When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel with Sean Carleton

When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel with Sean Carleton is being reviewed from an advance reading copy. The two are in conversation about her last 30 years in activism since Katsi’tsakwas was asked to be a spokesperson at the barricades. 

One takeaway of the book is the better understanding of how the Indian Act affected Indigenous life, and another is that you cannot leave rights in the hands of others, but live consciously aware of stakes. 

A big eye-opener was a flipped script on protest from what I had passively consumed.

How many of us took “The Oka Crisis” at face value of media portrayal? Something along the line of lawless warriors in masks opposing the police in the summer of 1990? There were blockades and a militarized zone. Traffic inconveniences going into Montreal. You may recall that a golf course was set to dig up an Indigenous graveyard. 

The behind the scenes story is more complex, and long-standing, with not a lot of overlap with what was told in the media.

Does this pop culture portrait of Indigenous people as the perpetrators smell “off”? Follow the money to the source of the spin job. When the Pine Needles Fall is eye-opening. As I understand from this text, in a nutshell, after 300 years of land appropriation the local government called in an SAQ siege to remove members of the communities of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke. Why? Women land defenders drew a line in the sandy road and wanted to reopen the issue of land appropriation and land encroachment when this further insult of digging up ancestors and cutting down centuries old trees to appropriate their land for colonizer leisure business. The golf course issue was resolved but land-appropriation to developers is an issue that is ongoing. 

The communities had fires and gatherings and invited dialogue on the issue as equals, rather than going through colonial-built court structures, wanting to meet nation-to-nation. The Sureté du Québec replied with tear gas, weapon’s fire, and demanding to speak to the men in charge. As the forces blocked and seized food, medicine, and free movement, imprisoning and beating people at random. The International Federation of Human Rights logged thousands of abuses by police and military over 78 days. People from the community were jailed. 

While Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women continue (almost one woman a day for years), and the Reconciliation Recommendations remain un-acted upon, what course is open? The dialogues talk this through. To create a parallel culture to capitalist ideals with self-determination and traditional governance, rather than resources of land being sold under the land, and the land base itself shrinking while structures remain racist. Part of the solution lies in people knowing history and becoming allies in solidarity. Did you know the band councils are a colonial imposition, funded by the colonial government, not the government structure set up by Indigenous people since that parallel body was set as illegal by our federal government in 1924?

As long as we continue to be good consumers, we passively keep our eyes down and accept the system as is. The business interests shrink Indigenous land base, and disrespect the land and water which has inherent value. Land defenders don’t want unfettered rights going to those who would appropriate and pave wild areas. Idle No More wanted to convey that there is a connection between injustice to the land, animals and people, women or Indigenous to point out the legitimacy of Indigenous nations. There is now a UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues because there is a need for this international monitoring of human rights abuses, a mechanism of connection for dialogue and pushback. What is happening in Quebec is not a unique local issue. 

We need informed consultations and a place at the table for those other than who get an economic gain to look at the wider repercussions, and that requires knowledgeable allies and momentum. “Pleading to our oppressors hasn’t been a winning strategy” to gain self-determination and to be recognized as equals. There’s a difference in values in the western culture and where Katsi’tsakwas is speaking from.

"The Haudenosaunee have something we call Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen, or The Words Before All Else, and before we start a meeting, we acknowledge all of the natural world: all our relations. We greet the water, the fish, Mother Earth, the birds, the trees—all life we co-exist with and who support and nurture us. We greet and thank them for all that they provide us. It's very important to calm our minds and remind ourselves that in all our discussions and decisions we're also bringing in these connections to the natural world. All our decisions impact the land and all other beings.

How we move forward as a species could be aided by core values of our neighbour nation within Canada."

There’s a philosophy for the Haudenosaunee called One Dish, One Spoon. There is one dish and one spoon that everybody uses for their survival, to take only what they need and not be greedy, that is how we all get to live well. You only take what you need. You don’t take more from someone else’s part. And that, I think, is what surviving the climate crisis is all about.

We are all stakeholders in outcomes of each choice. We will see impacts be foundational or transformational for seven generations. Do we frame it as “one day…” or “day one”?

Throughout the conversations, there are a lot of resources for learning more, in terms of books and films. These are pulled out in the notes at the back. There is a Preface by Sean Carleton and a Foreword by Pamela Palmater. The text, as an interview of Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel by Sean Carleton, is quite accessible and thought provoking. It moves at conversational speed as a transcription not as a summative highlights version.

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel is a Kanien’kehá:ka, Wakeniáhton (Turtle Clan), artist, documentarian, and Indigenous human rights and environmental rights activist living in Kanehsatà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka Homelands.

Sean Carleton is a settler historian and professor of history and Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 Territory.

Publisher: Between The Lines Press (September 24, 2024)
Paperback 8″ x 6″ | 280 pages
ISBN: 9781771136501

Pearl Pirie's WriteBulb is now available at the Apple store. A prompt app for iOS 15 and up gives writing achievement badges. Pirie’s 4th poetry collection was footlights (Radiant Press, 2020).  rain’s small gestures(Apt 9 Press, 2021), minimalist poems, won the 2022 Nelson Ball Prize. Forthcoming chapbooks from Catkin Press and Turret House. Find more at www.pearlpirie.com or at patreon.com/pearlpiriepoet

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