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[First Page [134], (1) Lines: 0 to ——— 7.396pt ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [134], (1) 6. “We Have Our Own Rights and Religion” The Reestablishment of the Longhouse in Kahnawà:ke The Organization of a Longhouse Following in the Early 1920s D uring the 1920s Rotinonhsiónni people persisted in their efforts to regain and protect their cultural and political sovereignty, which continued to be undermined and threatened by Indian policies in Canada and the United States. In 1920 the Indian Act was amended to empower the Canadian government to order the enfranchisement of any Indians it considered qualified for citizenship, without their request or consent. The new policy of forced enfranchisement was aimed at native people east of Lake Superior who, like the Rotinonhsi ónni, were considered more assimilated. The outrage and protests of Rotinonhsiónni and other native people contributed to a repeal of the amendment in 1922, but it was reinstituted in 1933 in order to speed the pace of enfranchisement and assimilation .1 In the United States many Rotinonhsiónni opposed the passage of the Citizenship Act of 1924, which made all American Indians citizens of the United States.2 At the Six Nations reserve in Ontario the traditional council of hereditary chiefs was replaced by the elected band council system in 1924, a change imposed without even a referendum on the elective system. Nevertheless , the Confederacy council there continued to meet and remained politically active, particularly in efforts in and outside Rotinonhsiónni communities to gain support for Confederacy sovereignty and the primacy of Confederacy authority.3 Also, during this period the employment of Kahnawakehró:non and 134 “We Have Our Own Rights and Religion” [135], (2) Lines: 37 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Pag * PgEnds: Eje [135], (2) other Kanien’kehá:ka in high steel expanded, with many more men traveling to the United States to work in the building and bridge construction trades.4 The movement of native ironworkers from Canadian reserves and communities across the international border concerned American immigration authorities, who in 1926 arrested Paul Kanento Diabo, an ironworker from Kahnawà:ke, as a test of their authority and of recently enacted immigration laws. The case was also a political test for many Rotinonhsiónni, who argued that they were part of sovereign nations with the right to pass freely across the Canada–United States border. In Kahnawà:ke Peter J. Delisle and others who formed the Anti faction during the Thunderwater period and had been engaged with the Council of the Tribes remained politically active in support of sovereignty, both within the community and in concert with other Rotinonhsiónni communities. They continued to pursue their objective of political autonomy through changes in the Indian Act, but they did so largely within the established political channels of the band council system. Following the Reformers of the 1890s and the Progressive faction of the previous decade, others within the community supported the Indian Act, and they too worked within the established system. As a result, within the community there continued to be two opposing factions , each pursuing its agenda within the Indian Act system. Meanwhile a third faction, also opposed to the Indian Act, was developing outside the government’s system. This third faction represented a new political direction and laid the foundation for the reestablishment of the Longhouse in Kahnawà:ke. In the discussion that follows, “Longhouse” refers to a political and religious group that is based on the Rotinonhsiónni clan system, is engaged in traditional Rotinonhsiónni spiritual beliefs and practices, and maintains ties with “Longhouse” groups in other Rotinonhsiónni communities. This broad definition of “Longhouse” includes, but is not limited to, Longhouses orga- “We Have Our Own Rights and Religion” 135 [136], (3) Lines: 40 ——— 0.0pt P ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [136], (3) nized in the Handsome Lake tradition. Defined in this way, the development of the Longhouse in Kahnawà:ke in the 1920s represents a reestablishment of the Longhouse in the community. At the time of its establishment in the seventeenth century, Kahnaw à:ke was settled by both recent converts to Catholicism and others who had not been converted but migrated to Kahnawà:ke for economic and other reasons. It is almost certain that traditional Rotinonhsiónni belief, organization, and practice were part of the social, political, and spiritual life of early Kahnawà:ke. Over time, of course, the traditional forms, beliefs, and practices waned, weakened, or were modified owing...

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