Kanehsatake, 270 Years of Resistance (1993)

Plans to expand a golf course into Native American territory leads to a state of siege in Quebec in this intense documentary. Very striking is the way the native Mohawks are treated like terrorists during the siege, with such horrific police brutality that one citizen states "and they call us savages!"; journalists were treated no better either, with one journalist realising that he has to go into military custody if he wants medical treatment. Shocking as all this may be, the film is structured in an unhelpful manner. It is nearly half an hour in before we are given background information about the Mohawk people and the invasions that lead to the titular 270 years of resistance. This would have better served as an introduction. The film may have also benefited from further highlighting how silly the military intervention is; it is, after all, hard to believe that all the chaos came from a mere few insisting on expanding a golf course. This is in turn makes it an important film as a reminder that mistreatment of native peoples still happens today. This is not the easiest film to watch; it is very gloomy and sometimes a little too angry for its own good, but it is amazing to think how brutal a democratic country like Canada was as recently as less than thirty years ago - or at one Mohawk man says, "this is ridiculous; this is not Russia, this is not Nazi Germany... this is Canada".

It's been almost 20 years since the Oka Crisis happened in the fall of 1990. It was in my opinion one of the most shameful incidents in Canada's last 50 years. The incident took place when native land was taken by the white community to build a golf course. 270 years of repression finally came to a head that year.The military is eventually called in to stop a native road block. What's most interesting to me is not the repression by the military and police but the fact that everyone is caught up in the repression. The natives are of course repressed the most but the press and French Quebecois are also caught up in the repression when the military starts to control people's freedom of movement.It's quite startling in these documentaries how quickly things escalate. In a matter of days you're present in a military operation which controls where you go, who you can see, and whether you eat or not. Our so-called guaranteed freedoms are quickly dissolved when the government sees a challenge against its hegemony and power structure. These pockets of resistance are quickly be extinguished before they can spread and state power is questioned elsewhere. The troops on the front lines again don't care and use the ever quotable line "We're just following orders".The Oka Crisis was a global crisis of course. It's not one which is limited to Canada. The native struggle is one being fought all over the world. The Palestinians in Israel, the aboriginals in Australia, Wounded Knee in the US, the list goes on.A very good documentary about a dark period in Canada's history. How quickly will we forget it? Thankfully, we have this National Film Board production which has interviews with the main parties as well as lots of footage from the actual incidents in 1990.

I loved it, there is finally something out there to tell about the injustice suffered by the native peoples. I hope that it helps to serve as a beacon to inspire others. To get the entire story and look at all the facts carefully. A previous comment questioned about the shots and so forth well if you look at the credits carefully it lists a LOT of camera operators. Originally this film had more then 6hrs worth of footage due to all the people with a camera working on this. Think of the editing that had to go into this in order to drop it down to the alloted time. The barricades were claimed as being impenetrable but they were necessary and they were strong. They needed to be in order to rival the equipment the military brought in that were a bit of an overkill on the governments part.

My blood boiled watching this movie. I longed to butcher the Canadian soldiers hassling the Mohawks at Oka. I was so ashamed of my country -- lying, deceiving, bullying, stealing, breaking every single promise they made.I was blown away by the patience of the Mohawks. If I were there under those circumstances there is no way I could have restrained myself from attacking the soldiers. The soldiers were just so evil, petty and stupid. The tension is unbearable as the soldiers draw the noose tighter and tighter, when it looked as if their plan might be to to kill everyone even the children and then lie about it, in a reenactment of the old story.The fearlessness of the Mohawk, especially the women, facing armed soldiers was impressive. They were outraged that they were being treated as if in Nazi Germany, and they were not afraid to upbraid the doltish soldiers for their part in it, nothing like the obedient Jews led the gas chambers.I only wish average Americans were as vocal in protecting their civil rights that they have so meekly abandoned to the Patriot Act.