{"id":26594,"date":"2022-07-25T00:16:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T04:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=26594"},"modified":"2022-07-25T16:35:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T20:35:46","slug":"doug-george-kanentiio-residential-school-survivors-maintain-our-ancestral-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/25\/doug-george-kanentiio-residential-school-survivors-maintain-our-ancestral-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug George-Kanentiio: Residential school survivors maintain our ancestral lands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\">\r\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-pGl-_3jOIY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Vatican News: <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/-pGl-_3jOIY>Pope Francis arrives in Edmonton, Alberta &#8211; July 22, 2022<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Akwesasronon Shonataten:ron (Mohawk Residential School Survivors) And Our Ancestral Lands <\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, July 25, 2022<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Doug George-Kanentiio<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOne of the intents of the  Canadian and U.S. governments in creating the boarding-residential  schools was to alienate indigenous people from their ancestral lands.  No other compulsion has been as powerful as the possibility of possessing land which in Europe was beyond the reach of most people, the &#8220;peasants&#8221; and &#8220;serfs&#8221; bound to a life time of servitude to their &#8220;lords&#8221; who wielded the power of the state and church in actively suppressing any attempt to challenge or even question the validity of the ruling elite.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nCenturies of  conflict ensued when the Indigenous nations fought to prevent the theft of their territories by a settler people gone mad when they were told that this &#8220;untamed wilderness&#8221; was theirs for the taking once the inhabitants were removed. To do that, the humans, the <em>Onkweh<\/em>, had to be demeaned. Genocide needed justification as morally and lawfully correct, hence the creation of the great myths, the lies, about those who were to be extinguished. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThere should be no doubt  about  this cruel fact: residential schools were an extension of these acts. This was codified under the <em>encomienda<\/em> system  established by the Spaniards which demanded tribute to the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown (both deriving their authority from  &#8220;god&#8221;) in the form of labour or taxes. In exchange the Natives were given formal instruction in the doctrines and rituals of both entities. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_indianz-com\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/25\/residential-school-survivors-of-akwesasne-no-apology-without-justice\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/07\/mohawkinstitute-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Residential School Survivors of Akwesasne: No apology without justice\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/25\/residential-school-survivors-of-akwesasne-no-apology-without-justice\/\">\n\t\t\tResidential School Survivors of Akwesasne: No apology without justice\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/25\/residential-school-survivors-of-akwesasne-no-apology-without-justice\/\">\n\t\t\t<p>Nothing will be done for us without us. No one may speak on our behalf without our express approval.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/favicon.ico\" alt=\"Indianz.Com\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\tIndianz.Com\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nDisplacement of the people was inevitable as was the  taking of the children to be raised apart from their ancestral values and the love of their families. Forced indoctrination would create a generation of young people students at odds with their  community and often hostile to the traditional  customs of those communities. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOnce this separation was realized it became fairly simple to have fraudulent cessions of land. In our history no one exemplified the dangers of having these individuals  cited as &#8220;leaders&#8221; than <a href=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joseph_Brant>Joseph Brant<\/a>. Rather than use his knowledge of settler culture to protect the people he actively engaged in selling millions of acres of Mohawk land.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBrant admired the British system of formal education and the lifestyles of the economic upper classes. He has long been held up as a model for Native students rather than as the one who caused displacement and harm to the people. It was not by chance that the <a href=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mohawk_Institute_Residential_School>Mohawk Institute<\/a> was built on property adjacent to the burial site of Brant in a town named for him.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs <em>Akwesasronon<\/em> we rejected the Brant method. Even as students at the Institute we  knew there was something very wrong in how and what were were taught. We were ripped from our homes and our land.  We were alienated as was planned. Our loss meant it was easier for our territory to be taken as it is now being done at Akwesasne and across the continent.\r\n<P><\/P><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><P><\/P>\r\n As <em>Shonataten:ron<\/em> we stand against any act in which the land is seen as a commodity, as something to be &#8220;negotiated&#8221; over in secrecy. We believe in openness and full disclosure; we believe it is illogical and unlawful to gamble with our land by given an external court the power to decide what is ours.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWe feel that <a href=https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/07\/25\/residential-school-survivors-of-akwesasne-no-apology-without-justice\/>as survivors we have a  perspective which must be taken into consideration<\/a>. It is this simple: the best person to ask about wars are veterans, the same with those who recover from serious illnesses. We know what it means to be stolen and we can speak directly about what happens when territorial alienation occurs. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOur literal survival at the Institute  demanded that we physically fight back. This holds true about our land-our physical survival as indigenous people demands we take direct action and fight back to take what  is ours by right. That right is not vested in a court or defined by the state\/province or federal agencies but an extension of a power\/authority  which goes back to time immemorial and is beyond their reach. \r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBe assured the <em>Akwesasronon Shonataten:ron<\/em> will take the bitter lessons  of our enforced confinements and stand in defense of our territory, our heritage and our true sovereignty.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><DIV class=\"row\">\r\n    <DIV class=\"col-md-3\"><IMG class=\"img-fluid wow fadeIn\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2014\/07\/21\/douggeorgekanentiio.jpg\" itemprop=\"image\"><\/IMG>\r\n    <\/DIV>\r\n    <DIV class=\"col-md-9\">\r\n        <EM>Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk, is a residential school survivor. He was given the number 4-8-2-738. He serves as the vice-president of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge. He previously served  as a Trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian, is a former land claims negotiator for the Mohawk Nation and is the author of numerous books and articles about the Mohawk people. He may be reached via e-mail at: Kanentiio@aol.com or by calling 315-415-7288. <\/EM>\r\n    <\/DIV>\r\n<\/DIV><HR>\r\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/25\/PopeFrancis.jpg\" alt=\"Pope Francis\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" class=\"invisible\" \/> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the intents of the Canadian and U.S. governments in creating the boarding-residential schools was to alienate indigenous people from their ancestral lands.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,18,20,13,9,14],"tags":[418,558,176,992,278,1679],"class_list":["post-26594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-education","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-opinion","category-politics","tag-boarding-schools","tag-doug-george-kanentiio","tag-genocide","tag-mohawk","tag-religion","tag-residential-schools","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/25\/PopeFrancis.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-6UW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}