Kahnawake evictions: Mohawks, Feds on legal collision course – Montreal Gazette

December 10, 2015

For many of the people facing eviction from Kahnawake, life in a Mohawk community is all they’ve ever known.

Some grew up observing the religious practices of the Kahnawake Longhouse, they played lacrosse with their cousins and learned the rudiments of Kanien’kéha—the language of their Mohawk ancestors. But after deciding to marry a non-indigenous person, they were told to leave the only place they’ve ever called home.

Under the decades-old membership code, anyone who allows a non-aboriginal spouse to live in Kahnawake forfeits their right to live, own property and vote on the South Shore reserve. The policy, adopted by Kahnawake’s band council in 1984, even extends into the afterlife, as those who violate it cannot be buried on Mohawk land.

Several of those affected by the policy describe it as applying an unbearable pressure on their families. People they’ve known their whole lives suddenly want them gone. If they stay, some say their children are taunted at school, some have had their names posted online and, in the most extreme case, a group of protesters gathered outside the home of one inter-racial couple last May demanding they leave town.