The actors who we are talking about today are the same ones who have ridden roughshod over the community for the last 32 years with impunity. They are the untouchables. It's not for lack of trying on our part to do that. The government has made the Longhouse, the Haudenosaunee, illegitimate. They have said that the Mohawk Council is the only legal authority, yet you passed a bill last June on the implementation on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Traditional governments that predate European arrival still exist. We survived, but we are not recognized. We are ignored. We are silenced. If you can help us with that, that would be a step in the right direction.
We are always under the band council's thumb. To me, that's been part of the problem. The same players we are talking about today created fear and havoc 32 years ago in our community and flew warrior flags when they're not really warriors. That's what you need to remember. People who fly the warrior flags now, they're not really warriors. They're businessmen. They want to protect their business interests.