On this day 35 years ago, a SWAT team, a paramilitary force, attacked a peaceful barricade in the Kanehsatà:ke pine forest — a barricade meant to protect the more than 200-year-old trees from being cut for the expansion of the nine-hole Oka Golf Club and condo development. The development would have seen the removal of our sacred burial ground to expand the parking lot of the country club.

For 78 days the peoples of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawake defended “the Pines,” a white pine forest claimed by the Mohawks of Kanesatake. We were under siege, denied food, medicine and the free passage of people by order of the Sureté du Quebec, the provincial police force, endorsed by the Quebec and Canadian governments.

Our fundamental human rights were violated daily by the SQ and the Canadian military — and we were publicly labelled as criminals for opposing a golf course expansion that was approved without our consent or consultation.