ABSTRACT
DRAWING FORTH THE ANXIETIES OF CANADIANNESS, OKA WAS ALSO A dilemma for the Mohawk people. As with all post-colonial nations, indigenous peoples produce experiences and ideas of nation within and against dominant terms and in the midst of social and economic realities largely created by their colonizers. The first purpose of this chapter is to explore the various Mohawk/supporter interpretations of the Oka crisis. To gain insight into Canada’s official reactions and to develop a more complex view of the dilemmas, Mohawk and supporter stories, heard in alternative media and occasionally on the CBC radio, and as fragments in mainstream media, must be investigated as well. Negotiators and politicians heard these stories in extended and personal meetings with protesters before and during the crisis. Protester stories underscored how the government’s attempt to tie ‘real Indians’ to concerns about land and culture and ‘outsiders’ to nation and sovereignty was a colonial conceit rather than accurate reflection of internal divisions.
