Getting Back to Normal
Inquiry called, questions linger after armed standoff ends in arrests
Crime Reporter, Jay McClennan
August 12, 1974
On July 20, four members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) crossed from Minnesota into Ontario at International Falls to attend a conference at Anicinabe Park, just outside the town of Kenora.
Two days later, the conference turned ugly and led to an armed standoff that lasted 17 days. Masked natives seized control of the park, brandishing shotguns and sticks of dynamite and calling themselves the Ojibway Warriors Society. The conference, which had been organized to protest the treatment of Ojibway people by the Department of Indian Affairs, degenerated as anger boiled over into violence. 14 Indians were arrested, including the four members of AIM who are awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Constable Brian Laughton of the Kenora OPP was one of the first officers on the scene at Anicinabe Park.
“We knew there could be some trouble with people coming in from out of town. We’d been keeping an eye on the event since it started,” Laughton said, dismissing rumours that the OPP had jeopardized the security of the town. “But we never thought it would come to this.”
When OPP officers arrived to restore peace they were shot at and two patrol cars were damaged.
In the first hours of the occupation, the Ojibway Warriors Society threatened setting fire to the pulp mill and bombing the hydroelectric power station. Police had to close down both sites and send workers home while they searched the buildings. Planes that passed overhead to take photos were shot at with high-powered rifles.
Over the next 48 hours the standoff called national attention to the racial tensions of a northern town, and threatened to destroy the region’s reputation to tourists as ‘Sunset Country’. National news media arrived to report on the armed standoff and pacifist Quakers set up a camp between police roadblocks and the Ojibway Warriors Society.
Federal Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, arrived in Kenora on July 27 to reinforce the government’s firm position. “The proper way for grievances to be settled is to follow the normal channels and negotiate. We can’t give in to armed demands. The first step towards action is to put down the guns and come to the table in good faith.”
Lyle Ironside, who has been charged with weapons possession, called the conference at Anicinabe Park “a sort of Ojibway unity conference, where they wanted the opinions of the old people.”
Ironside would not say if he was a member of the Ojibway Warriors Society, though he did admit to traveling to South Dakota in 1973 to join Crowdog’s support camp for Wounded Knee.
Ironside is known to police since his arrest in connection with the occupation of the Kenora branch office of the Department of Indian Affairs on April 23rd, 1974.
Constable Laughton summed up the mood when he said, “I’m just glad no one got hurt. We can get over this and go back to normal.”
Posted by James Sherrett at March 29, 2004 10:31 PM