Mohawk Nation News: Algonquin negotiators caught 'suckling'

SCAM REVEALED - ALGONQUIN NEGOTIATORS CAUGHT
“SUCKLING” - WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES!

By Kahentinetha Horn
Mohawk Nation News
Jan. 7, 2008. Eight Mohawks from four communities
were invited by Robert “Too Much Mercy” Lovelace, the
negotiator for the Ardoc Lake Algonquins, to attend a
public meeting in Kingston Ontario. They were
supposedly hammering out a deal between the
Ardoc/Sharbot Lake Algonquins, Ontario government
and Frontenac Ventures Corporation to “stop” a uranium
mining project that may have never been meant to see the
light of day. “See you there”, he said. The meeting was
to start on Sunday, January 6, from 7:00 to 11:00 pm. at
the Holiday Inn.

When we arrived in Kingston at 5:30 pm we phoned Randy
Cota, Ontario Provincial Police “chief” of the Ardoc
Algonquins to get directions. He phoned their ambulance
chaser [lawyer], Chris “The Calf” Reid, who was already at
the hotel. Reid said he would be waiting for us there at 6:45.

Kingston Ontario is on Mohawk land. The Algonquins have
been our allies for a long time. In July 2007 they sent us a
wampum requesting our assistance. According to the Two
Row Wampum protocol, we must remain a part of this issue
until it is resolved.

We were more than “observers” to this parlay. We had
questions to ask the “mediators” about the uranium mine
on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River valleys and water
sheds. They go right by four of our Mohawk communities –
Tyendinaga, Akwesasne, Kanehsatake and Kahnawake.

Frontenac “Henco INCarnate” Ventures Corporation had a
permit from Ontario to mine for uranium on Algonquin land.
According to Frontenac Ventures power point presentation,
their 2007 exploration program is finished. They need
permission to continue. Frontenac is threatening to start
drilling in 20 days.

What we did not know is that it looks like a deal had already
been made. This consultation or mediation or whatever
you want to call it was a farce. It was just a “big show” to
make it look like these “sparring partners” were going to
fight out an agreement. It was far from that.

The “Montello” Room in the Holiday Inn was set up by Chris
Reid, the Ardoc ambulance chaser. He set up 12 chairs
around a set of tables in a tiny room on the sixth floor. At
6:00 PM two people working on a documentary showed up
with their cameras.

We sat at the table because there was nowhere else to sit.
We waited for the mediators to come in and mediate with
each other. One by one they peeked in and took off for
the restaurant down the hall. They broke into three camps -
the government “Trainers” sat next to the bar to keep an
eye on the two sparring partners who sat next to the buffet.
Big Chief Doreen “Wishbone” Davis for Sharbot sat not far
from Robert “Too Much Mercy” Lovelace, the chief
negotiator for Ardoc. They whispered, sent notes to each
other and spoke constantly to their “handlers” on their cell
phones. While the Indigenous people remained quiet, the
government trainers were getting louder.

At 7:30 one of us did the “ohenton kariwatwen”, the
traditional opening of the meeting, as it was taking place
on Mohawk land.

Three Mohawk scouts decided to go and find out what the
encampments in the restaurant were complaining about.
The government clique said, “We don’t want cameras in the
room”, meaning, “We don’t want Mohawks in the room”.
The other two camps didn’t say much.

Chris Reid asked us to move from the table, except for
Rarakwiseres, a big man who was sporting a gustowa head
dress. Where will we go? On the floor? The photographers
went out and found a few chairs for the silent observers who
were quietly sliding into the room. About 15 non-natives had
come in carrying chairs and sat against the wall like ghosts.
We were into a pretty bizarre saga.

A chair was brought in for Robert Lovelace to sit at the corner
of the table on Chris Reid’s left, looking like a bad little boy.
There were no smiles or friendly greetings for us. Lovelace
then asked Rarakwiseres to speak. Since the Mohawk elder
had already opened the meeting, he stared straight ahead and
said nothing. Is this sounding kind of strange? What ‘til you
hear what followed.

One of our women went to the restaurant and scolded the
government people about their rudeness. She ordered them
to come in to the meeting. Ten minutes later they reluctantly
sauntered in, threw their briefcases on the table like a bunch
of bratty kids. [What is “This-is-Our-Table-Not-Yours” stuff?
Our meetings are in a circle where everyone is equal and has
a voice.] When we refused to sit on the floor or leave the room,
they picked up their briefcases and stomped out in a huff,
followed by their ambulance chasers. Chris Reid accused us of
“hijacking and sabotaging his meeting” [inferring we’re
terrorists?] They all disappeared into their fourth floor executive
suites [i.e. 427].

The “meat eaters” [or mediators] were Cam “the Grim Reaper”
Clark, former deputy minister of Natural Resources department
who works for Ontario as a negotiator, particularly on mining
disputes; Ron “Napalm” Ferguson and Andrew “Agent Orange”
McDonald, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines;
Richard “Who-Will-Mediate-Anything-So-Long-As-It-Pays” Moore
of Ottawa, a lawyer, who likes to say no side owns the land. The
other ambulance chaser, Stevie “No Wonder” Reynolds, sat
against the wall.

Robert Lovelace came back and tried to smooth things out. With
a straight face, he said, “Ontario must save face. That’s the kind
of people we are!” He promised to look at the concerns our
Women Title Holders had presented and to talk with us the next
morning.

We showed up the next morning. We got off the 6th floor elevator.
Someone was waiting in the shadows for us. He might have been
a hotel employee. He whispered that the meeting had secretly
been moved to the exclusive “River Mill Restaurant” in the
Kingston Whig Standard newspaper building a few blocks away
from the Holiday Inn. He quickly got on the elevator and
disappeared. That’s truly what happened!

We jumped into our van and drove over to the River Mill
Restaurant. We found the gang had broken up into two teams
and were meeting in two rooms. One was the “Voracious Sell-
Out Sharks” and the other was the “Frontenac Ventures &
Government Parasites”. Each team had an Indian mascot,
Doreen Davis and Robert Lovelace.

It was hard to tell who the Ontario government, Ministry of Natural
Resources, Frontenac Ventures, the Indians or the cops were.
The ambulance chasers were running back and forth between
the two rooms. There was a score keeper. When they saw us,
“Oh! S--t! They found us. Let’s get the h—l out of here away
from these Injuns”. They snapped their bags shut, jumped up,
grabbed their coats and almost stampeded us in their rush to
get out the door.

We followed them like groupies, taking pictures and cheering.
They huffed and puffed through their gritted teeth. “Hey, don’t
run away and have secret meetings behind closed doors”, we
chanted. “We are the Mohawks and you are on our land”. They
all bounded into taxis and headed back to the safety of their
executive suites at the Holiday Inn.

We returned to the Holiday Inn, got off the sixth floor elevator and
found two Ontario Provincial Police officers prancing outside the
Montello room. We posted a sign on the door and then left:

“Notice: Treason and conspiracy prohibited
against our Algonquin allies in Kingston which
is on Mohawk land, as per the Two Row
Wampum Treaty”.

Later the CBC called asking what happened. The reporter said
that the “gang” had gone back into the Montello Room “behind
closed doors”. The plan for the Algonquins could be one of three
possibilities.

To begin with, Robert Lovelace gave us the impression that
Ontario plans to pull the permit, give Frontenac, the lawyers and
mediators some money and then drop the project?
We don’t think so. The Ministry of Natural Resources will put the
unsurrendered Algonquin land into a park-like regime [like
Ipperwash]. This will be “co-managed” by Ontario and the
Algonquins for a “cut” of any development. Chris Reid was
heard saying to Robert Lovelace, “Next time, we should meet
alone with George White of Frontenac Ventures” without a lawyer
to make a deal. Whichever “Algonquins” are going to carry out
this deal need some kind of “accreditation” recognized by Ontario.
That must be why Robert Lovelace [a U.S. draft dodger] and
Doreen Davis were so disrespectful to us in front of their
“handlers”. Were they scared of having any Mohawks or true
Algonquins around who would surely have interfered with their
greedy plans for enriching themselves?

The third scenario is called “Suckling Off the Cash Cow”.
This is how it works. The government gives one of their friends
a permit to drill, dam up, dig, mine, blow up, cut down or build
houses on unsurrendered Indigenous land. The Indigenous
people resist and set up barricades. Negotiations start. The
developer sues the Indigenous people for millions. The
government and developer start to negotiate with the compliant
members of the Indigenous peoples. Bingo! It’s settled. The
developer gets a big gift of tax payers’ dollars from the
government, the development is stopped and the Indigenous
people are left alone, as poor as mice in an abandoned church.

Whichever way you look at it, none is legal. They’re all scams of
one kind or another on the Algonquins, the Canadian public and
the future generations.

The government “negotiators/mediators”, the developers and the
lawyers representing the Indians move on and keep on suckling.
Tax payers are told that millions of dollars are being spent on the
Indigenous peoples and there is not enough money left for health
care, schools, roads or infrastructures. Outsiders like the Mohawks
who ask too many questions are painted as dangerous. Terrorists
even! The government toadies and corporate elite grow fat. This
“blood sucking” scam has got to be stopped.


Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News