Mohawk Indians

A band of about 20 defiant Mohawk Indians surrendered to Canadian troops with fixed bayonets, ending a tense 11-week siege that grew out of a dispute over plans to extend a golf course in the Quebec resort town of Oka, about 18 miles west of Montreal.

Two Mohawk Indians who played prominent roles in a 1990 native uprising were found guilty by a Quebec jury Wednesday on 29 charges, including aggravated assault and arms possession. After more than six days of deliberations, the jury found Ronald Cross--better known by his alias Lasagna--guilty on 20 of the 40 charges laid against him by the Canadian province.

Four Mohawk Indians were arrested by Canadian police in an investigation of a killing linked to a tribal dispute over gambling at the St. Regis Indian Reservation. They were the first arrests in the killing, one of two stemming from internal Mohawk disputes on the reservation that straddles the New York-Canadian border. Warring Mohawk factions have frequently exchanged gunfire.

Welcome to Canada, where "cold turkey" has taken on a sensational new meaning for hard-pressed cigarette smokers. The Canadian government has taxed cigarettes to such levels that smokers have lately been known to drive across the border to the United States, buy a turkey, rip out its frozen innards in the supermarket parking lot, stuff the cavity with cheap American loose tobacco, and smuggle the bird back home.

About 200 Mohawk Indians protesting alcohol-related highway deaths on the St. Regis Indian reservation blocked firefighters trying to put out a blaze at an illegal barroom, authorities said Sunday. Two hours after police arrested owner Josephine White on Saturday for serving alcohol without a license, flames broke out at her barroom on the reservation. State Police investigator James Bouchard said police are convinced the fire was set by angry reservation residents.

Some 2,000 Mohawk Indians began evacuating their reservation to escape factional violence that has left roadways lined with burned cars and caused residents, including children, to brandish arms. One man was critically injured in the violence and another was missing. The reservation straddles New York and Canada, but the violence so far has taken place on the United States side. After a week of nightly confrontations between Indians who support casino gambling and bingo on the U.S.

Heavily armed Canadian soldiers Monday tightened their perimeter around a group of armed and defiant Mohawk Indians who refused to surrender. Army spokeswoman Capt. Lynne Bermel said the army moved several hundred yards closer to "The Pines," an Indian alcohol and drug treatment center on the Kanesatake reserve, west of Montreal. Oneida Nation Chief Terry Doxtator told reporters outside the treatment center that the remaining Mohawk Warriors "will not lay down their arms if the army moves in."

American Indians, chanting and calling for more news coverage of a dispute involving Canadian Mohawk Indians, picketed The Times in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. Members of the Mohawk Defense Committee said the newspaper was chosen for the hourlong protest by 15 Indians because a demonstration last week outside the Canadian Consulate attracted no reporters.

Gunfire killed two Mohawk Indians on Tuesday and police later closed off the reservation, scene of a 9-month-old fight over casino gambling. Troopers escorted investigators of the Quebec Provincial Force through the New York section of the reservation to the scene of the shootings, which occurred before dawn Tuesday. The state police said they were entering the reservation as a peacekeeping force.

Two Mohawk Indians who played prominent roles in a 1990 native uprising were found guilty by a Quebec jury Wednesday on 29 charges, including aggravated assault and arms possession. After more than six days of deliberations, the jury found Ronald Cross--better known by his alias Lasagna--guilty on 20 of the 40 charges laid against him by the Canadian province.

A band of about 20 defiant Mohawk Indians surrendered to Canadian troops with fixed bayonets, ending a tense 11-week siege that grew out of a dispute over plans to extend a golf course in the Quebec resort town of Oka, about 18 miles west of Montreal.

American Indians, chanting and calling for more news coverage of a dispute involving Canadian Mohawk Indians, picketed The Times in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. Members of the Mohawk Defense Committee said the newspaper was chosen for the hourlong protest by 15 Indians because a demonstration last week outside the Canadian Consulate attracted no reporters.

A small band of Mohawk paramilitary men are still holed up on Indian land here, more than a week after the Canadian army began clearing their protest barricades from the highways and bridges around nearby Montreal. The majority of the so-called Mohawk Warriors filtered away quietly when the army moved in, but about 50 Mohawks have stayed on to make a last stand in an alcohol-abuse treatment center in a once-peaceful pine forest.

The Mercier Bridge linking Montreal to its south-shore suburbs opened Thursday for the first time after an eight-week standoff between armed Mohawks and police. As army pipers played, hundreds of cars and trucks drove onto the bridge from suburban Chateauguay, through the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve and past armored personnel carriers. "It's about time," one unidentified man on his way to work told a radio station. "The government should never have let this happen in the first place."

Heavily armed Canadian soldiers Monday tightened their perimeter around a group of armed and defiant Mohawk Indians who refused to surrender. Army spokeswoman Capt. Lynne Bermel said the army moved several hundred yards closer to "The Pines," an Indian alcohol and drug treatment center on the Kanesatake reserve, west of Montreal. Oneida Nation Chief Terry Doxtator told reporters outside the treatment center that the remaining Mohawk Warriors "will not lay down their arms if the army moves in."

Canadian soldiers Sunday quietly seized control of the last fortified Mohawk barricade in Quebec, but officials said restoring order after the seven-week armed standoff may take some time. Troops in armored personnel carriers and backed by helicopters took control of an Indian barricade in Oka, a town about 20 miles west of Montreal, but approximately 30 armed Mohawks calling themselves Warriors refused to lay down their arms. "Nobody's giving up nothing," a Warrior angrily told reporters.

Hundreds of Quebec provincial police moved into the town of Oka on Thursday and surrounded a band of defiant Mohawk Indians intent on stopping the expansion of a golf course onto land they claim encroaches on their ancestral territory. The Mohawks on Thursday dug trenches and reinforced barricades with captured police cars as they prepared for a possible showdown with law enforcement officials.

Armed Mohawk Indians embroiled in a land dispute with authorities agreed Saturday to lift a bridge blockade near Montreal after a provincial official promised to reduce the police contingent in this Quebec town. The agreement was announced after Quebec Native Affairs Minister John Ciaccia met for more than six hours with Indian representatives in an effort to end the dispute, which has left one police officer dead.

Troops backed by armored vehicles and helicopters on Saturday swept into a Mohawk community at the hub of a 53-day protest. Gen. Armand Roy, commander of the Canadian Forces 5th Brigade, said he decided to send in his troops after two Mohawk men were wounded in the factional fighting behind Indian barricades set up in a land dispute with government officials. "I decided to move my troops so as to guarantee the security of civilians and my soldiers," Roy said.

Mohawks and Canadian soldiers worked Friday to clear blockades from a major Montreal bridge, but troops maintained their siege around a small but defiant band of Indians at a nearby resort. Talks between Quebec officials and Mohawks to end a long standoff at Oka, a lakeside resort where the conflict erupted in July, collapsed Thursday night, prompting the province to revive an earlier order to have the army clear the barricades there.