Eastern Door Volume 6 Number 41

Volume 6 Number 41

November 14, 1997

King visits 207
On a mission of peace, unity, family & togetherness
By: Tom Dearhouse

Martin Luther King, III, the second eldest son of slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, was a guest at the 207 Longhouse on Saturday, November 8, sharing his thoughts, taking part in a stomp dance, listening to the Native perspective and receiving documents on the Kaienerekowa-the Great Law of Peace.

Mr. King was in the Montreal area having made contacts with Dan Phillip,president of the Black Coalition of Quebec.

Dale Deom and Steven Stacey of the Mohawk Nation Office have met with Mr. Phillip before, and it was through their work that a visit was planned.

Mr. Phillip said, "We are happy to have a man of such caliber as King, we asked so much and taken so much of King, during his mission of peace, unity, family, togetherness and discipline."

According to Phillip, King is on the verge of becoming the most powerful black leader in the US.

On January 15, his late father's birthday, King will assume the presidency of an activist organization founded in 1954 by southern clergymen and his father. The group is called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Phillip said, "I hold faith that side by side with King, we will not lose our purpose and direction."

Along with two personal assistants, Mr. King spoke of similarities between the black struggle in the US and struggles of the Native population.

"I'm truly honoured to share my thoughts with you. The Native population has struggled, and people who struggle must come together whether black, Latinos or Native people. To borrow from my father, 'injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere. And no man is free, until all men are free."

The longhouse audience and King later viewed an example of this injustice. Ten minutes of news footage showed tax protesters in Onondaga territory struck by NYS troopers back in May. The most evident shots of batons swinging down brought gasps of surprise and indignation. Several Onondaga people, some of whom were beaten, came up to Kahnawake.

After King and his group took part in the stomp dance, its origins were explained to the guests, the twisting motions representing Indians who travelled to many communities talking of their concerns and difficulties; and when the dancers cluster up in a circle towards the end indicates eventually all people unite to share their experience and gain strength in the struggle.

Before departing, Dale Deom gave King documents on the Kaienerekowa, the Great Law of Peace on which the US constitution and democratic principles are based.

Martin Luther King, III, said, "This has been a rich and moving experience. The question today we face is: How do we create a victory. In 1997, people are still judged by their colour. We must overcome this. We should recommit ourselves to ensure justice occurs for all...our destinies are tied together. And drawing from that 'I have a dream speech' in Washington 1963, we all have a place, we must continue our struggle. May God bless you."

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Goldfingers strip club arrests
By: Tom Dearhouse

Over 100 MUC police raided four strip clubs in the Montreal area Friday midnight and early Saturday morning, including the Goldfinger club in LaSalle, formerly the Venus Bar. The operation resulted in 137 people arrested: 71 dancers, 43 clients and the rest club employees.

In the days following the raid, rumors have swept the reserve to determine if Kahnawake patrons were caught 'with their pants down' in the subsequent round-up. Local talk has made it fairly common knowledge who was in the club, but a news source has yet to confirm all names.

Yesterday afternoon, Ross Leclaire admits he was in the club, only for a few drinks, at the rime of the raid along with several other local men.

MUC Public Relations officials say it is too early to release names to the media because charges are pending. A distinction needs to be made between patrons having a drink in the club, and those paying money for a lap dance.

One concerned caller, preferring not to be named, told The Eastern Door that local men were in the Goldfinger. The caller also makes the distinction between those having a drink and those spending time in semi-private cubicles, used for lap dancing, a short distance from other customers.

Police say these clubs were operating like a bawdy house for allowing the controversial lap dancing, called les danse aux dix in French. Lap dancing involves contact between the patron and dancer often in a cubicle. A money exchange takes place between the two.

MUC Morality Squad Chief Andre Bouchard, at a Saturday press conference, said, "Just the act of touching in exchange for money (by either the man or woman is prostitution."

The Supreme Court of Canada outlawed "sexual touching" inherent in lap dancing last June, but it didn't ban all contact between consenting adults. Rulings for and against lap dancing have made it a contentious issue in the court system, and more appeals can drag it out further said Bouchard.

The owner of Goldfingers, Norman Lapierre, says that there was nothing illegal about the dancing taking place there and felt the charges would eventually be dropped.

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Editorial

Self-determination and the Two Row
By: Kenneth Deer, The Eastern Door

Presentation made to the United Nations Inter-sessional Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

While participants debated the fine points of international law with regard to self-determination, there was a request for an explanation of an Indigenous point of view on self-determination. There was never a better time to present the Two-Row Wampum concept.

I've asked to make by presentation from the front of the room in order to add a little culture, a little history and a little informality to this session. I have here before you a replica of the Two Row Wampum which represents how we as Mohawk People view our right to self-determination.

(The explanation of the Two Row is omitted from this text as all Mohawks have heard the story before.)

As far back as 1635, our elders understood the concept of self-determination and the Two Row symbolized that concept in a visual way. So you can see, we recognized the right for the Dutch to control their own lives as long as they did not interfere in our lives and vice versa.

The Two Row represents the capacity for coexistence - for one people to refrain from destroying the other. And we still believe in this concept. We are not trying to destroy the countries that surround us. All we want to do is coexist in the spirit of mutual respect, and to make agreements to guarantee our survival as a people.

Many of you are concerned that Indigenous peoples will secede from your state if we are granted self-determination. How many Indigenous peoples really want to do that? It is not the goal of the high majority Indigenous peoples. If it were, many could separate right now under existing international law with the Declaration on Friendly Relations between States which gives the right to secede to peoples whose Human Rights are being violated. How many of you have not violated the rights of the Indigenous peoples in your country?

Self-determination to us is more than just the right to control our lives, it is in our creation story, our mythology, our songs, and in our dances. It is imbedded in the very fabric of our lives. It is not just a physical act, self-determination is a state of mind. We live with it every day and we assert that right every way we can. We could not survive today as Mohawks if we did not believe that we are a free and sovereign people.

If you deny us our rights to self-determination, it will not change anything. It cannot change our history, our philosophies, our pride in ourselves. If the Declaration does not recognize our right to self-determination, than the Declaration has no meaning, no relevance to our lives. It we cannot have a Declaration with the right of self-determination in it, than it is better not to have a Declaration at all.

A great concept like the Two Row, which has applications anywhere in the world today such as Bosnia or Palestine, would have no meaning without an equal right to self-determination.

Without an equal right to unqualified self-determination, including the right to secede, governments would not negotiate with us in good faith. They would continually disregard Indigenous peoples, as they have been doing for the last five hundred years. If nation-states knew that secession was a possibility, then governments would be more sincere in their negotiations with Indigenous peoples.

Indigenous peoples must be treated equally with other peoples of the world. Anything less would be discriminatory and racist.

Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights which states that all peoples have the right to self-determination. If you deny us the right to self-determination, you should remove the word 'universal' from the title of the declaration because it will no longer be universal.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman

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