As i begin my morning meditation and allow myself to express my words to you i first acknowledge creation and her beauty. the morning sun is beginning to make its way over the tops of the trees, the birds are singing and there is quietness yet anticipation for the dawning of a new day.

my thoughts upon awakening were of the conflict that rests upon our shoulders here at Kanensthaton, Grand River. The sacred place. what a fitting name for a place that has had such a job since we began the reclamation. it is not only for the ancestors that are buried beneath it, but for the ones yet to come. it is for those who come there to do their small part in spreading the word of peace, and in uniting the Onkwehonweh Nations of the World.

It is for all of those who know and understand the meaning of the original league of nations - the Five Nations and for all of those who wish to join that league. for the Kaierenekowah and all that that means. for the people who are trying to uphold their responsibility to that be they at the site or in other places of the world doing their part as well.

my thoughts are of the delegates who are carrying our voices and the responsiblity that has been placed on their shoulders and of the people who day in and day out gather at Kanensthaton around the sacred fire and offer their tobacco to the Creator for the guidance and wisdom that each day we will do what has been willed for us to do and that we will do our best. after all, that is all we can do. for those of you who haven't heard, we had an incident on sunday evening with the opp. one of their officers took a "wong turn"and came into the territory on the 6th line. some of the men spotted the cruiser and followed it to the corner of 6th line and cayuga road. they stopped the opp vehicle and asked them what they were doing in our territory. the female officer who was driving responded that she was lost, yet she had a map of the area on her dash.

her male passenger was asked if he was one of the officers who was here the day of the raid on our people on april 20th. he acknowledged that he was. there was anger in the hearts of our men who understood and realized that this was no wrong turn but a deliberate drive into an area of conflict. perhaps the male officer wanted to give the newcomer a tour of where the actions took place on april 20th. who knows. but for their own reasons, they chose to come into our territory.

for what purpose i asked myself. we are always being told that the government will stop at nothing to create a situation that could cause enough trouble to justify their calling in their forces to remove us from this place. to justify another attack on the people in an attempt to, in their minds, settle the lawlessness that exists; in our minds, an assertion of our authority on our land. the six nations police had arrived on the scene, probably called in by the opp for assistance. they charged the opp with trespassing and eventually the opp were returned to their own.

by then the opp had stopped traffic from coming through caledonia past the reclamation sight and people began to gather on the caledonia side again. their signs were pulled out which read "bring in the army" and they hollered words of hate and anger and racial slurs toward the people of six nations who had blocked the road on our own side and the six nations people again were standing in defense of our land and in protection of all of those who are here. again our people ignored the racial comments and stood silently.

it didn't take long for the word to get out and again 100's of our people converged upon the site in support of the land reclamation and to stand against the possiblity of another invasion or attack. by the time i arrived at the site, a few hours had passed and it was at the point where both sides were standing their ground on argyle street with the line of opp between them. the offending opp officers had been returned to their supervisors and the men were in dialogue with the opp to arrange for them to remove the caledonia people and that our people would return to the land.

again there was much discussion about barricades and how even though we followed through with removing the first one, Peterson had knowingly tried to sidestep the agreement and was going back on his word. it was just another incident in history where the government people had proven to our people that their word means nothing and they can't be trusted. it was another reason why it would have been so easy to once again block off that road and say to hell with them. but the words of wisdom once again called to action in the name of Peace to remember what we have accomplished.

tonight, the Rotiskenekethe did their job. they stopped the intrusion of outside forces in our territory. they upheld their responsiblities to the law, and in doing so, showed the outside world that we are a soverign people and asserted that soveriegnty and authority by their actions. some believe that the actions of the men were too strong. others support and commend them. i believe that their actions were necessary in that we have stated our position and it is our responsiblity to stand by that. i do not believe that the opp were lost and that they took a wrong turn. i believe it was done in an exploratory effort to see what would happen. not a wise decision knowing the complexity of the situation, and knowing how easily it could escalate to where people could be hurt.

it made me angry to have once again seen a diversion created that put our people in the position of greater danger and it was being treated so lightheartedly by those who created it. whether or not the six nations police follow through with their charges against the opp is neither here nor there. that is the law that they follow. we upheld our law within our land and that is all we have to concern ourselves with. eventually it was our people again who made the choice to go back onto the site and allow the caledonia residents and opp to stand alone in their human barricades on the street. we had done our job.

eventually the road was cleared only to have fire trucks begin an evening of activity because someone had burned a security car down the street, and a barn owned by the six nations was lit on fire. who how or why is unknown, but again it created a situation that made it look like our people had done it. by 2am things had quieted down again, and a night of calm began to settle within the site. last night was more of the same only the discussion all over camp was the next day, the 6-6-6 and the wondering of what that day would bring. Life at Kanensthaton had returned to normal.....whatever that is.
hazel

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