Mohawk reserve says no to non-native adoptions
Citing the importance of an undiluted bloodline, the Mohawks of Kahnawake are modifying their controversial membership law to include banishment from the reserve of anyone who adopts a nonnative child.
“For us, blood and lineage is paramount to our existence as (Mohawk people),” said Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, the council member responsible for membership.
“There are differing opinions in this community, but I’ll go out on a limb and say I believe that the majority of people believe that in order to be a Mohawk of Kahnawake, you’ve got to be born a Mohawk of Kahnawake. It’s not something you acquire, whether it’s through adoption or through marriage.”
Kahnawake is already facing a court challenge over its rule forcing members who marry non-natives to leave the reserve, south of Montreal. The current membership law states that non-natives adopted by Mohawk parents have to leave the reserve at age 18.
Sky-Deer said that at a meeting on the membership law this month, residents felt it was unfair to force a child who grows up in the community to leave once he or she turns 18.
“They’ll grow up here, they’ll feel like they’re part of the community and then it’s kind of like we just throw them away,” she said. The consensus remedy was to prevent non-native adoptees from living in Kahnawake in the first place.
She acknowledged that Kahnawake’s position on the membership is stricter than many other indigenous communities. “There’s this whole thing about identity,” she said. “I think other First Nations across Canada are more than happy to raise their (membership) numbers, and the lineage aspect isn’t important to them.”
Asked why a child raised from infancy to Mohawk parents in a Mohawk community could not be a Mohawk, she said being Mohawk is not “a way of life” — you have to be born one.
“We know what’s best for us,” she said. “From the outside looking in, it appears to be racist. It appears to be mean. It appears to be so many things. But to us it’s about survival.” The rules do allow for the adoption of aboriginal children.
Greg Horn, a Kahnawake journalist, wrote on Facebook that the membership change breaks with a welcoming tradition.
“Very few Kahnawake parents are going to adopt a non-Native child, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. In fact, historically our community, as well as the rest of the (Iroquois) Confederacy, has been known to adopt people, Native and non-Native alike, and accept them as one of us,” he wrote. “These people would grow up as Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawks) and know our language and culture and become integral to our society and community. As a community we accepted these people with open arms.”
Constitutional lawyer Julius Grey, who is representing Kahnawake residents facing eviction for marrying non-natives, called the adoption rule scandalous.
“If child is being raised from scratch, it doesn’t dilute the culture,” he said. “It only changes the genetic stock, and that is not anything that can legitimately form the basis of discrimination in Canada.” He said he is confident the courts would strike down the rule if it were challenged.
The basis for the rule, that direct lineage is necessary for cultural survival, was fashionable in 1930s Germany as well as in Britain and the United States, he said. “It’s a throwback to an idea that has been thoroughly discredited and scientifically disproven.”
Sky-Deer said she is not aware of any children or parents who would be affected by the new rule, which is not expected to take effect before consultations conclude next year.
She said some people in Kahnawake were unhappy that the commission reviewing the membership law referred to the adoption of non-natives as an “offence” in its proposed wording. She said the wording may be softened, but she does not expect the substance of the rule to be relaxed.