Military to apologize to Warriors

Mohawks in Kahnawake say they are happy that the Canadian Forces plan to apologize for calling the Mohawk Warrior Society an insurgent group.

The statement was made in a draft counter-insurgency manual that was written in 2006.

"To be equated with terrorists is scary," said Joe Delaronde, a spokesperson for the band council in Kahnawake.

The comments were disheartening because they were made by "an official arm of the government," he said.

The draft document described the Warrior Society as an example of a "radical Native American organization."

Delaronde welcomed the forthcoming apology, which is scheduled to be made public early next year, and said it shows good faith on the part of the military.

"It was a mistake and it is good of them to own up to it."

Some of the lasting images of the 1990 Oka Crisis are of masked Mohawk warriors raising their weapons in the air or standing on an overturned police car.

The crisis erupted over the town of Oka’s plans to allow the expansion of a golf course on ancestral lands that Mohawks in Kanesatake claim as their own.

Although media images often portray the Warrior Society as being composed of armed young men, Delaronde said that in Mohawk culture, "all men are part of it."

"Men come together during times of crisis," he said, explaining the Warriors’ presence during the Oka Crisis.

"At that time, we felt we were under siege.

"Men of all faiths and political beliefs came together and did what they had to do. You don’t actually hear very much about them (the Warrior Society) when there is no crisis."

Delaronde said the community understands that the military’s comments were contained only in a draft document and didn’t make it into the final version.

After the contents of the draft document became public, some Mohawk leaders wrote letters to the government demanding an apology.

A spokesman for the Canadian Forces was not available for comment.