GO rD hIll 500 Years of Indigenous resistanceAs well, the Lil’wat nation in BC erected road blockades on their
traditional land in an assertion of their sovereignty and as part of the soli-
darity campaign with the Mohawks. Four months later the RCMP would
raid the blockade and arrest some 50 Lil’wat and supporters, on Novem-
ber 6. On November 24, a logging operation on Lubicon Cree land in
northern Alberta was attacked and some $20,000 damage inflicted on
vehicles and equipment. Thirteen Lubicon Cree including Chief Bernard
Ominayak were subsequently charged with the action but have yet to be
put on trial. They have refused to recognize the trial as having any juris-
diction on Lubicon Cree land.
During the same period, Indigenous peoples in South America were
carrying forward their struggles.
In Bolivia in October 1990, some 800 Indians from the Amazon re-
gion—Moxenos, Yuracares, Chimanes and Guaranies—walked 330 miles
from the northern city of Trinidad to La Paz in a month-long “March
for Land and Dignity”. When the march reached the mountain pass that
separates the highlands from the Amazon plains, thousands of Aymaras,
Quechuas and Urus from across the Bolivian highlands were there to greet
them. Like the struggles of their sisters and brothers in North America,
this march was against logging operations as well as cattle ranching on
Indian land.
In Ecuador, from June 4th to 8th, 1990, a widespread Indigenous up-
rising paralyzed the country. Nearly all major roads and highways were
blocked, demonstrations and festivals of up to 50,000 spread throughout
the country, despite massive police and military repression. Demonstra-
tions were attacked, protesters beaten, tear-gassed and shot. Through
the coordination of CONAIE (Confederacion de Nacionalidades del
Ecuador)—a national Indian organization formed in 1986—a 16 point
“Mandate for the Defense, Life, and Rights of the Indigenous Nation-
alities” was released. The demands included control of Indian lands,
constitutional and tax reforms, and the dissolution of various govern-
ment-controlled pseudo-Indian organizations. The government agreed
to negotiations on the demands; the uprising had restricted food supplies
to the urban areas, disrupted water and electricity supply, closed down
schools, and occupied oil wells, airports, and radio stations. The Indig-
enous uprising had effectively shut down the country.