Native Protester Prepared to Die Over Rights to Land

CALEDONIA
Michael "Sahtakaientes" Laughing is willing to die if OPP officers try to remove him from a native-occupied building site just outside Caledonia.

The OPP met with Six Nations chiefs and clan mothers yesterday and said they will remove protesters, said Laughing.

He has occupied Douglas Creek Estates building site for nearly two weeks after he said he was ordered there by his clan mothers from the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles the border of Cornwall, New York, Ontario and Quebec.

With raw emotion in his voice Laughing spoke of how he missed his family, but believes it is his duty to help protect the people who he said finally stood up for what they believe in.

He will not back down.

"I fear for my life," he said. "If I have to die here that's what I'm going to do. They will have to kill me to take me out of here. All my life I have seen this happen to my people. Enough is enough."

More than two dozen native protesters anxiously paced inside the barricaded borders of the development site this morning knowing police officers could arrive at any moment .

"The government has no right to come in here and push us around," Laughing said. "They're trying to wear and tear our people. They're making everyone crazy. They say they're coming in peace. They aren't coming in peace. If they come in here they will have broken the peace."

Laughing said no one can touch the rights of the native occupiers because their laws were in place long before the laws of the government.

"There are true, traditional people here, who belong out here," he said, "who will stand out here and fight for everything. Who are willing to die today or whenever (the OPP) plan on coming in."