Canadian politician to speak Mohawk in the Canadian House of Parliament, made a surprise visit to Levi Oakes to honor him with a medal

Last week, Canadian Politician and Quebec Liberal MP Marc Miller, the first Canadian politician to speak Mohawk in the Canadian House of Parliament, stopped at the home of the last living Mohawk code talker Levi Oakes to present him with a medal to honor his service as a code talker. He also read Oakes a letter of thanks in the Mohawk language.

Miller was traveling to speak with tribal representatives about cannabis and wished to pay Oakes the visit. Miller is from the Montreal community and works in the House of Commons serving Montreal and the surrounding areas.

When at the home of Oakes, Miller presented the code talker with a symbolic medal to recognize his efforts. Miller also read a letter in the Mohawk language.

The only press on scene was Kaniehtonkie from the Indian Times, who wrote an article describing the meeting between Miller and Oakes, described the moment Miller read the letter as special. It “made Levi’s eyes light up, showing he understood every word Miller said.”

Miller told the Indian Times: “It was a personal honor to meet Levi Oakes. The role of the Code Talkers in WWII has long been an interest of mine and I wanted the Government of Canada to recognize Mr. Oakes. The spirit and success of the Code Talkers was hidden for so long.”


“Even before entering politics I have always been fascinated with languages, learning Swedish as an adult, but there is such richness to Mohawk and it is very difficult to learn,” he said.

During the meeting, Oakes surprised everyone in the room and revealed he had recently received an official letter from the U. S. Department of Defense stating he was free to share what actually happened in WWII.


“Before that, no one, including his family, had any idea the role he had during the war,” said the Indian Times.

When Miller finished reading his letter, Oakes responded in Mohawk with Tsi nika’shátste, meaning “It is so strong,” a reference to the strength of the Mohawk language.
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Turtle Island News reports that Nestle Waters Canada met with the Six Nations Band Council's Committee of the Whole on Monday (January 22).

Nestle was there to seek the Band Council's support for its application to the provincial government to continue to draw water for its bottled water operations from Six Nations traditional territory.

Anna Milner, who is with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, says, "In addition to the ministry's duty to consult, the ministry has asked Nestle to engage these communities directly to listen to their concerns and work with them."

Turtle Island News highlights, "During the sometimes testy meet and greet session on Monday, elected Chief Ava Hill bluntly asked Nestle representatives, 'If Six Nations say we don't agree with those permits, will you‎ shut those plants down?'"

Nestle's Adreanne Simard replied that she couldn't answer that question and that "some of what you are hearing isn't the truth."

Chief Hill then stated, "Well the truth is you're taking the water out of the ground and we don't want you to."


And given Monday's meeting was a 'meet and greet' and not a formal consultation, Chief Hill also warned Nestle, "We don't want to see any of your propaganda saying that we consulted with Six Nations."

In addition, Band Councillors Dave Hill, Sherri-Lynn Hill Pierce, Carl Hill and Audrey Powless Bomberry all expressed concerns about Nestle water takings.

The Council of Canadians stands in solidarity with the people of the Six Nations of the Grand River and their concerns about Nestle's water-takings.


We have highlighted that while Nestle extracts water from Six Nations territory for its highly profitable bottled water business, 11,000 residents of Six Nations do not have access to clean drinking water.

We have also emphasized that any water takings require the free, prior and informed consent from Six Nations of the Grand River as recognized under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.


We are also deeply concerned that Nestle's provincial permit to take 3.6 million litres of water a day in Aberfoyle expired on July 31, 2016, while its permit to take 1.1 million litres a day in Hillsburgh expired on August 31, 2017. We estimate that Nestle has now pumped more than 1 billion litres of water on these expired permits.

The Council of Canadians calls on Premier Kathleen Wynne to take action on this issue immediately rather than seemingly avoiding making a decision on these expired permits until after the June 7 provincial election.
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Kaniehtiio Horn, who plays the female protagonist Oak is also Mohawk; she grew up on a reservation in Canada, and she speaks the language.

 Horn and her family helped with how the dialogue in the movie is spoken, plus historical fact checks on the culture.

After one of her tribe sets an American camp ablaze, a young Mohawk warrior finds herself pursued by a contingent of military renegades set on revenge. Fleeing deep into the woods they call home, Oak and Calvin, along with their British companion Joshua, must now fight back against the bloodthirsty Colonel Holt and his soldiers – using every resource both real and supernatural that the winding forest can offer.

The story concerns two Mohawk protagonists, Oak (Kaniehtiio Horn, Hemlock Grove) and Calvin Two Rivers (Justin Rain, Blackstone). They are joined by British soldier Joshua (Eamon Farren, from the new Twin Peaks season on pay cable’s Showtime) in fending off vindictive American antagonists played by Ezra Buzzington (Justified), Robert Longstreet (Take Shelter) and Rochester native Jon Huber (also known as WWE superstar Luke Harper) among others.

Kaniehtiio Horn is a native of Ottawa, but grew up on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve outside of Montreal in Quebec. Her mother, Kahn-Tineta Horn, is a Mohawk former model and a political activist for the Kahnawake First Nation.

The War of 1812 started due to British attempts to restrict trade between Canada, America and France. The three-year war is often viewed as the second war of independence for the United States.


“The War of 1812 is almost a forgotten war, and the Mohawk campaign is one of the more forgotten parts of this forgotten war,” said Geoghegan. “It was great going into this with a creative concept, and backing it up with a lot of facts.”


“The concept plays off of a home invasion horror movie. The home in this case happens to be North America,” Hendrix said. “The invaders are the Americans and the innocent victims are the Mohawk tribesmen. They’re trying to stay neutral in a war where you’re not allowed to stay neutral.”


Dark Sky Films will release Ted Geoghegan‘s Mohawk theatrically on March 2, with a simultaneous VOD and HD Digital release, and has just unveiled the trailer and poster for the Native American revenge thriller. The film marks the second team up between writer-director Geoghegan, producer Travis Stevens, cinematographer Karim Hussain and Dark Sky Films after their award-winning 2015 horror hit, We Are Still Here.

Oakes served as a code talker in the South Pacific during WWII and was awarded the Silver Star for his service. The silver star is the third-highest military award for valor given for showing gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.

Pro Lacrosse Knighthawks honor 92 Year-Old Native American Silver Star Recipient Levi Oaks

The Rochester Knighthawks professional lacrosse team honored the last surviving Akwesasne World War II code talker, Louis Levi Oakes, 92, Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) in front of a crowd of 6,000 Saturday night at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY.

Levi Oakes stands at center field with his great grandchildren (left to right) Warren, (Levi Oakes) Ryan and Ronin Oakes. Photo Alex Hamer

Levi Oakes stands at center field with his great grandchildren (left to right) Warren, (Levi Oakes) Ryan and Ronin Oakes. After the war, Oakes worked for 30 years as an ironworker in Buffalo, NY and later worked in the highway department at the Mohawk territory in Akwesasne, New York before retiring.

During WWII, the Mohawk language was one of several Native languages used to send communications between U.S. forces. The Native American code talkers are world known to have to only unbroken military code in history and these messages in WWII were never interpreted by the Japanese.


At the Knighthawks game, Oakes’ daughter Dora Oakes told Indian Country Today that her father never talked about his service and it was only a few years ago, when their local American Legion started to ask about his service, that she found out the contribution her father and other Mohawks made as code talkers.


With the help of his great grandchildren, Oakes made his way to the center of the arena where the crowd gave a thunderous cheer and applause. Oakes was gifted a traditional wooden lacrosse stick before he dropped the ball in a ceremonial faceoff to start the game.


Levi Oakes was presented with a traditional lacrosse stick in honor of his Iroquoian Mohawk heritage.

Marc Miller stood before the House of Commons Thursday and made history by giving a speech entirely in the Mohawk language.

 The Montreal-based MP has been learning Kanyen’kéha — the Mohawk language — since January and wanted to make a point about preserving Canada’s indigenous culture.

“Today, for the beginning of Aboriginal History Month, I spoke to the House in Kanyen’kéha, the language of the Mohawk people on whose traditional land my riding is situated,” said Miller, in a statement released Thursday. “It is the result of a personal journey to learn a new language and to raise awareness of indigenous languages in Canada.”

The short speech marked the first time an MP delivered a speech in Kanyen’kéha and it is one of the few times in Canadian history that the language has been spoken in Parliament. In it, Miller pays homage to the Mohawk people and encourages more Canadians to learn about indigenous languages.

Thus far, reaction to Miller’s speech seems mostly positive.

“I applaud his efforts and it’s very respectful,” said Akwiratékha’ Martin, who teaches the language at Kahnawake’s Mohawk immersion school. “I hope that he continue using the language in his job. But most of all, I wish that he help get all (indigenous language) programs funded that are not recognized or funded by his government. I’m sure that he knows now that for us speaking our language is medicine and heals a part of our spirit.”


One of Martin’s students seemed overjoyed about the speech.

“Holy (expletive) you guys see this? He’s actually not that bad,” wrote Mohawk language student Kaniehtiio Horn, in a Facebook post. “He took the time to show respect. Mad props MP dude Marc Miller.”

Others pointed to the powerful symbolism of Miller’s gesture.

“I just shared this with a group of traditional elders here on the (West Coast),” wrote Teka Everstz, on Facebook. “They all had to pick up their jaws from the table… this is historical.”


“It’s an emotional journey for anyone to learn a language. You’re out of your comfort zone, you feel insecure, you feel stupid any time you get something wrong,” said Miller, the Liberal MP for Ville-Marie-Le-Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Soeurs. “In terms of learning Mohawk, it’s extremely intricate, it’s extremely colourful in the way it expresses ideas. The words are super long, sometimes you have a 25-letter word, which is difficult in and of itself.

“What we’ve learned by doing our tour with (Indigenous Affairs Minister) Carolyn Bennett is that the elders are saying that, within a generation, the majority of first languages will be wiped out. It’s an alarm bell.”

Of the roughly 30,000 Mohawks who live in North America, only about 3,000 are fluent speakers of the language.

Raven Swamp, 23, of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, and a member of the Mohawk tribe, was crowned 2017 Miss Indian World at the 34th Annual Gathering of Nations on Saturday.

 “A part of my platform is going to be focused on language revitalization and Indigenous food sovereignty,” said Swamp.

The 23-year-old currently teaches Kanien’kéha at Karihwanó:ron Mohawk Immersion. She is also heavily involved in a grassroots initiative that aims to establish an organic, self-sufficient farming project that strives toward our community’s economic independence through food sovereignty.

For the past two years, Swamp, along with about a dozen other community members, have been cultivating white corn and other vegetables on land west of Highway 30.

“We’re just getting ready for this coming season. We’re just waiting for it to become spring and begin,” said Swamp.

As a prestigious cultural ambassador for Indigenous people throughout the world, the newly-crowned Miss Indian World will then spend her year traveling, when the opportunities arise, and promoting cultural awareness, diversity and Gathering of Nations.


Last year, Caitlin Tolley a 26-year-old Algonquin from Kitigan-Zibi, was given the title runner up to Miss Indian World.

“To me, Miss Indian World is someone who embodies cultural pride, education, beauty and is also grounded in her traditional teachings,” said Tolley.
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