Letter to Editor, HARVESTING AND FISHING

Letter to Editor,

HARVESTING AND FISHING

Nobody can take away our inherent collective rights that we are born with. Those rights come from our mother’s clan which comes from our family clan mother that follows a matrilineal society. The inherent right does not come from a foreign government or corporation, like that of the United States and Canada. We are not subjects of these entities, so we think. Canada brings in the Indian Act and United States brings in the Bureau of Indian Affairs which brings forced elective systems. Maybe we have forgotten which boat we are suppose to be in. Our rights are not given to us by European immigrants. Their Law was brought on the ships called Admiralty’s Law, which does not apply to us, until we cross the Court gate. Our rights are Natural Law, Spiritual, and Divine from the Creator of the Universe. If we are going to pick medicines, freely travel here and there, grow a garden, cut wood, harvest game and go fishing to feed our families. we can as long as we give thanks for what is available to us. The Clan Mother’s are the main executives of the land. She is what binds us to Creation, giver of life and caretaker of the Land that oversees the uses, according to our customs and jurisdiction. Our rights have not been extinguished of original Title to Lands and Territories. Most Treaties are fraudulent, non-ratified, changed and altered for other’s greedy interest to exploit natural resources and wipe us off the face of earth. The Mohawk (Kanienkehaka) Nation is one of the original Five Nations Confederacy called (Rotinonhsion:ni) that used the Two Row wampum belt (Gaswenta) based on peace, trust, and friendship when dealing with the European immigrants. It was an agreement that we do not interfere with each other’s ways and laws and to respect one other. We allowed them to stay on Turtle Island and some rights to govern themselves though democracy. The immigrants came here to be free from the Kings and Queens. They had to be recognized by a true Sovereign which happen to be the Five Nations Confederacy! Still they established and incorporated under Great Britain and Rome. If these agreements were violated by them, we (Onkwehonwe) kept our own part. We never surrendered and extinguished any of our inherent collective rights to the Lands under (Kaianere’kowa) the Great Law of Peace, Power, and Unity.

Wak’kwa:ho Clan, Sharenho:wene Raron:tanon, Tehoron’:io