Toronto Star Referrer

Why acknowledgment of Indigenous land touched a nerve in Quebec

Innocuous pre-game statement by Montreal Canadiens a call to action and a lesson in history

TAYLOR C. NOAKES CONTRIBUTOR

Though statements acknowledging that Canada occupies unceded Indigenous territory are becoming common in our public life, a recent decision by the Montreal Canadiens to make such a statement before games at the Bell Centre has touched a nerve amongst Quebec nationalists.

The statement is about as anodyne as it gets given the contentious issue of territorial claims, but it’s also thoughtfully constructed and thorough for something that precedes a hockey game:

“The Montreal Canadiens wish to acknowledge the Kanien’kehá:ka, also known as the Mohawk Nation, for their hospitality on this traditional and unceded territory where we are gathered today. Tiohtià:ke/Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Peoples. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within this community where we have now had the privilege to play for over one hundred years.”

This is the statement that’s launched hysterical editorials, hours of inane talk radio chatter and the interference of Quebec’s populist right-wing government. What’s so offensive? That the Canadiens are insinuating Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) is unceded Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) territory.

The heart of the issue stretches back some 486 years, to what might be considered Canada’s real birthday — Oct. 2, 1535. That was the day Jacques Cartier and his crew were enthusiastically welcomed by the inhabitants of Hochelaga, an Indigenous village generally accepted (though not conclusively proven) to have existed on the Island of Montreal. Cartier was brought on a tour of the village, then to the summit of Mount Royal to survey the surroundings, and then they traded and feasted together. The people of Hochelaga were exceptionally hospitable.

According to the nationalist school of Quebec history, when Champlain explored the area in 1603, no trace of the community Cartier described was found. The island was claimed to be uninhabited — Terra Nullius — and thus free for the taking. Similarly, when de Maisonneuve founded Ville Marie in 1642, no trace of Hochelaga could be found, and so it was presumed the island was free for the French to colonize.

This perspective was accepted as gospel for a very long time, but more

recently, historical research and archeological discoveries have challenged the narrative. Over the course of the last century, anthropologists, historians, and archeologists have listened to Indigenous people talk about their own history and compared it to the accepted narrative, and what they’ve discovered is that much of the accepted historical narrative was shaped by a Eurocentric perspective. Discussions of land ‘ownership’ privilege the European perspective and ignores the very different relationship to territory common to Indigenous cultures. The rigid separation of Indigenous nations into those who were sedentary and those who were nomadic (a lesson common in history classes throughout Canada) ignores the fact that ‘nomadic’ Indigenous communities could camp in one location for prolonged periods of time, while ‘sedentary’ communities might pack up and move the whole village every 20-30 years.

This is likely the case with Hochelaga. Though there was a significant archeological find made in 1860 near McGill University’s downtown campus (and this was believed to be the location of Hochelaga for over a century), recent research indicates that the site was too small to be Hochelaga. Artifacts found there could only be reasonably dated between the 15th and 17th centuries, meaning the settlement could have dated from before Cartier’s arrival to the same period as Ville Marie’s establishment.

Recent scholarship has also revealed that Indigenous people were seen on Montreal Island by French explorers ca. 1570-80, and that the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka extended from New York state well into Western Quebec. Indigenous remains have been found all over Montreal as well. Remains found at Saint Joseph’s Oratory in 2019, estimated to be hundreds of years old, were turned over to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. Similarly, Indigenous remains estimated to be between two and four thousand years old found in three different locations in 2006, 2007 and 2017 were all returned to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.

There doesn’t seem to be much debate when the matter is more ‘purely’ academic or involves returning remains to Indigenous communities. Quebec’s non-Indigenous Indigenous Affairs minister, Ian Lafrenière, wasn’t overly concerned about historical inaccuracies when Indigenous remains were transferred to Kahnawake for reburial as recently as September of last year. Apparently it’s drawing the connection between extant Indigenous communities and unceded territory in the more public realm of a Montreal Canadiens hockey game that is a step too far. Lafrenière’s overly cautious (and inconsistent) approach to historical accuracy is laughably lopsided given it is only the Kanien’kehá:ka claim to the land that apparently deserves greater scrutiny and not the ludicrous assertion an island dotted with Indigenous burial sites could be considered a ‘no man’s land’ ripe for the picking. Though Lafrenière claims many Indigenous nations have made competing claims for territory, there are no other Indigenous nations currently claiming Montreal as their own.

It speaks to the fragility of Quebec nationalists that a simple land acknowledgment before a hockey game would produce such an excessive reaction. Journal de Montréal columnist Mathieu Bock-Coté, the self-styled intellectual heavyweight of nationalist journalists, claimed without irony that the Canadiens expelled ‘nous’ (always shorthand for white Francophone Quebecois) from their own home. Some of the Kanien’kehá:ka living on Montreal Island in the 1670s were relocated to the community now known as Kanehsatake. Though they were granted a large parcel of land, the French colonial government subsequently claimed nearly all of it, leaving them just a small portion. But even this wasn’t enough, and the neighbouring community of Oka sought to redevelop sacred Kanien’kehá:ka land as a golf course and luxury condominium development, prompting the Indigenous Resistance of 1990.

Though this seminal event opened the era of renewed Indigenous self-determination and resistance to the remaining vestiges of colonialism, it certainly hasn’t stopped governments, police forces, property developers and energy companies from slicing away at Indigenous sovereignty and territory. The people of Kanehsatake and Kahnawake still have to fight tooth and nail to preserve what little land they’ve been left with.

And while Quebec’s Indigenous Affairs minister bemoans what he perceives as a lack of historical accuracy, he only goes so far as indicating there’s a debate amongst historians. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he never specifies the nature of this debate, and never advocates for more research either. When the apparent nebulousness of the historical record suits the powers that be, accuracy is hardly desirable.

It isn’t conclusively proven that the people of Hochelaga are the direct ancestors of the Kanien’kehá:ka, but it is a safe bet the Kanien’kehá:ka are more closely related to the Hochelagans than certainly anyone of EuroCanadian ancestry. Whether the Hochelagans were direct ancestors, close cousins, or a distinct society within the broader nation of Kanien’kehá:ka certainly merits further study—the mysteries of our shared histories should be inspiring the next generation of scholars, not used opportunistically to shutter inquiry.

Acknowledging the land is unceded Indigenous territory isn’t a trivial statement—it’s a call to action to better understand ourselves and where we all come from—and on a national scale too.

INSIGHT

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2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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