Thoughts
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To The Mohawk Nation Watching our Colonial Government the Mohawk Council of Kahnawá:ke toss and turn in its Membership struggle. I find it interesting to now sit back and watch the ensuing chaos. I say Chaos because the new “Membership Law” is going to cause just that “Pure Chaos”. The first point of chaos is the fact, a group of well intended people, over the course of a decade, while doing research seemed to miss a few things about Haudenosaunee History. It took 10 years of research to forget the Mohawks as a Nation have had a citizenship law in effect for what is now probably in excess of 500 years. We as a NATION have, and have had a citizenship law that is far superior to any Membership code. The next thing it took a decade to make people forget was that Mohawk people do not and have never followed any number of Grand Parents. Mohawk people and people of the Mohawk Nation no matter who we are follow the lineage of the women. I’m no resident expert but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we also have a clans system, which goes right along side the matrilineal system. It has taken a decade to get residents of Kahnawá:ke to forget, regardless of how many grandparents the MCK tries to implement under the guise of the Elders. You still need a clan, a language, a culture and traditional system of government to truly be Mohawk. Nothing else on earth can replace this system until everyone as a people decide to change the traditional system. One of the most grievous things it took 10 years of wasted time and money to forget is. Had the MCK under the guise of the Elders gotten off there pedestal and made an effort to support, enforce and re-organize the traditional system in cooperation with ALL traditional peoples. The Moral, structural and cultural integrity of the Mohawk Nation would be even stronger than ever today. So I thank all the people who participated in the current membership process? If you had looked to the traditional people, you would find your identity. No matter how imperfect the traditional system is, how eroded it is, or how dysfunctional. The identity of our people lies within the confines of the Mohawk Nation, Six Nations and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The traditional people of the Haudenosaunee and its descendents us the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke have never been a people by blood. We have been a people by Nationhood. We are a people bonded by the Kaianereko:wa as simple as that…. If you want to toss away your culture, your language, identity, and rights as a people be my guest. But as long as you’re following MCK’s laws your tossing your rights out as a subject of Canada not as a Mohawk. Sincerely, |