Indians, angry at crackdown, besiege tribal police headquarters in Quebec

KANESATAKE, Quebec -- Indians angry over attempts by tribal authorities to crack down on cigarette bootleggers and marijuana operations besieged tribal police barracks and blockaded a Quebec highway in this Mohawk community yesterday near Montreal.

The actions came after self-described "warriors" torched the home of Grand Chief James Gabriel on Monday night after he and his family fled the Mohawk community in fear for their lives.

Quebec and Canadian federal authorities appeared unwilling last night to send riot squads to end the showdown between militants and tribal authorities, despite appeals from the newly appointed tribal police chief, Terry Isaac, who was trapped with more than 50 other aboriginal police officers inside the station without food and other necessities. The community, long a flash point for Indian anger, is 25 miles west of Montreal, near the Quebec community of Oka, and is home to about 1,300 people.

In 1990, Indians at Oka made international headlines during a 78-day standoff between aboriginal militants and Canadian army troops who had rushed to the scene after a Quebec police officer was shot dead by protesters. That violent history may explain why authorities in Ottawa and Quebec City, the provincial capital, seemed reluctant to act in the seige at the settlement.

Negotiations between Indian groups in Kanesatake were underway last night to end the standoff, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said the federal government is keeping close watch.

"We obviously want to defuse this situation," he told reporters at the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico. "So we'll be very actively involved along with Quebec."

The protest erupted late Monday after Grand Chief Gabriel appointed Isaac as the new head of the community's police force and summoned dozens of Mohawk law enforcers from 18 other aboriginal communities in Quebec, apparently in preparation for raids against more than a dozen cigarette smuggling operations and suspected hydroponic marijuana farms, which have given Kanesatake a reputation for lawlessness.

The prospect of the raids touched off anger among aboriginal activists, who accused Gabriel of betraying the community to "outsiders" -- apparently referring to Quebec and federal police who have put some pressure on Kanesatake Mohawk authorities to crack down on blatant cigarette smuggling and marijuana operations, both believed linked to organized crime.

"Our people are angered because we've been invaded by an outside force," said Mavis Etienne, a community activist, alluding to the Indian police drawn from outside the area. "This isn't about cigarettes or pot, it's all politics."

Canadian law permits Indians to import cigarettes tax-free from the United States for their own use, but the settlement has become infamous for roadside vendors peddling cheap smokes to bargain hunters from nearby urban areas as well as to Montreal bars controlled by organized crime. The Kanesatake Mohawks are also believed to be a source of marijuana sold by the Hells Angels and other biker gangs that run Quebec's illicit drug trade.

Gabriel, speaking from hiding, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday that the torching of his home was a murder attempt, not just arson. He said that he and his family became targets because of his tough stand on crime, including plans to smash the cigarette bootlegging rings and arrest marijuana growers whose flagrant operations have long riled the provincial police force, known as the Surete du Quebec, and federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Other Indian reserves also have become centers for smuggling and marijuana production because political sensitivities make federal and provincial authorities reluctant to take action.

"We narrowly escaped being burned alive in that building," Gabriel said, adding that he had summoned Mohawk law enforcement officers from outside the community and sacked the former police chief, Tracy Cross, only as a last resort "to restore law and order to our community."

Gabriel's dog was killed in the blaze, which destroyed the home as well as the family's car and a tractor.

A Quebec highway near Oka was closed by trees felled by angry Mohawk protesters, who also built a barricade of blazing logs outside the police barracks, hurling rocks and debris at police seeking to flee the brick structure. About 40 protestors maintained angry vigil outside the barracks last night.

There was a sense of potential violence, as smoke from the chief's ruined home drifted through the settlement

and young Mohawk men -- faces concealed by ski masks, some wielding baseball bats -- affixed a "warriors' banner" to the chain-link fence surrounding the police offices. The showdown started when Isaac arrived in the community Monday with some 50 other Indian officers from other tribal areas after the former police boss was fired by Gabriel.

Speaking by phone, Isaac said that his mission is to restore law and order to Kanesatake. And that he will do so just as soon as the militants allow police to resume their duties. "The protesters are still outside," he said "We're still inside."