discovered the extent

of their false dealings with his nation.

Chief Joseph, accompanied by Algonquin and Nipissing chiefs,

and a group of his people,

marched to the Sulpicians' house.

He confronted the Fathers,

"We have come to inform you

that you have not dealt justly with us

and that we want you to leave our land,

as we do not want to be robbed of our heritage.

This land was given to you in trust

for the Tribe to whom it belongs.

And how have you betrayed that trust?

By selling the timber and filling your treasury

with the proceeds of stolen property.

This land is ours,

ours as a heritage given to us as a sacred legacy.

It is a place where our Fathers lie

beneath those trees.

Our Mothers sang our lullaby.

And you would tear it from us and leave us wanderers

at the mercy of fate."

(filmmaker): The brother of the Bishop of Montreal

came to Oka and threatened the Chiefs

that he would shut them up in Kingston Penitentiary for life

if they did not obey the priests.

He also informed Chief Joseph

that the government had bought land for them in Ontario.

Chief Joseph replied,

"We will never go there;

we will die on the soil of our Fathers.

And our bleaching skeletons shall be a witness

to Nations yet unborn

of Rome's injustice and greed."

(filmmaker): In response,

the priests asked Quebec to send police,

who imprisoned Chief Joseph

and many of the people of Kanehsatake.

In July 1990, this sad legacy continues.

On St-Germain road,

the bus carrying Mohawk negotiators

is intercepted by armed personnel carriers.

The army informs them that death threats

have been received.

The negotiators do not believe them;

their suspicions are confirmed

when they see the army advancing.

(drums)

That's too bad...

It's such a beautiful day, you know...

You wonder where the honor has gone, huh?

Does your Canadian politicians have any?

Move it!

(woman): I'm asking you a question.

Where are you going from here, then?

To our houses and kill us?

(soldier): Not trying to kill anybody, ma'am.

This is how you call peaceful negotiations?

- Okay, continuez a avancer. Continuez a avancer.

I asked you gentle, ok?

- Yeah, and I asked you gentle too...

Go on the other side.

Les armes a bretelle! let's go!

(filmmaker): Major Alain Tremblay is in charge

of this maneuver.

Why aren't our liaisons contacted

about every move that's being made,

because that was one of the agreements.

This is seen as an offensive action.

There are tanks up there on those hills.

That's our land that they're encroaching upon right now

with their tanks.

And we want them out of here.

Wait.

...something happens while we're out there.

This is an intimidating factor.

That's what they're trying to do.

They're on safety on both sides,

please understand this, okay?

You got that confirmed?

This move that you're making will be the last one.

Because from here on in,

I guess we're going to be burying each other,

because we won't move... no, no more.

But my mandate, as a soldier, as a military people,

called here by our government,

is to make sure that we take a position on the ground

so we can ensure the security and the safety

of everybody around here.

So we know we can do that

safely without using our weapons.

No Canadian military soldier will fire one shot...

first.

(filmmaker): A group of Spiritual Leaders from Mexico

have come to support the Mohawks.

(drum, chanting)

(walkie-talkies)

(drum, chanting)

When have these religious leaders

told these people the truth...

as they were stealing land, killing people,

breaking agreements,

their religious leaders with them every Sunday,

baptizing them, Communion, Confirmation,

all their Sacraments.

(filmmaker): At the Trappist monastery,

negotiations are in danger of breaking down.

(reporter): Are you ready to go back to the table

even if the army doesn't pull back from that checkpoint?

- We're gonna go back to the table and we're gonna do

what we have to do to come to a peaceful resolve.

We're not going to be the ones

that's going to walk away from the table.

We're not gonna be the ones that's going to pull the trigger.

It seems that the government wants these talks to fail

so that they can have a legitimate excuse

to put the army on the Indian People and kill us.

There's every indication that they feel that somehow

they've been misled

and that we have known all along about these maneuvers.

I can say to you that we didn't.

(Gabriel): The negotiators representing the Canadian

and Quebec government have pleaded innocent,

but then when questioned later, they said,

"Well, we knew that something was going on this morning,

but we weren't too sure what."

Somebody had asked me, "How far are you willing to go?"

I said, "Six feet under."

And I think that's what's gonna happen.

You're gonna see a death feast.

You're not gonna see land claims.

And... they're proving it.

That's what they want, huh?

Shut up the Indian.

Keep the Indian Nation down where they had them

for so many years.

If I go to jail,

I'm gonna walk through those doors in honor.

I'm not going in as a junkie.

Nothin' to be ashamed of.

And when I come out,

I'll teach my children and my grandchildren to fight.

No more compassion.

I've had it.

I was raised as a pacifist.

I was raised that if you don't want to have prejudice on you,

don't put it out.

And we went through a lot, but this has changed me.

I've never been violent.

I've never thought to hit out, to strike out.

But now don't look at me sideways because I know

I'll never bow down to them,

because they just step on your hands.

If this is civilized,

I'd rather stay on this side of the barricade.

Are you going to let us look in the truck

to see if there's food in there?

- I have to wait for my boss.

- Let them transmit the food.

- On fait rien que regarder a l'interieur...

Beds and things like that.

Can I get up there?

- Oh yes.

That's eight boxes full of food there.

Check if you want.

- Satisfied?

- Yep.

- Okay, now, just to make sure that we are, ok,

on the same length of wave.

There's three meals a day that has to be served, ok,

and we've got, okay, to give the meals to our men.

- I understand.

- Now, you agree with me today, right now,

here in front of all those cameras,

that you will not object any more.

- No, as long as they could have a peek...

- Can I have your name, please?

I don't want your real name,

just give me a name that you use.

- 361.

- 361?

Okay, so we have agreed with 361 that from now on, ok,

every day at every mealtime, there will a truck,

two and half ton like that,

that will be passing through to go to our people

on top of the hill. Is that ok?

- Okay, not a problem.

- As long as it's a truck of food,

not the APCs like this morning.

- But don't everybody stay tense.

We need one man and one man,

whatever.

They got a man over there,

we're short a man over there. We got a man there... fine.

But nobody else be tense.

Get your rest period.

It's like an obstacle course that they've set up.

It's harder to go through.

The day before yesterday,

it wasn't that bad with the army.

But now it is... this is really bad.

(filmmaker): After seven days of negotiations,

the talks are broken off.

The negotiators on the government's side

have reached the limit of their mandates

and are ill-equipped to carry on the discussions

at this time.

And we are equally at an impasse on the proposition

made by the Provincial Government

in relation to the depositing of arms,

which they categorically do not wish to do.

And they did not come back with a counter-proposal

of how to deal with that issue.

(filmmaker): The Mohawks call

their own press conference

for 7 o'clock that evening behind the barricade.

13 out of 15 issues had been agreed upon.

There remained the question

of sovereignty and potential arrest for the Warriors

after a disengagement.

A feeling of discouragement had to be overcome.

Amnesty implies that

we did something wrong and we are to be forgiven for it.

Our position is that we were defending our Nation

and our land, and we are not to be blamed for that.

We are Native people to this land.

We're not trying to take your land

or anybody else's property.

You ask if there's an imminent assault here?

Yes, there is.

Within a few hundred feet from here

you'll find the Armed Forces.

Yes, they're ready for an assault.

We were here to protect

our burial grounds and The Pines

from a 9-hole golf course.

You must keep that in mind.

Have you forgotten?

(filmmaker): army flares are frequent.

On St-Germain road, the army sets up a checkpoint.

Only a string of razor wire

separates the Warriors from the military.

Is it a problem to get out?

Yeah, no problem to get out.

Ok, no problem to come in too?

A problem to come in.

- What problem?

- Who's gonna feed the animal... why?

What, what, why?

Because it's an order.

By whom?

(filmmaker): Mavis Etienne, a Mohawk negotiator,

is arrested by the SQ and detained for 5 hours.

They came to me and they said,

"You're under arrest, Mrs. Etienne."

And I said, "For what?"

And they said, "For being behind the barricades."

And for intimidation and all kinds of stuff like that,

not obeying the injunction.

They'd have to arrest

Siddon and they'd have to arrest Judge Gold,

they'd have to arrest Ciaccia, because they've all been

on the other side of the barricade.

Just when I told them I'm entitled to a phone call

to my lawyer,

the officer sitting in the passenger seat laughed,

turned around and he punched me in the face.

"Which gun did you have when you killed Lemay?"

I'm there, "What do you mean, I didn't kill nobody."

Then just because I said that, another slap,

or a kick in the testicles.

They put the cuffs on my back, they asked me to stand up.

And one of the officers asked me if I smoked.

I was more than happy to have a cigarette.

He lights himself a cigarette,

blows his smoke in my face.

Just when his cigarette is just about out, about an inch long,

he puts it onto my belly.

He actually put his cigarette out on my stomach,

and then he pulls on my pants and puts it down my pants.

And they call us savages, I mean...

And finally I had enough.

Two or three hours of getting beaten on, I signed it.

An empty sheet.

Yeah.

The toughest challenge for any government in the Western World

and our world,

is to defend democracy

against people who do not believe in democracy.

(TV): Mulroney praised Bourassa's government

for the way it's been handling the situation in Oka.

We are not going to accede to requests

from a group of Warriors,

some of whom are not even Canadian citizens,

and whose actions have been, to understate the case,

illegal for some considerable period of time.

(TV): Our troops will confront Warriors

that have a sizable and effective arsenal.

Media coverage of the Warriors has shown

that they have a large number of modern weapons.

(TV anchor): Now Tony Ross in Kanehsatake,

there was some question about how... what kind of armaments

the Warriors had in there.

The army suggested maybe a mortar,

maybe some really tough machine guns.

What have the Mohawks said about that?

(Ross): The Mohawks won't confirm or deny what they have.

I mean, I can tell you the people standing around me here,

I guess I can see some kind of rifles.

I've seen something that looks like semi-automatic weapons.

I'm not a weapons expert,

but mostly rifles and shotguns around here now.

But nobody will confirm or deny

some of the heavy armaments the army's talking about.

The Mohawks here are saying maybe the army's saying

they've got all this equipment

to justify some sort of show of greater force.

Maybe this is the decade that roadblocks

are going to be throughout Canada.

Because people are fed up.

And the only thing that the Governments understand

is right here.

Fish is dying, the air's dying, the plants are dying,

the animals are dying.

We're not too far behind them as the Mohawk Nation.

(filmmaker): A mob attacks a convoy

of 75 cars with old people,

children and women from Kahnawake

as they leave the reserve, fearing an army assault.

One passenger, an elderly man,

later suffered a heart attack and died.

This is what they threw at my father.

This is what hit him in the chest.

(filmmaker): Her 77-year-old father was badly injured.

- I'm going to remember those faces.

(filmmaker): A number of houses

in the area are vandalized

by various people.

In one case,

two Warriors are suspected.

Needless to say, the community feels this is very bad.

An agreement to open

the Mercier Bridge is reached between the army

and the warriors of Kahnawake.

The barricades are dismantled.

The people of Kanehsatake are shocked

when they hear the news. they feel abandoned.

(Gabriel): They have tanks now at our heads.

army helicopters going by have machine guns.

We have a thousand SQ officers waiting to come in.

But we will not surrender.

We've done nothing wrong.

We're not criminals.

They try to intimidate us and break our spirit,

create division amongst our people.

Once that bridge was opened,

it's fairly evident they could do what they like now.

And they're doing it.

This is what they call peaceful resolution.

You want me to help you? Oh, I can't... I gotta go.

(filmmaker): The Warriors move out of their bunkers

as the army invades The Pines.

(woman): Get back!

Back over there! Get back! now!

Get back!

Back!

(filmmaker): Meanwhile, on the 344, Bolt Pin,

an unarmed Warrior in a golf cart, defies the army,

while Mad Jap hears from Sector Five.

Leave your piece behind, please.

I'm unarmed.

You don't have to be armed.

Want me to hold it? Ha-ha-ha!

(woman): Get your fuckin' gun down!

Stay there, or I'll fuckin' kick your ass!

(man): Come on, come on, come on!

Like I told you, my mission is to open the road.

So everything which is blocking the road here,

I have orders to push it with the dozer you saw behind me.

So that's basically the sand pile you have over here,

and the three police cars... former police cars.

Come on! Shoot! Shoot! You fucker!

- Get back!

See, we have complications in the far sector

off of the golf course right now.

Your troops are advancing very heavily over there right now.

Advancing on them, and they don't want to delay a bit.

As we mentioned, we are waitin' for a call,

and them troops are still advancin'.

Could you hold them troops? And stop them?

I'll check that with my boss.

(man): Let's go! Come on!

(woman): Get back!

I'll go over there and talk to that company commander

as evidently you have a field phone to contact him,

and I will go over there personally.

(Mad Jap): Because the negotiation talks

are still on as of yet.

Just hold your position right now.

They're gonna hold theirs.

When it gets dark

they want to come out just basically to the clearing here

and they will not advance any further than that.

These are not weak men, these are strong suckers.

(filmmaker): The Warriors withdraw

to the Treatment Centre to make their last stand.

Michael, we've got something here...

(soldier): All journalists are requested to leave the area

through the gate over there.

Please move now.

(journalist): The army has the media separated.

Some of us are on one side of their newest barricade,

and 50 feet away, I see my fellow reporter, Tony Ross,

on his side of the barricade.

And what I think they're doing...

and I'm only guessing at this point... is...

(helicopter)

What remains is what they are going to do

with the Warriors who are in the Treatment Centre.

Why don't we just do it direct? I mean, is this a rehearsal?

(filmmaker): At 5:30 p.m.,

soldiers check the barricade for booby traps.

Nothing is found.

As the barricades come down, orders are given

to watch out for runaway Warriors.

Three Traditional Leaders arrive to join the people

in the Treatment Centre.

(reporter): Is there any way

for a negotiated settlement now, or...?

- I believe there is. There always has been.

Bon, on arrete la, on arrete la. On arrete la. He! He!

(filmmaker): The Warriors prepare for another advance

by the army,

while some people of the village

take shelter in the Federal school.

The army officers came over and told us that...

Asked us how many people were in the shelter,

and we told 'em about 100.

And they said that all the men, women and children

had to go out on the road and line up

and get their identification ready

because they were going to check them all.

And they said after they checked everybody's identification,

the women and children only could go home.

So we've asked for all human rights organizations

to come and at least have cars ready at the barricades.

So when people are arrested and taken,

that somebody will follow them so they'll know

where they're taking them to.

I'm sorry...

(man): Linda... Linda.

(filmmaker): That night,

some of the journalists sleep out on Highway 344

in front of the Treatment Centre.

The next morning,

the army surrounds the Warriors' encampment with razor wire

and takes position in The Pines.

The Warriors put up

a large curtain to block the view of the soldiers.

This maneuver proved to be very annoying to the army.

(gunshots)

Tension is at the breaking point.

By nightfall,

the army harasses the Warriors with searchlights.

Shadows on a wall.

Is this the end?

(Major Tremblay): Listen, listen, I'm talking now.

Some of your guys throw something at us.

Rocks, woods.

Some of your guys use their four-by-four

to tear the barbed wire.

Listen, calm your guys

because I'm not going to fuck around here.

Understood?

Understood, that's all.

If you have any problem, go at the hotline.

I have a military job

to do here... I'm going to do it.

(Mad Jap): Back your men up then.

- My men will back up as soon as your men are backing up.

- They're backed up already.

- Oh yeah? Prove it to me.

- ...hit the trench with rocks.

...on this side here with big bayonets.

And they said that rocks and wood was thrown back at them.

They took their bayonets, trying to cut this screen down

because they can't see.

It's the only reason.

The only reason that they are doing this

is because they cannot see.

Get that light off me a minute.

Get that fucking light off me!

(Mad Jap): The men are backing off.

(Major Tremblay): The men are backing off?

- They're backing off, yes, right now.

- I cannot see it.

- Well, that's the thing, we cannot see you either.

You come forward right here, then you'll see.

- Oh yeah, I'm not gonna go on the other side.

- No, no... nobody's gonna do you no harm.

I go over there, I'm not scared.

You don't have a cause.

You should be real proud.

They're gonna have your pictures on the papers,

as cowards.

When you write home to mommy,

you better tell 'em you're in Germany.

You don't want to tell 'em you're here.

She's liable to kick your ass when you get home.

(soldier): Fuck off!

(filmmaker): The army uses a crane

to see over the curtain.

Major Marquis Hainse.

M-a-r-q-u-e-s...

H-a-i-n-s-e.

H-a-i-n...

s-e.

Hainz... Heinz?

H-a-i-n-s-e.

(Major): H-a-i-n-s-e...

(reporter): Haines, ok.

(male reporter): No, s-e... not e-s... s-e.

(Major): H-a-i-n-s-e, exactly.

- Ok.

Whenever a flare would go off, it was, uh...

At first everybody would kind of run to that area

and see.

And when that would happen

it would leave other areas unguarded.

(male): You didn't talk to anybody.

(Mad Jap): I was puttin' it out, ordered it,

until they come, the cameramen, down, then you move...

There was always that kind of thought

at the back of your head... well, what...

maybe it's a diversionary tactic or something.

Have to go and investigate,

make sure it didn't burn The Pines.

Come on, let's go, get out of here.

Hey, hey... come on.

(David): We lodged a few complaints that these flares

are only heightening the chances of people shooting,

because it produced a lot of fear, a lot of agitation.

Mom, what's that thing?

Nothing.

(child): I know it's a bomb, Ma.

- Yeah, it's some kind of bomb.

- What happens if you touch it?

- Dogo... It's poison, I guess.

- What's poison?

Makes us sick.

(Mad Jap): We don't know what it is, first of all.

(woman): The flare went up and this thing landed next to me.

We were sitting here...

Bruce was laying there, relaxing.

And here, and this thing made a big noise in the ground,

like a big thump.

(mother singing to child in Mohawk)

(woman): Now, if it had killed either one of us, I mean,

I know everyone in there would be dead.

(mother singing)

(reporter): Hey, this is free country, buddy.

You have your orders...

- It's our Constitutional right!

You keep your hands away from the camera.

- Now, you just said they're allowed in there because...

(filmmaker): In Kahnawake, the army raids the Longhouse,

even though it had promised to stay out of the reserve

once the Mercier Bridge was opened.

Why not? It's their house.

Sir, it's an order from higher.

(Native): He's welcome... they're welcome in.

(soldier): Sir, it's an order from higher.

No reporters, no television crews past the cordon.

They all beat us.

We were laying in ditches out there.

We were fighting them.

They were punching, believe me.

They pulled my daughter's shirt right off.

He says we're welcome.

No sir, the cordon has been established, sir.

No photographer crews, no media crews past the cordon.

Besides sir, I don't ask questions,

I just take orders, sir.

Six guys jumped me,

and when I tried to stop them from going in the Longhouse,

they smashed my face with a butt,

in the back of the head...

On my eye...

Back of my neck...

My hand, it's all cut up.

(filmmaker): At the Treatment Centre,

when the Warriors learn of the raid,

they react immediately.

Lasagna is from Kahnawake

and he is having a hard time controlling himself.

Lorraine Montour,

who was almost hit by a falling flare the night before,

is enraged.

(soldier): Mettez-vous sur le barbele puis bougez pas.

(Montour): Get out of here, you shithead!

You too!

(Warrior): You gotta go home and live with yourself.

You gotta go home and talk to your children too, uh?

I'm a terrorist?

You guys better go home and re-educate yourselves.

(soldier): Restez concentres.

Come on, Canada's using ya!

(woman): Piss on kids, too, in Kahnawake?

Looks who's the savage now.

(man): Rifle butts, unarmed women, innocent women, children.

Is that what you do?

(woman): Making kids screamin' and cryin'.

Your kids are gonna pay for this, man,

let me tell you.

Why don't you fuckin' try me, asshole?

Come on, come on, guys.

Let us resolve these things, ok?

(filmmaker): The youngest of the Mohawk Warriors, Adoa,

is calmed by Bob Antone, a Traditional Chief.

That's real fuckin' nice, huh?

(Mad Jap): Hey, come on.

(filmmaker): Loran Thompson takes the time to pass on

the stories and the language to the children.

(speaking Mohawk)

(helicopter)

(filmmaker): Now that SQ boats are patrolling,

the chance of bringing food across the lake is much reduced.

(Mad Jap): There's no big rush.

- No, eh? - No, there's no...

- You're not going anywhere? - I'm not going no place.

(filmmaker): After four hours of waiting,

every item of food is inspected

at two different army checkpoints.

Margaret Gabriel is allowed in TC to deliver food

for the last time.

...Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Let's walk in, Greg, go ahead, let's walk in.

- Venez ici, venez-vous-en ici.

- In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.

- Laissez-les pas passer.

- I don't believe this.

- I absolutely...

We're ministers of the Gospel. we're concerned about people.

- Please... there's nothing

to gain and those soldiers will not allow you in.

- There's souls to be gained, there's people to be gained.

(filmmaker): The sun is going down.

The Warriors' silence speaks of death.

Some of them have made their wills.

Another night in TC.

It is 4 a.m.

Alone in his bunker, after days of guard duty and no sleep,

Spudwrench dozes off.

He is jumped by an army patrol and severely beaten.

(Dr. David Gorman): When I first saw Spudwrench,

I had a terrific anger welled up inside of me.

He was beaten beyond almost all recognition.

His head was about one and a half times the size

of an ordinary head.

One eye was fully closed.

He had lacerations all over his head.

My initial impression

was anger.

How could they do this to a person?

I start yellin' and they start beatin' me

with somethin' on the head, about 25 times.

There was 3 guys holdin' me down.

(filmmaker): The Warrior's condition is reported

to Major Tremblay by a military paramedic.

Your guy needs to be sent to a trauma centre.

I'm going to promise you

that he's gonna be brought back as soon as he's ok.

Ok, he's not to be interrogated

by no one or anything?

No, not at all.

Can I have that in writing, please?

In writing? We cannot do that and you know that.

You're going to have to take my word.

His life is more important.

It is the most important thing to me right now.

It's the same thing for us.

Uh... evidently not. But that's neither

here nor there on that, right now.

(filmmaker): It takes several hours of negotiations

before the army allows

Dr. Gorman inside TC to treat Spudwrench

and a civilian ambulance to take him

to a hospital.

The first thing I found...

Everybody searched...

And I saw something laying in the sand,

it was about this long.

It was wrapped in leather.

It was a blackjack.

That was the thing that they used on him,

and I held it by my fingers.

And somebody says, "Let me see."

I said, "Don't even touch it."

And he told us, he says,

"They're not foolin'." He says, "Be careful."

(Dr. Gorman): Finally, the army who didn't want him

to fall in the hands of the SQ...

And they knew if he died in a jail, that ultimately,

they'd be responsible for murder.

They had a big verbal fight with the ambulance driver...

the army MPs... and their hands were on their pistols,

and they were trying to see

that we got safe passage to the hospital.

Though I had seen him and I had treated him,

and I had sewn up all his wounds,

when I saw his picture on the front page

of the Montreal newspaper,

I wept when I saw it a few days later.

Yes, I gave him my word that if,

due to the seriousness of the injuries

that was assessed at that time,

he could... that the option of coming back could be considered.

(reporter): Major Tremblay said yesterday

before our cameras, quote,

"I'm going to promise you that he's going to be

brought back here as soon as he's okay."

Did the army break that promise or not?

- No.

Major Tremblay's Company, Company C,

has changed places with Company A.

Company A is now down in that direction,

Company C back here.

Standard procedure.

It's just a matter that Major Tremblay's troops

have been in the thick of things for a number of days now,

and it's a matter of allowing fresh troops to get in there,

and Major Tremblay's troops to perhaps step back a bit

and relax.

(playful music)

(Joe David): But just the idea

of putting razor wire in the water.

Come on, guys. Get real.

I don't think they've really clued in to the idea

that we're not going anywhere.

It's probably a concept that they just can't understand.

(playful music)

(filmmaker): Bob Antone returns

to replace Terry Doxteter, who has gone to the Peace Camp

where the people are upset and angry

after hearing about Spudwrench.

(man): We're all here in solidarity.

(woman): It's a war zone!

I'd rather die than have those people die.

(woman): They took one in.

How many more are they gonna take?

Already they have Akwesasne surrounded,

they got Oka surrounded,

what other Reservations are they gonna surround?

(man): They try to beat up women and children

in Kahnawake.

Okay, they've pushed us far enough.

(Terry Doxteter): All I'm asking is don't let

your anger guide you.

That's what those men have been fighting for days.

If they could talk to you, they'd tell you to wait

and plan this out properly.

(woman): I talked to my brother and he said

he didn't think he was comin' out alive!

That's what we gotta do, go home and take care of their kids!

We want them out!

I've been beaten so many times by the state police, the SQ.

I know how it feels, I know how those people feel.

I'm not afraid to die!

I'm not afraid to spend the rest of my life in prison!

(woman): You're talkin' about the lives of a lot of people

who've been patient for a long time.

- Patient for a long time, yeah.

Well, they're gettin' beaten and beaten and beaten!

Who's gonna be next?

- You're saying it's time for them to die?

- No, I'm sayin' it's time for us to do something.

Are we gonna let another one beat up?

How many times have they kept one... One promise?!

They kept one promise!

One promise they kept!

They promised to take all of our land, and they're doing it.

(chanting)

Myself and Robert Galbraith, we...

when we heard there was no TV cameras here

and that people were concerned that a massacre might happen

because it wouldn't be televised,

we took a small video camera... this one...

and we put it in a box and we crawled through the forest.

Mostly on our bellies.

We got covered with insects.

We went past the army in broad daylight.

There's all this psychological stuff

about how you can't get through barbed wire.

Well, we put a tarpaulin underneath the wire

instead of going over it,

and we crawled underneath and came through about 7:30.

This was last Sunday.

We're your eyes and they're trying to blind us

by getting the press out of here.

I'm not gonna leave. I'm not gonna be blinded.

I want you to see, I want the people to see

what's gonna happen. I can't understand why

the politicians don't realize this, that there's gonna be

complete anarchy throughout Canada if anybody's hurt here.

If anybody's shot, if a gun goes off.

That's gonna break up the country.

That's what it's gonna do.

It's gonna break our country up.

And I love Canada, and I love Canadians.

It's beautiful up here, it's really nice.

(man): Ok, let me...

- People are really great. I recommend it to anyone.

If we're not recognized as a nation, it's brought

all Indian Nations together, this fight.

So in a way, our battle is won.

Major Tremblay had it put there by one of his men.

I questioned him about it.

He says he had his men put it there.

Just to intimidate me, to make me mad.

Doesn't bother me at all.

They're soldiers of the Mohawk Nation

and they've conducted themselves well as soldiers,

and as Warriors.

And they have been disciplined,

they've been real good men

out there... to hold back and to restrain themselves

as much as they have.

Even though they've been fired upon in this siege,

they've maintained a real strong integrity.

(filmmaker): Bruce Elijah never seems to rest.

He helps take away the anger from the hearts and the minds

of the Warriors.

Day by day, you can see the change in their spirit.

A lot of the guys too have changed.

They're not really trying to keep up

that hard exterior anymore... I mean...

they're gentle in their own way.

You're seeing more than just the Warrior.

You're seeing somebody who's a human being.

It's important that we keep our traditions alive,

and it's really important that we hold on to our language.

This is what makes us strong, our beliefs...

And our customs and our prayers and...

songs and the drum.

This is what keeps us going.

You all set, Ryan? - Yes, front desk please.

Sure, hang in, guys.

Yep, take care.

Free at last, free at last.

Okay, you all take care.

Watch yourself.

(filmmaker): Ryan Remiorz,

a photographer for Canadian Press, has decided to leave.

He is escorted out of TC to be questioned by the SQ

at their temporary headquarters

in the clubhouse at the golf course.

(Remiorz): Most of the print journalists have cell phones

so they can file their stories over the phone.

The TV and still guys, it's gonna be more difficult,

but I think at this point,

the only reason people are staying

is to see what happens at the end,

to be there for the final assault or the surrender,

or whatever ends up happening.

Hello, Phyl?

Hi, how are you?

Okay, how are you?

Good, good.

I guess you've heard the army's cut off

the telephone inside here, eh?

Yes.

So, who knows what's gonna happen next?

So, hopefully it's not our last call for a while.

How's the kids?

Good, good.

Yes, I can.

Hi, honey, how are you?

Did you have a fun day at your school?

Really?

I got your paintings and the big smiley face,

the happy face,

and it was beautiful.

And I got it hanging up at my work right now.

Yes, I showed all my friends at work

and they thought it was very beautiful.

How's my other little girl?

How's little Iona?

Is she being a good girl?

Did you feed the fish today?

Oh, I'm happy.

Well, daddy may be seeing you soon, okay?

I don't know when I'm gonna come home, honey...

Got anything for asthma?

I can't come in there... For me to treat you...

- And if I leave, I can't come back.

You're not gonna give me any medicine unless I leave here

and you take me away.

Are you the Commander, sir?

- Yes, I am.

Can you explain to me how we can be taken into custody

when we're not accused of a crime?!

Can you explain it?

(soldier): The policy is journalists

are confined to stay over there

or to leave.

This is a confined area.

- I realize that.

Now, it's at the point right now where the condition I have,

which is a chronic asthmatic bronchial condition,

if it worsens,

it can be life-threatening.

If you don't believe me, call up the Royal Edward Chest Hospital

and ask them for my file. My name is Cash.

I'm sure you've got a file on me that thick by now.

Call up the hospital

and ask 'em if I've ever come close to death,

and they'll tell you.

- It's your decision, mister. It's your decision.

- My decision is this:

if I want medical treatment, I have to go into custody.

- No.

- Am I accused of any crime, right now, by being here?

'Cause we don't know because we're not allowed to speak

to lawyers either.

(coughing)

Excuse me.

Could we have the doctor's name?

Excuse me, sir.

Is it possible to have the name of the doctor

I was speaking with?

No.

No? I mean, is there any law in operation here?

- I haven't seen it.

- The hotline says they're not authorized

to deal with journalists. - I'm not either.

- What the fuck is goin' on?

So we don't fuckin' exist?

(filmmaker): 24 hours later,

Ted Cash finally receives his medication.

A group of Oka residents protests against the Peace Camp.

(car horns)

We come a long ways.

Clear across from Vancouver.

Before that, from South Dakota to here.

So, we feel that we have a right to go there

and pray with our brothers and our sisters.

We come very much at peace and we have a pipe with us.

This pipe was also in negotiation at Wounded Knee.

We are the ones that are blend with this earth.

Cops just came here a few minutes ago and warned us.

If we're smuggling in people they're gonna come

and gonna hassle the people at the camp

and people who tries to get in.

That's not right.

They're treatin' us like we're garbage.

- T'aveugles la madame, veux-tu qu'elle frappe quelqu'un?

(filmmaker): More and more people

are coming to the Peace Camp, but the SQ turns them back.

We're going in there to pray with our brothers.

- I understand you, but the order from now,

because it's an emergency zone, so you're not allowed to go in.

We must control everything that's going in.

You need an address inside.

(woman): There's thousands of people coming.

What are you gonna do with everybody?

We're all coming to show support.

(policeman): We'll turn them back.

Tomorrow we're supposed to have an area

especially for you people... a place for a camp and...

You mean, to detain us?

(policeman) No, no, no, not a detention camp.

An area especially for you to put your tent.

(man): No, no, no. this is my country.

Don't make that mistake.

You know, you cannot be treatin' us this way.

- We don't treat you...

I'm talking about people who come from

out of the country here.

They don't have a place to stay.

- You're from out of the country if anybody's out of the country.

This is our country.

"Our Home and Native Land," it says.

But now they're putting up barriers for my people.

We can't go... Do as we like.

We got to be careful how we talk

or who we talk to in this country.

Even in regards to our spirituality.

I'm guaranteed freedom of movement anywhere within Canada.

And they say I can't go in there to be with my people.

Now, that's ridiculous.

This is not Russia, this is not Nazi Germany.

This is Canada.

(Russell Means): You allow your leaders of your country

to just call people names,

rather than go and talk with them,

and you're never gonna resolve anything.

And all you're gonna cause is death and misery

and destruction.

Destruction of communities like Oka,

destruction of communities like Kahnawake,

and all the rest of 'em.

I mean, I just can't say it enough how idiotic

they're acting on the world stage.

Whoever we are...

What's wrong with talking to one another?

If they're going to act like children,

then they should watch children a little longer,

because right after they get in a fight,

five minutes later, they're best buddies again.

(applause)

(filmmaker): The army finally allows journalists to approach

the front of the Treatment Centre.

There are twelve fine journalists here.

We've got a 50-fuckin'- calibre pointed at our heads.

Welcome to South America.

- Help us, help us. - Freedom of the press.

- It's pretty difficult to do our jobs.

It's unacceptable.

I ask you right now, please, to come back over there.

There are a dozen people in there who are working hard,

trying to tell the story to the whole world

of what's going on from that side, okay?

The journalists are trying to throw their film

across the barbed wire to other journalists outside,

and the Armed Forces interfering with that.

Those films are now in the hands of the police.

Well, that's a pretty horrible thing.

They're not allowed to interfere

with human rights here.

But they're doing it anyway.

- How many eggs did they throw at you?

- Let's say that they did throw more than one egg at us.

- A dozen, two dozen, six? - I don't really know.

- But you know they threw eggs at you?

- They threw eggs at us.

Your people are throwing eggs at us.

So apparently you have too much food.

I don't understand that.

- That's not true.

- That is true.

That vehicle over there, you see the one with a red "A" on it?

Take the next vehicle. Two eggs landed

right next to that vehicle and they were thrown

from the inside of the perimeter.

- You want to show that to me?

- You won't be able to see it

because that's on the other side.

- You want to take me over there?

- I can bring you the shells of the eggs.

- That you had for breakfast.

- Well, anyway...

- You won't be able to use the shells 'cause...

- We'll take the camera crew over there.

- Are you here to pick this up?

- We don't waste no food, see?

- Well, I'm sorry, but they did.

- Yes, I'm here to pick this up.

- This is our food list.

- The food list to me?

No, I won't send any food list.

- Why not?

- Because I'm not sending a food list.

I'm picking this up.

I'll bring you the shells.

- No, don't take them over. You show us where they hit.

We'll take the camera crew so they can see where they hit.

- No, you can't see it

because that's on the other side of the road.

Give me the camera, I'll tape it for you.

- No food left here. Unless it's your own men.

Unless it's your own men trying to pull some shit.

We got a new Colonel Klink here.

Corporal Klink.

Major Klink.

Colonel Klink.

(man): We also have a bunker picked out for you guys...

(filmmaker): Psycho and Kathy are engaged to be married.

(filmmaker): In the journalists' bunker in Oka, they watch

as the SQ, protected by the army,

raids Tekakwitha Island in Kahnawake.

(protesters yelling)

(protesters yelling from TV)

(voices yelling)

- Come on, you motherfucker!

(mixed voices yelling)

(filmmaker): The police say

they found firearms there.

(lively music)

(reporter): Tell me why you needs guys in riot gear

and Chinook helicopters

to cart away dozens of cases of beer?

- No.

- Are you confused and perplexed by it?

- No.

- Why are they doing it?

- The Chinooks and the helicopters were not here

for the beer, I'm sure you know that... thank you.

(filmmaker): People are leaving the Peace Camp

under pressure from the SQ.

No sooner do their buses leave the Camp than they are stopped,

and everyone is questioned.

Ok, what's your name?

Mabel Mae Doxteter.

What is your date of birth, please. 58?

- 1958. - And your name?

- Pas de recours a la force pour les enlever de la?

(contemplative music)

- I live here.

You block the traffic.

- You block the traffic! I fucking live here!

- Move your car, please.

- Get off the fuckin' road! You work for us!

You work for Canadians. Or do you not?

- Could you move your car please?

- I fucking live here.

- That's the last time I tell you. Move your car.

- I live here.

- If you don't move your car, I will do an arrestation.

- You're going to arrest me because I live here?

Is my life in danger?

To go to my home?

Who do you work for? Canada or somebody else?

- Embarquez dans votre voiture, monsieur...

- I don't speak French.

- Je suis desole, je parle pas Anglais.

- I don't have to speak French.

Okay, I'll get in my car.

I'm going home, though.

I'm going this way, where I live.

I am allowed to go anywhere in Canada, anytime.

I'm a citizen of this country. I'm a property owner in Oka.

I can do what I like.

I know, miss.

- I want to take these people home.

I've not the authority for say you to go.

I ask you wait a moment in your car

for the security at all people.

Yeah, but why can't we just leave?

Wait a few minutes.

A few minutes... how long?

I don't know, maybe 15 minutes.

You just said a little while ago

that as soon as she got down here

to say that she was taking us to her place...

You speak too fast for me, I'm sorry.

We could go.

Could you speak slowly?

No.

I don't speak English very well.

If you speak too fast,

I don't understand, I'm sorry.

I have leased my property to these people.

We checked that, madame.

If you lose your propriete, it's not... we don't...

Applique?

- Apply that.

- We refuse because we respect for security for Oka.

(woman): No fucking rights!

Sure, arrest a man who wants to stand up for people!

You guys couldn't even answer us.

You couldn't even answer us.

And then you go and arrest my husband!

You stand back and you laugh at us

like we're a bunch of goddamn idiots!

We're standing up for our rights!

I got a daughter in this car,

leave me alone!

Listen, I just...

My daughter's in the car. Please leave me alone.

Madame, montez, madame.

That's not right.

Okay, madame, ecoutez...

I'm not that strong, you don't have to twist my arm.

I arrest you, okay? And your kid... okay?

Let me go.

Okay, okay...

Let me go. Just leave me alone!

Tu l'arretes-tu ou tu l'arretes pas?

My child's gonna stay with me.

- Okay, entrez, entrez...

- Okay, here, here...

- Fini, fini, fini... Embarquez, madame, embarquez...

What about my daughter?

Answer me, my daughter's in the car!

No, I'm not gonna be quiet!

We asked to go there.

You lied to us.

We couldn't go there.

Now we can't stay here.

Now we can't go there.

Where can we go?

This is Canada! Canada!

A free country!

For everyone!

Yeah, we're just trying to get food and clothing in.

It's the first time we tried with clothing

and apparently they don't want clothing in.

The guys that are in there

are still wearing the same clothes since July 11,

and fall is coming.

There's women, children in there.

You know, we brought warm clothing, like...

Socks and jogging...

pants and jogging sweater,

things like that.

At the present time,

there are about 20 women and eight children there.

And certainly these women and children are not terrorists

and they don't deserve the treatment they are getting.

They don't allow me to see my daughter,

they won't allow us to take warm clothing,

and they are now threatening

to cut off the food supply.

(man): You guys should just leave it open, you know.

We're not going nowhere.

(filmmaker): Getting food into the Treatment Centre

is becoming more and more difficult.

(Bolt Pin): Look, the bags have been poked at.

Look, they've been stabbed.

(Mad Jap): Each one of the bags... the flour,

the cereal... anything that has that kind of bag...

- How do we know they didn't put nothin' in it?

(woman): Every orange is pierced and the bananas

are very ripe, they've been squished, just soft in my hand.

This oil is empty, basically.

It has been pierced by something and leaked out all over,

created a mess.

Bacon... they're gonna cholesterol us to death.

(filmmaker): Geoffrey York of The Globe and Mail

leaves the Treatment Centre.

There's only two reporters left for mainstream newspapers.

There's no CBC reporters left,

there's no broadcast reporters at all.

Well, I think the thing that's the most unbelievable

is that in a country like Canada we're allowing the army

to tell us what can be published in our newspapers

and what can be put on our nightly news.

(filmmaker): At a press conference, Terry Doxteter

describes the negotiators' final proposal

for disengagement.

(reporter): Do you sense there might be

a risk involved here because you're willing to lay down

your gun before they...

(filmmaker): The government has just announced

that the army will be replaced by the SQ.

- The greatest risk right now is that

should the army pull out, SQ will move in

and not be interested in seeking peace and having peace.

They'd be more interested in seeing these men dead.

(filmmaker): Back in TC, behind the razor wire,

the army uses high-pressure water hoses

against the Warriors.

(shouting)

They throw condoms full of water at the soldiers.

(Warrior): Where's your wife tonight?

(urgent music)

(filmmaker): On September 26,

after 78 days under siege,

the people reach a consensus.

They will walk out of TC.

(Brian Mike Myers): For the moment,

we have to endure persecution,

we have to endure our people being mistreated

in the courts, in the jails, being beaten,

being bayoneted.

For now.

But in the long course of history,

the face of Canada will be politically, socially,

economically and spiritually changed...

back in favor of our people.

And who knows how our great-grandchildren

are going to rewrite that?

That's totally up to them,

but we will at least be able to leave the earth knowing

that while we were here, we did all that we could

to set in motion for them a better future.

And so for me that's what Kanehsatake is about.

(man): Once the anger goes, it seems like

the only thing that's left is the sadness...

and just being tired.

I think I would like to just get away and not remember,

not think about it for a while...

just rest...

and heal.

I'm with good people.

(filmmaker): Through all this time,

the people took strength from ancient spiritual ceremonies.

Now they prepare themselves to face

whatever awaits them outside.

(man): Having these ceremonies, you know,

I started realizing who I am, huh?

I didn't come here to kill people, you know?

I just came here to protect the land.

(cheers)

The government is going too far.

We only could take so much, you know.

(subdued music)

(filmmaker): There were never more than 30 Warriors

here in TC.

And one Spiritual Leader, one Traditional Chief,

19 women and seven children.

(quiet music)

(The General): We have to think about

the future generation...

grandchildren, great-grandchildren.

Constantly talk to them about

our ancestors, you know, how hard they fought for this land.

They sacrificed their lives.

There's a long trail of broken promises.

(chanting)

They were prepared for anything.

If the people from TC came out,

they weren't surrendering.

They didn't have their hands held above their heads.

They were going home.

But the spirit was there.

We never surrendered.

It was an exit.

It was like being in a Twilight Zone.

We never did the expected thing.

It was always the unexpected and they... they weren't ready.

Where the fuck's my baby?

L'autre bord de la ligne!

- Les mains dans le dos, c'est beau.

Don't move! Don't move! You're under arrest!

- Okay, les journalistes, back off a bit,

back off, back off, back off, please!

(voices yelling)

It was bad enough for us, the women.

I mean, the men knew they were gonna be beat up on.

We all took care of each other

as best we could.

(Babe): One of them twisted my arms, trying to break my wrists.

Another guy came over, banged my head on the road.

Then they put the cuffs on me.

But I would laugh and I'd say things to them.

He says "Give up, you lost now." I said we didn't lose.

It made 'em even more...

started struggling more, so they put more guys on,

jump on top.

And they see the women and kids laying all over the ditches

and all that.

(Lorna): I saw one man being dragged on the ground

on his back,

and he was holding on to one of the masks.

And another one was standing up.

He wasn't doing anything to provoke the soldiers or anything,

and they were poking the bayonets at him.

They were pushing him around and they were hitting him.

And he was just protecting the mask.

(Bolt Pin): A little boy couldn't get over the wire

and I grabbed him by the collar.

In the confusion, he just got lost with his mom and that.

So, when I had him, she was laying

face down on the ground,

and they had handcuffed her with the metal handcuffs.

And then she had a pack on her back,

and she was hurtin'.

So they couldn't get the satchel off her back.

So they says, "Cut it off with a knife".

Well, the boy had seen this, and now he was crying.

(screaming)

A 14-year-old girl was bayoneted in the chest.

Uh...

She was protecting her four-year-old sister.

It was really awful.

What saved her from that bayonet going straight in

instead of sideways must have been the spirits on our side.

(shouting)

(shouting)

(filmmaker): Some people reach the village in Oka,

but Noriega is arrested by the SQ.

You're gonna kill my family?

My family, I want my family.

Get the camera off...

They lied to us.

When is it gonna end?

When are we gonna have our fuckin' rights?

When are we gonna be treated like humans?

Look at that.

When is it gonna end?

When Bourassa has all our headstones lined up?

That's not when it's gonna end.

Their circle's not finished.

It's not finished.

(chanting)

(Bolt Pin): They got us leaning against the bus,

and they started puttin' the plastic handcuffs on,

and then we got inside

and somebody had a fingernail clipper.

And as they came in

we were snippin' 'em off.

So, we had a whole bunch of these plastic bands.

Finally, then I threw 'em out the window.

A little while later, all of a sudden

the MP passes by and sees them on the ground.

I don't know if he knew where they came from,

but everybody was... had no handcuffs

except the ones that had the metal handcuffs.

(woman): Then we started rocking the bus like crazy,

we sang some traditional songs, just to comfort everybody.

We just knew we had to stay strong and not to be afraid.

(Bolt Pin): The MP says,

"If anyone makes a move, shoot 'em, just shoot 'em."

Now if he'd have known nobody had handcuffs on,

we could have jumped him, but it was over.

It was finished

when they found out that we were family people.

They thought we were going to have records as long as our arm.

They was families... husbands, wives, children.

Who's gonna leave their family behind?

How it's gonna be written in history...

if I was a soldier,

I'd be ashamed to say I was in Oka, or Kanehsatake.

(filmmaker): St-Jerome...

The people are brought to the courthouse for arraignment.

(woman): We were here first,

and we sure the hell ain't gonna leave.

It'll be a day in hell. This is just the beginning.

(woman): It's not the end. We got children.

I hope yous guys put your children through

this stuff you put us through.

Yous guys jumped on my mother.

My mother didn't do nothin'.

- 'Cause they're animals.

- We ought to stick you on a Reservation,

and take away your land.

- We don't ask for anything that's not ours.

You came and you took.

You took!

(cheers)

Did we save any children?

If we did, it was worth it.

(woman): Stay strong!

You take one arrow and break it.

But when you get a whole bunch, you can't break it.

And that's the people stickin' together.

(chanting)

(voice of Chief Joseph): This land is ours.

Ours as a heritage given to us

as a sacred legacy.

It is a place where our fathers lie beneath

those trees.

Our mothers sang our lullaby.

And you would tear it from us and leave us wanderers,

at the mercy of fate.

(filmmaker): July 1992.

All but three of the defendants

in the Oka trial are acquitted by a jury.

The cost to the federal and provincial governments

was over 155 million dollars.

Mayor Ouellette was re-elected,

and the land issue is still not resolved.

Nikjikapta'sit kitpu, the General, known as Tom Paul,

from Eskasoni, died February 1992.

He was 49 years old.

He had taken part in the resistance at Wounded Knee,

Ganienke, Restigouche, Akwesasne, and Kanehsatake.

- Go back to learning the spiritual ways.

That way, everybody will be strong.

(chanting)

(chanting continues)

(helicopter)

(chanting continues)

(woman): That's a part of us. That's a part of me.

These trees are the biggest ones

I've seen in our territory.

Before the Europeans came,

we had trees like this all over the place.

- We were a small number of people,

but the quality of the people that were there was...

it was just outstanding.

Closed Captions Sous-Titrage Plus Inc.