"Natives Gather to Remember Anniversary of Oka Crisis"

MONTREAL - At the end of four days of ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the Oka land claims crisis, Mohawk spiritual leader John Cree said, "The past is over and now we have to build for the future."

But the mood of forgive and forget was not universal.

As the Kahnesatake native spoke on Sunday, about 30 Indians from every region in Canada sat in a circle in another part of the disputed Oka pine forest, pounding drums and chanting, "Hai ya, hai ya, hai ya, hai!

Some of the non-natives present shuffled their feet and looked embarrassed.

In another circle, about 100 stood silently as an interpreter translated into English the statements of an elder from the interior of British Columbia during a tobacco-burning ceremony.

He said he had been trained as a young man to keep tears from his eyes but that the people listening should understand he was inwardly moved at meeting the Mohawks who had been through so much and sad to be leaving his new friends to return home.

In yet another circle, the drums beat more slowly as Salish Indians from the Vancouver area, Cree from Saskatchewan, Micmac from Nova Scotia, and Seminoles from Florida embraced a young Mohawk veteran of last summer's 78-day standoff and said goodbye.

Cree said the four days of prayers, songs, dances and speeches were supposed to be part of a healing process.

Native leaders like Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper, or Lonefighter Milton Born-With-A-Tooth, an Alberta Peigan, told the people of Kahnesatake that even though their community is still divided and their land problem unsettled, their actions last summer earned the respect of native people across Canada.