You Are on Indian Land

Last updated
You Are on Indian Land
Directed by Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell
Produced by George C. Stoney
Cinematography Tony Ianzelo
Edited by
Production
company
Release date
  • 1969 (1969)
Running time
37 minutes
CountryCanada
Budget$8,432 [1]

You Are on Indian Land is a 1969 documentary film directed by Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell about the 1969 Akwesasne border crossing dispute and the confrontation between police and Mohawk of the St. Regis Reservation on a bridge between Canada and the United States, which stands on Mohawk land near Cornwall, Ontario.

Contents

By blocking traffic from the bridge, the Mohawk sought to call attention to their grievance that they were prohibited by Canadian authorities from duty-free passage of personal purchases across the border. They claimed this right as part of their right of free passage across the border, as established by the 1794 Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States after the latter gained independence in the American Revolutionary War. [2] The film portrayed the rising activism of the Mohawk and demands for self-determination, which has continued.

Production

You Are on Indian Land was produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of its Challenge for Change series, with Mitchell a member of the fledgling Indian Film Crew for First Nations filmmaking. Knowing that negotiations were faltering and that Mohawks here planning to block the bridge, Mitchell asked George C. Stoney, the Challenge for Change executive producer, for an NFB film crew. Stoney moved quickly to pull a film team together. Director Mort Ransen agreed to work on the project after learning that no First Nations directors were available, saying that he would assist Mitchell. [2] [3] [4]

For Mitchell, who would go on to become a long-serving Grand Chief of Akwesasne, the experience of making You Are on Indian Land blurred the lines between filmmaking and politics:

I was filming the meetings, but I was also asking questions and giving my own views, and I soon became identified as one of the spokesmen [for the community]; they asked that I be part of the delegation that was going to Ottawa. So I was really playing both sides at the time. [4]

Crediting changes

In 2016, an encounter between Ransen and NFB English Program executive director Michelle van Beusekom at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival led to series of discussions that would see the NFB officially recredit the film with Mitchell as director, in accordance with Ransen's longtime wishes. Additionally, Indian Film Crew member Noel Starblanket would be added as assistant editor for his work alongside editor Kathleen Shannon, the future founder of Studio D. [4] Regarding the crediting issue, Mitchell said:

I didn't really think one way or another about it because, technically, I was a student. My feeling was, they [the NFB] are calling the shots. So I'm just glad we got the film made. ... Mort [Ransen], who had his name attached as the director, always said that it was not his film, that it was mine. I really think that it was his saying that, for years, that helped them make this decision now. [4]

Aftermath

Afterward, Mitchell worked with the NFB for several more years before leaving filmmaking. He was elected to the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne in 1982. Two years later, he was first elected as its Grand Chief—an office he would repeatedly hold, beginning in 1984 until his most recent reelection in 2012. [3] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Regis Mohawk Reservation</span> Indian reservation in New York, US

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohawk people</span> Indigenous First Nation of North America

The Mohawk people are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kahnawake</span> First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada

The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, across from Montreal. Established by French Canadians in 1719 as a Jesuit mission, it has also been known as Seigneury Sault du St-Louis, and Caughnawaga. There are 17 European spelling variations of the Mohawk Kahnawake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanesatake</span> Mohawk Territory in Quebec, Canada

Kanesatake is a Mohawk settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers and about 48 kilometres (30 mi) west of Montreal. People who reside in Kanehsatà:ke are referred to as Mohawks of Kanesatake. As of 2022, the total registered population was 2,751, with a total of about 1,364 persons living on the territory. Both they and the Mohawk of Kahnawake, Quebec, a reserve located south of the river from Montreal, also control and have hunting and fishing rights to Doncaster 17 Indian Reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akwesasne</span> Mohawk Territory

The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne is a Mohawk Nation (Kanienʼkehá:ka) territory that straddles the intersection of international borders and provincial boundaries on both banks of the St. Lawrence River. Although divided by an international border, the residents consider themselves to be one community. They maintain separate police forces due to jurisdictional issues and national laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Larkin</span>

Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972). He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.

Noel Victor Starblanket was a Canadian politician. For two terms from 1976 to 1980 he was chief of the National Indian Brotherhood.

Colin Archibald Low was a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was known as a pioneer, one of Canada's most important filmmakers, and was regularly referred to as "the gentleman genius". His numerous honors include five BAFTA awards, eight Cannes Film Festival awards, and six Academy Award nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seaway International Bridge</span> Bridge in Canada

The Seaway International Bridge is an international crossing connecting New York State, in the United States, Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, and the province of Ontario in Canada. It consists of the South and North Channel Bridges. The South Channel Bridge was opened in 1958, and spans the St. Lawrence Seaway. The North Channel Bridge, opened in 2014, connects the City of Cornwall in Ontario to Cornwall Island in Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.

<i>Mortimer Griffin and Shalinsky</i> 1985 Canadian film

Mortimer Griffin and Shalinsky is a 1985 National Film Board of Canada short film written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mordecai Richler and directed by Mort Ransen. It is about an eccentric Jewish intellectual who accuses his teacher of hiding his Jewish identity. The film is based on Richler's 1978 short story, "Mortimer Griffin, Shalinsky and How they Settled the Jewish Question".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornwall Island (Ontario)</span>

Cornwall Island is an island in the Saint Lawrence River, directly south of the city of Cornwall. The island is located completely within Canada, but it is also part of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve, which straddles the Canada–United States border and the Quebec–Ontario border. The Seaway International Bridge, with a channel crossing on each side of the island, provides road access to Cornwall Island from both Canada and the United States.

Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen is a 1965 National Film Board of Canada documentary about Leonard Cohen, co-directed by Don Owen and Donald Brittain, written by Brittain and produced by John Kemeny.

Challenge for Change was a participatory film and video project created by the National Film Board of Canada in 1967, the Canadian Centennial. Active until 1980, Challenge for Change used film and video production to illuminate the social concerns of various communities within Canada, with funding from eight different departments of the Canadian government. The impetus for the program was the belief that film and video were useful tools for initiating social change and eliminating poverty. As Druik says, "The new program, which was developed in tandem with the new social policies, was based on the argument that participation in media projects could empower disenfranchised groups and that media representation might effectively bring about improved political representation." Stewart, quoting Jones (1981) states "the Challenge for Change films would convey messages from 'the people' to the government, directly or through the Canadian public."

Tracey Penelope Tekahentakwa Deer is a screenwriter, film director and newspaper publisher based in Kahnawake, Quebec. Deer has written and directed several award-winning documentaries for Rezolution Pictures, an Aboriginal-run film and television production company. In 2008 she was the first Mohawk woman to win a Gemini Award, for her documentary Club Native. Her TV series Mohawk Girls had five seasons from 2014 to 2017. She also founded her own production company for independent short work.

Mort Ransen was a Canadian film and television director, editor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his Genie Award-winning 1995 film Margaret's Museum.

John Kemeny was a Hungarian-Canadian film producer whom the Toronto Star called "the forgotten giant of Canadian film history and...the most successful producer in Canadian history." His production credits include The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Atlantic City, and Quest for Fire.

Stanley Jackson (1914-1981) was a Canadian film director, producer, writer and narrator with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell is a longtime Canadian Mohawk politician, pioneering First Nations film director and a leading figure in First Nations lacrosse. First elected to the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne in 1982, he began his first term as Grand Chief in 1984. He served on the Mohawk Council almost continuously for more than 30 years, having been reelected as Grand Chief as recently as 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Benedict</span> Mohawk educator and activist

Ernest M. Kaientaronkwen Benedict was an educator, activist, and chief of the Mohawk Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Studio D</span> Canadian womens film unit

Studio D was the women's unit of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the world's first publicly funded feminist filmmaking studio. In its 22-year history, it produced 134 films and won 3 Academy Awards. Cinema Canada once called it the "Jewel in the Crown Corporation."

References

  1. ↑ Evans 1991, p. 169-170.
  2. 1 2 "You Are on Indian Land". Curator's comments. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  3. 1 2 Honarpisheh, Farbod (2006). "You Are On Indian Land". In Jerry White (ed.). The Cinema of Canada. London: Wallflower Press. pp. 81–89. ISBN   1-904764-60-6.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Tracey, Andrew (24 February 2017). "Now Reconciled: Nearly 50 years later, the director of a landmark First Nations film gets his rightful recognition". The Review. Toronto International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  5. ↑ Burnham, Kathryn (26 June 2012). "Mitchell re-elected Grand Chief". Brantford Expositor. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

Works cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.