PTBC reader’s take on Indian blockades matches mine
Among others, I received this particularly thoughtful reply to yesterday’s blogging about the Indian blockades and protests. The writer wanted to remain anonymous.
Hi Joel,
I just wanted to give my opinion of the native blockade in Belleville. Belleville doesn’t make it to the national news much (they keep saying it’s “just west of Kingston”), but the blockade is in my hometown. Just east of Belleville is the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, right near Deseronto, maybe 10 minutes from where I’m typing right now.
This is a nice reserve. We drive through it all the time. You would not know it’s a reserve. The houses are nice. There are huge gas stations and “smokes” for sale everywhere in very nice looking stores. The homeschoolers in this area have our track meet every year at the Mohawk Public School, and it’s a beautiful place. There is a full track, with jumping pits and everything. I don’t know any other public school in the area that has that (some high schools do, but not of that caliber). Near the school are Community Centres and Recreation Centres galore. There are special Mohawk Colleges.
I’ve heard Phil Fontaine talk about the horrible education system and the lack of clean water, but he’s not talking about Tyendinaga. It’s really a nice reserve, and some natives even own cottage businesses where people rent cottages in the summer and fish on the Bay of Quinte. They wouldn’t come if the place was a dump.
I really don’t know what they’re upset about—I guess they must think they’re missing some of their land—but this isn’t like the reserves up in northern Ontario where everything is broken and run down. It really isn’t. And the school is beautiful.
I also want to say that I sincerely doubt that most natives agree with the protest. All the natives I know are quite assimilated into the Belleville area and probably find this absolutely horrible because it’s giving them a bad name. Once again, a few radical natives are holding the whole province, and even their own band, hostage, because the police are too wimpy to do anything about it. And probably the ones hurting the most are the fellow natives.
Anyway, that’s my take. They certainly aren’t earning any brownie points from people in our area, that’s for sure.
Posted by Joel Johannesen
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