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The Oka Crisis, 1990
On June 30, 1990, courts in Quebec ruled that the
municipality of Oka, Quebec and a local golf club
could construct 60 condominiums and expand the
golf course by nine holes (Swain, 2010). The area
for the proposed development had been used as a
burial ground of the Mohawk. An earlier ruling by
the Office of Native Claims rejected a land claim for
the area made by the Kanehsatà:ke band, a Mohawk
First Nation, setting the stage for the condo/golf
course development project—and ensuing conflict.
Disheartened by the ruling of the courts, members
of the Mohawk constructed barricades along a
road to the golf course. While two court injunc-
tions demanded the removal of the barricades,
the Mohawk remained steadfast. Members
of Quebec's provincial government, including
then-Native Affairs Minister John Ciaccia, encour-
aged Oka to conduct further consultation and
compensate the Mohawk for the loss of land.
Despite Ciaccia's comments, Quebec police moved to
dismantle the barricade on July 11th, 1990, including
the deployment of the provincial police Emergency
Response Team, who used tear gas to disperse the
Mohawk protesters. However, the barricade con-
tinued and expanded, and conflict intensified. During
an exchange of gunfire, a
police officer was shot and
died. Consequently, the
Canadian Army was asked
to support the Quebec
provincial police and Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.
As conflicts continued
between the Mohawk,
their supporters, and law
enforcement, tensions
also rose between Quebec
community members and
the Mohawk. By August
28th, the Canadian Army
was requested to provide
official military support,
announcing their plans to bring three Leopard tanks
to the barricades and placing 2,500 troops on notice.
Negotiations were struck up between the groups, and
deals were reached through August 29 to September
6, 1990. The federal government purchased the
land from the developers and Oka for $5.3 million,
although the land was never placed under Mohawk
ownership nor established as a reserve. Despite
the land not being returned to the Mohawk, Peter
Gelderloos (2013) later described the Oka Crisis as a
success for the Mohawk in that it succeeded in pro-
tecting land without elite support and helped spread
ideas of Indigenous sovereignty in North America.
The history of the Oka Crisis is a tragic and pow-
erful reminder of the social and cultural ties to
land and the impacts that development can have.
Urban forestry often is dissociated from Indigenous
land claims and, more broadly, the rights outlined
in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), especially when
contrasted to conventional forestry where such
discourse has become increasingly important in
recent decades. Much like the history of Central Park
and Seneca Village that I wrote about in an earlier
issue of City Trees, it is imperative that we >>
