A political legacy that won’t be forgotten

For Andrew Delisle Jr., it was always about putting Kahnawake first.

The son of the late grand chief Andrew Delisle Sr., Andrew dedicated his life to his vision of a sovereign nation, and he was willing to take whatever steps necessary to defend it.

When Iohahí:io Delisle thinks of his father and his legacy, he said there’s one memory that always stands out.

“It brings me back to during 1990. I was going on 13 at that time,” said Iohahí:io, Andrew Jr.’s first-born son. “I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

“He sat me down at our dinner table and told me that we’re going to war. We’re at war with Canada, and your responsibility now is to defend our nation,” said Iohahí:io, now a Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) chief. “He always told me that we’re forever going to be at war, as long as we assert our sovereignty on them and our birthrights, and those are non-negotiable.”

His father’s passing on December 21 was sudden, Iohahí:io said, and happened after he came down with pneumonia. He was admitted to Anna Laberge Hospital, where he spent his final moments that evening surrounded by family. He was 66.

During the 1990 Siege of Kanehsatake, Andrew Jr., and the mother of his children, the late Patricia Birchenough, worked together to get essential items to Kahnawake from across the river in Lasalle.

“My mother was actually the one that contributed to help bring the food and diapers across the water,” said Ioronhiateka Delisle, their son, who was just four at the time.

Their parents also worked together to get sensitive intelligence to the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation. Back then Birchenough, an Irish Montrealer, worked at a hotel that would host Quebec officials who would gather there to talk about the crisis, he said.

“My mother was stealing paperwork for my father to get intel on what the government was doing, and what they were trying to do,” Ioronhiateka said.

Andrew Jr., was also at the forefront of the movement to revitalize traditional government in the community – an effort that centered on working with the MCK to commit to return to its own peoples’ way of governing, under the Great Law of Peace.

“A lot of the work we did was all geared towards moving Kahnawake forward, getting us out from under the clutches of the Canadian government,” said Council chief Jeffrey Diabo, who began working alongside him after 1990 at the Mohawk Nation Office.

“As far as the sovereigntist movement is concerned, Andrew was at the forefront of that. He was basically following in the footsteps of his father.”

In the 1990s, he and Andrew Jr., had been representing the 207 Longhouse in the hope of getting Council to recommit to a mandate brought forward at a community meeting in 1979, where the people demanded a return to traditional governance - something the entire Council table also supported at the time.

“It was all geared towards trying to establish some type of unity movement, trying to get people to work together,” Diabo said.

By 1996, Delisle Jr., began working for Council as a Mohawk government development officer, where he remained until being named director of the Lands Unit in 1999. He later served as the director of the office of the Council of Chiefs, a role he remained in until his retirement in 2007.

“It was always about negotiating at the highest level to get the effects of the Indian Act out of Kahnawake,” said Diabo, who later got hired by Council in 2000 to work alongside Andrew Jr., on the traditional government project.

Just this past year, the MCK reaffirmed its commitment to that 1979 mandate, under what’s today called the Kahnawake Governance Project.

Andrew Jr., was also behind the decision to assign a press attache to speak on behalf of Council, a title he created in 2002 and gave to Joe Delaronde, among K1037 FM’s co-founders.

“He grew up in the environment,” said Delaronde, also a childhood friend of his from grade one onward. “It was natural for him to do what he did.”

Andrew’s mother, the late Gladys Marie Parent, gave birth to him in 1958, just two years before his father was first elected as a Council chief.

“He was involved in everything, all the political decisions that were made from the time he was there till the time he left,” Delaronde said about his friend.

Those who knew him best described him as a jokester.

“He always had something funny to say, especially when you weren’t expecting it,” Ioronhiateka said.

He was also a generous man, his son said, and would often help those in need.

“Everyone loved him because of the way he was,” Ioronhiateka said. “He made everyone in the room feel that they were meant to be there, even if they felt that they weren’t.”

In some circles, he’s known more as a painter than a political man, those who knew him said. About a dozen of his paintings were on display at his wake held at Poissant & Deer on December 26.

“He always painted, right to the end of his life. As a matter of fact, one of the paintings on the wall apparently was painted within two weeks of his passing,” said Delaronde, who said his paintings were often abstract, depicting his spiritual beliefs. “It was really impressive work.”

Andrew Jr., is also survived by his sisters Debbie Delisle and Lynn Delisle, as well as his other children, Jonathan Delisle, Adriane Delisle, Amy Delisle, and Drewanne Delisle, and his 14 grandchildren, in addition to many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

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