Both band council and traditional leadership on Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory near Montreal say they support the occupants of a protest camp erected on land being eyed for residential development by a neighbouring municipality.

Members camping out on the parcel of land in Chateauguay, a Montreal suburb, say they’ll stay put “as long as it takes” to stop the city’s proposed 290-unit housing project.

“It’s almost like an act of defiance on their part, to say ‘we don’t matter.’ And yeah – we matter,” explained Turtle Clan mother Kaherihshon Fran Beauvais.

“We matter, and we’re going to stop this,” Beauvais added. “It is our land, these are our children.”

On Thursday afternoon, half a dozen children played around a clearing by a campfire where three tents had been erected beneath flapping warrior flags. Six or seven adult community members sat in lawn chairs, chatting beneath a mesh tent protecting them from drizzle.

Despite the relaxed mood, people at the camp said they were not willing to cede “a single inch” of the territory they claim.

“We felt like July 1 was an appropriate day for us to make an encampment there because of the connection between the residential schools, with them taking our language and culture and land,” Karihwakatste Deer, spokeswoman for the protest camp, said on Thursday.

“These lands are still being taken from us, this is still happening today. It hasn’t changed. We couldn’t wait until something was built there.”

Newly elected Kahnawà:ke Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer said she is offering her full support to the effort, and that numerous letters sent to government officials have so far gone unanswered.

“We’ve been trying to get land back now in this community for years,” Sky-Deer told APTN News.

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