International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS)
The
sun had just risen over the thick forests surrounding the oldest Indian
residential school in Canada, and the site of the mass grave of
children. All of us gathered there, native and white, seemed to hold
our breath as Cheryl Squire of the Mohawk Nation Clan Mothers knelt
over the grave of unknown children and gently parted the soil.
History
was made that morning of October 1, 2011. For the long struggle to
bring home the murdered children, and place their killers on trial, had
finally begun.
For me, it was the start of something
incredible, but also the end of a long journey that has spanned two
decades. Every imaginable lie, threat, obstacle and attack has been
deployed by criminals of church and state to stop what we did that
morning, but all to no avail. For the real unveiling of the Canadian
Holocaust has begun.
This final step commenced last April,
when Cheryl Squire and eight other Mohawk elders had asked me in
writing to come to their land in Brantford, Ontario and begin forensic
surveys and digs on the grounds of what they call "the Mush Hole": the
Mohawk Institute, set up by the Anglican Church of England in 1832 to
imprison and destroy generations of Mohawk children. This very first
Indian residential school in Canada lasted until 1970, and, like in
most residential schools, more than half of the children imprisoned
there never returned. Many of them are buried all around the school.
"I
seen kids buried up to their necks in the ground for running away. I
seen kids beaten and killed for taking apples off the tress" said one
survivor of the Mush Hole, so designated because maggoty mush was the
best children could expect in the way of food there.
The same survivor took me to the top of an underground cistern behind the school covered with a concrete slab.
"That's
where they stuck kids for speaking their language" the elderly man
said sadly. "I know a girl put in it who died down there. Maybe she's
still there."
In search of such missing children, since
October 1 I have worked with the Mohawk community to begin scanning the
school lands with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) manned by experts, to
locate the underground disturbances that can point to hidden graves.
And helped by local seers and eyewitnesses, we have already identified
five areas containing mass graves of children.
"One thing
that's for sure is there's been incredible soil disturbances beside
the school, and I mean tons of dirt piled in here" described Clynt
King, the GPR technician. "Somebody is really trying to hide something
here."
An understatement, indeed. For the government and
churches of Canada have been burying the evidence of their residential
schhol crimes for many years, most recently with an expensive whitewash
called a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" that doesn't allow
names or crimes to be named, cannot subpoena evidence and absolves the
churches for their murder of more than 50,000 residential school
children. Our excavations at the Mush Hole are a direct challenge to
this cover up, and to the entire colonial regime called Canada.
"This
is another way, and a major way, that we're declaring our sovereignty
and nationhood" explained Mohawk Wolf Clan elder Bill Squire, who
helped authorize the dig.
"We can't have the cops or the
courts come in here and call this a crime site, when they're the ones
who caused this. We are establishing Mohawk jurisdiction over this
investigation and we won't let the police in here. We are going to put
Canada on trial for their murder of our children."
This
isn't idle talk. For years, Squire's people - the Grand River Mohawks -
have waged battles to preserve their dwindling land base, and they've
stopped construction on their land by mobilizing hundreds of their
people in big protests. The same unity is visible around the Mush Hole
excavations this week, as many diferent factions of the Mohawks - the
Men's Fire group, clan mothers, the traditional elders, and even
government-funded band council chiefs - have all showed up to pledge
their support for our inquiry.
News of this historic
action has spread across the world media this week, but not
surprisingly it's been completely blacked out in the Canadian press,
despite a massive media blitz by the Mohawks. And yet regardless of
coverup or indifference within Canada, the results of the digs and
surveys in Brantford will be part of the deliberations of the
International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), convened
in Brussels last month to consider bringing charges of genocide
against Canada and the Catholic, Anglican and United Church of canada,
all of whom ran Indian residential schools.
For all of
the unity among the Mohawks here, their efforts are facing a looming
shut down and repression from the Canadian state and its churches.
Already, undercover operatives have been unmasked in the ranks of the
Mohawks, and there's talk that the RCMP or Ontario Provincial Police
will shut down the excavations.
"We need every Canadian and every indigenous nation to help us now" said Bill Squire yesterday in a radio interview.
"We
need you here to make a stand with us, and we need public statements
of support. But most important, we need you to do these kinds of digs
on your own territories. Start to bring your own residential school
children home for a proper burial, 'cause nobody else will do it for
you."
The digs at the Mush Hole have just begun, and will
span many months. But for the survivors of torture and genocide there,
the dig is a ray of hope, and a chance for justice.
"I been waiting my whole life for this" says Geronimo Henry, who was imprisoned in the Brantford school during the 1940's.
"I
suffered in there for eleven years and I got a say in this, and I say
it's time we bring these kids home for a proper burial. Their spirits
have been wandering too long. And the people who caused it have gotten
away with murder for too long."
You can follow the work of the Brantford inquiry, and the work of the ITCCS, at: www.itccs.org , and by wiritng to hiddenfromhistory1@gmail.com.
We can be contacted for interviews and support at 519-757-3624.
Posted October 6, 2011
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