What do residency permits accomplish? 

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake began touting residency permits years ago to “know who’s living here,” but that reasoning alone is hollow.

What if they already know so many of these people who don’t have these magical permits? Shouldn’t that be enough, instead of trying to force them to get a permit to live here?

It was a flawed initiative from the start, supported by a handful of people at what was then called the Community Decision Making Process. It’s divisive and will never work and we’ll tell you why.

First off, why do other Onkwehón:we, including Kanien’kehá:ka, need permits to live here? People say they couldn’t care less about zoning issues here and don’t need building permits, but they’re okay with trying to coerce people to sign up for a permit just to be here? Even the outside doesn’t have that kind of control.

And before you say, “we’re different from them,” you’re right we are. So why stoop to a level that is below even municipal requirements in neighbouring towns and cities?

Thousands of people are on the Kahnawake band list and/or live here who are not on the Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake Registry (KKR), but that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute heavily to the success of our amazing town.

Non-Natives in partnership for many years with community members are also living here. Many are elderly. Their kids and grandkids are Mohawks. They don’t need permits and should never be forced to get one.

Trying to enforce these permits, for no real reason at all except for control, means this initiative is targeting our lacrosse coaches, our language learners and speakers, powwow dancers, teachers, and so many others who make Kahnawake what it is today, all of whom aren’t on the KKR.

Will you require a permit for that man from Akwesasne who has been here for decades? What about the ones who have very little Kahnawake blood ties, but who are Onkwehón:we through and through?

The irony is, this MCK-backed initiative (an Indian Act band council), wouldn’t even be supported by the feds or province because it’s illegal and targets human rights. If they push hard enough, they will have no one to blame but themselves when, inevitably, someone pushes back.

Some will say “well, just get a permit, it’s not hard.” That’s not the point. The point is people, especially a Kanien’kehá:ka coming to live in Kanien’kehá:ka territory, shouldn’t need one. Ever.

How does getting a permit allow for a better community? It doesn’t. And as you can see from the response of the few who applied for and got one, not many are buying into it.

Worse, by publicly posting the names of those applying, anyone with a grudge can object. So, a person married into town with children and a house, a mortgage and a life, can be targeted just because someone doesn’t like them?

What about the storeowners (and there are some prominent ones) who aren’t on the KKR and have children and grandchildren here, but are Kahnawa’kehró:non and are on the federal list?

Is targeting them a smart move?

If the Peacekeepers show up to kick someone out, well the permit system will die right then and there on the doorstep, because someone will push back legally.

Instead, ask people coming here to educate themselves on the community, find out why they want to be here – the answer is a lot less controversial than some seem to think.

These same people who are coming here willingly are building the community up, and in the past, many of the same people who want to see residency permits enforced had family members come here from somewhere else too.

The worst part is at the early beginnings of this residency permit idea they included children. Yes, children would have had to apply for a permit under the early rendition of this “law.”

It was only when The Eastern Door wrote an editorial about how ridiculous that was, asking a five-year-old Indigenous child to leave if they didn’t have the proper paperwork, that they relented.

Every child would have only mattered if they were on the KKR under that even more heavily flawed version of residency permits.

Council will tell you they don’t drive this anymore, that it falls under membership, but they aren’t criticizing it, either.

What does Kahnawake want to be? Progressive into the future or stepping backwards into a time that never existed in our history?

When it comes down to it, with a sober mind, a good mind, Ka’nikonri:io, what do residency permits accomplish?

Is there anything beyond the control aspect? Anything that looks like protecting the community?

You know the answer to that.

This editorial was originally published in print on September 27 in issue 33.39 of The Eastern Door.