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Osgoode Home > Osgoode Digital Commons > Journals > OHLJ > Vol. 63 > Iss. 1 (2026)

 

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Abstract

The Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke have been subjected to the Indian Act since 1889. Its forceful imposition has eroded ancestral governance systems and severed vital threads of cultural and social life. In 2024, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke—the Indian Act band council—declared its intent to restore traditional governance and unilaterally end the Indian Act’s reach within the territory. This work is presently underway in Kahnawà:ke. Against this backdrop, and in light of generations of collective experiences of trauma brought on by the forces of settler-colonialism, this article considers what role Haudenosaunee law can play in bringing community members together to build inclusive governance and law-making practices beyond the Indian Act. This article suggests that Haudenosaunee law, and more specifically, Kaienerekowa – the Great Law of Peace, can serve as a constitutive and guiding legal framework for Kahnawà:ke at this critical juncture. More broadly, the article explores how the resurgence and practical application of Indigenous laws can offer a path forward for Indigenous communities seeking to restore traditional governing practices that are grounded in the collective wisdom, knowledge, and legal traditions of our ancestors.

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References

 1. Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke, Wolf Clan, SJD Candidate, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. This is a revised version of my LLM thesis completed at the University of Toronto. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their generous and thoughtful feedback, and John Borrows for his supervision and unmatched support. Any errors are my own. Nia:wen ko:wa.

2. The Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) of Kahnawà:ke are one of eight communities that make up the Mohawk Nation – one of the six nations that form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The other nations include the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and as of 1722, the Tuscarora. The author is a recognized Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawà:ke of the Mohawk Nation where he sits with the Wolf Clan.

3. In 1889, the Indian Advancement Act, and by extension, the Indian Act framework, was applied to Kahnawà:ke, bringing a formal end to the clan-based Council of Life Chiefs, and marking the beginning of an elected band council system that persists to this day. See Gerald F Reid, Kahnawà:ke: Factionalism, Traditionalism, and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community (University of Nebraska Press, 2004) at 75-76; Daniel Rück, The Laws and the Land: The Settler Colonial Invasion of Kahnawà:ke in Nineteenth-Century Canada (UBC Press, 2021) at 201-202.

4. “The people of Kahnawà:ke.”

5. See Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, Kahnawà:ke Governance Project: Community Engagement Report (2024) at 1 [unpublished, archived at Kahnawà:ke Governance Project] [Alfred, Community Engagement Report].

6. The Kaienerekowa is the oral Constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It is often translated in English as the Great Law of Peace, but this is a poor and inaccurate translation. As observed by Louis Hall, for example, the correct translation would be the Great Peace, the Great Goodness, or the Great Path. See Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival (PM Press, 2023) at 204. For the Declaration, see Declaration on Restoring Traditional Government and the Authority of the Rotinonhsón:ni Confederacy, Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (17 June 2024), online (pdf): [perma.cc/WT97-D8WH] [Declaration].

7. The Seven Generations principle reflects the Haudenosaunee philosophy that one’s responsibilities extend beyond the immediate self and far into the future. Each decision should therefore account for the faces yet to come. It is a principle that emerges from the Kaienerekowa and is passed down orally from one generation to the next. See Kahente Horn-Miller, “What does Indigenous Participatory Democracy Look Like? Kahnawà:ke’s Community Decision Making Process” (2013) 18 Rev Const Stud 111 [Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy”] at 115-18; Taiaiake Alfred, Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto (Oxford University Press, 1999) at xxii.

8. It is a general observation that scholarly attention to Haudenosaunee law and philosophy has gained significant momentum and renewed interest in recent years, especially on the heels of the monumental decision of R c Montour. See R c Montour, 2023 QCCS 4154 [Montour]. For other recent Haudenosaunee scholarship, see e.g. Taiaiake Alfred, It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence (University of Toronto Press, 2023) [Alfred, About the Land]; Daniel Coleman, Ki’en Debicki & Bonnie M Freeman, eds, Deyohahá:ge: Sharing the River of Life (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2025), DOI: .

9. An overt and infamous example of this occurred in 1924 when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided Ohswé:ken (Six Nations of the Grand River), seizing wampum belts and other legal material of the traditional government before dissolving it and imposing the Indian Act system in its place. See Hall, supra note 6 at 192.

10. Thinking about Indigenous Legal Orders (National Centre for First Nations Governance, 2007) at 1.

11. When describing the Kaienerekowa, for example, Hall cautions that it in fact has very little to do with law in the western, coercive sense of the word. See Hall, supra note 6 at 204.

12. See Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (University of Toronto Press, 2010) at 10 [Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution].

13. “The original people.”

14. See John Borrows, “Indigenous Legal Traditions in Canada” (2005) 19 Wash UJL & Pol’y 167 at 175.

15. Borrows notes that jurist John Austin is one such example, whose theoretical account of law supports the claim that Indigenous societies were pre-legal. See ibid at 176, citing John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined and The Uses of the Study of Jurisprudence (Noonday Press, 1954) at 31.

16. See e.g. John Borrows, Drawing Out Law: A Spirit Guide (University of Toronto Press, 2010); Jeremy Webber, “The Grammar of Customary Law” (2009) 54 McGill LJ 579; Napoleon, supra note 10.

17. This work has already begun, but the momentum must be sustained. See e.g. Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7; Naiomi Walqwan Metallic, “Five Linguistic Methods for Revitalizing Indigenous Laws” (2023) 68 McGill LJ 47, DOI: .

18. All societies face disagreement over what constitutes law. Take the Canadian common law as an example.

19. Testifying as an expert witness for the Mohawk Nation in the case of R c Montour, Amber Meadow Adams noted that she could not offer the Haudenosaunee perspective because such could not be carried in one person’s mind. To the extent that there is one, she writes, it is for the Chiefs to offer. See Montour, supra note 8 (Evidence, Amber Meadow Adams’ Expert Report at 50) [Adams’ Expert Report]. The perspective that I offer is one informed by my lived experience as a community member of Kahnawà:ke and as a graduate student. My knowledge of the subject matter stems from a combination of these two experiences, including personal conversations and interactions with community members and knowledge holders. They include Wahiakeron Gilbert, Paul Williams, Taiaiake Alfred, and Otsti’tsaken:ra Charlie Patton, among others.

20. Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 12 at 10.

21. John Borrows has identified at least five sources of Indigenous laws: sacred law, natural law, deliberative law, positivistic law, and customary law. See ibid at 23.

22. Susan M Hill, The Clay We Are Made Of: Haudenosaunee Land Tenure on the Grand River (University of Manitoba Press, 2017) at 15, DOI: .

23. Tom Porter (Sakokweniónkwas), And Grandma Said...Iroquois Teachings: as Passed Down Through the Oral Tradition (Xlibris, 2008) at 5. As described by Adams, each story builds the foundation for the one that comes after it. See Adams’ Expert Report, supra note 19 at 28.

24. Montour, supra note 8 at para 211.

25. The Creation Story has been told, examined, and discussed in various forms throughout the literature. See e.g. Porter, supra note 23; Kahente Horn-Miller, Sky Woman’s Great Granddaughters: A Narrative Inquiry into Kanienkehaka Women’s Identity (PhD Dissertation, Concordia University, 2009) [unpublished]; Amber Meadow Adams, Teyotsi’tsiahsonhátye: Meaning and Medicine in the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Story of Life’s Renewal (PhD Dissertation, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 2013) [unpublished]; Kayanesenh Paul Williams, Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace (University of Manitoba Press, 2018) at 27, DOI: [Williams, The Great Law of Peace]; David S Blanchard, Seven Generations: A History of the Kanienkehaka (Kahnawake Survival School, 1980).

26. That is, they are the original instructions given to the Haudenosaunee from the Creator about the world and our place within it. See Porter, supra note 23 at 5; Hill, supra note 22 at 16.

27. Paul Williams writes about the clan system as a reflection of the natural world, further embedding it within the lessons from the Creation Story that preceded it. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 67-68.

28. Porter, supra note 23 at 97.

29. Taiaiake Alfred, Heeding the Voices of our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 1995) at 78 [Alfred, Heeding the Voices].

30. There is no shortage of literature on the Kaienerekowa. It has been subject to much scholarly attention and debate. Several versions and accounts of the law exist. See e.g. Porter, supra note 23; Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25; Arthur C Parker, The Constitution of the Five Nations (The University of the State of New York, 1916); Kahentinetha Horn, The Confusion Between the Great Law and The Handsome Lake Code (Mohawk Nation News, 2007).

31. These teachings were codified. See Arthur C Parker, The Code of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet (Iroqrafts Iroquois Reprints, 2000). Among them include abstaining from alcohol, preserving land for future generations, and refraining from selling it to Europeans, for example. See Brian Rice, The Rotinonshonni: A Traditional Iroquoian History through the Eyes of Teharonhia:wako and Sawiskera (Syracuse University Press, 2013) at 300. For a critical perspective on Handsome Lake, see e.g. Hall, supra note 6; Horn, supra note 30.

32. For a discussion about language as a source of Mi’gmaq law, see Metallic, supra note 17.

33. The Two Row Wampum and Covenant Chain are but two examples. See e.g. Kayanesenh Paul Williams, “The Chain, Naturally Understood” in Coleman, Debicki & Freeman, supra note 8, 67, DOI: ; Jon Parmenter, “The Meaning of Kaswentha and the Two Row Wampum Belt in Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) History: Can Indigenous Oral Tradition be Reconciled with Documentary Record?” (2013) 3 J Early Am History 82, DOI: ; Paul Williams & Curtis Nelson, Kaswentha (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1995).

34. Alfred, Heeding the Voices, supra note 29 at 77-78.

35. Kaienerekowa is both a narrative and Constitution. The narrative describes the efforts of the Peacemaker during the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, as well as the challenges that he faced along the way. The Constitution aspect of the Kaienerekowa describes the specific operation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s federal system. It contains the laws regarding adoption, selection of leadership, relations with foreign nations, civil matters, and more. Both aspects of the law are equally important and overlap in many ways. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 6-7; Alfred, Heeding the Voices, supra note 29 at 78; Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7 at 114-15.

36. See ibid.

37. For an example of a proposed model of Haudenosaunee governance in Akwesasne, Kahnawà:ke’s sister community, see Darren Bonaparte, “The Place Where They Make the Fire: A Proposed Model of Governance for Akwesasne” (2002), online: [perma.cc/DKP3-7QEG].

38. In Kahnawà:ke, the band council has always referred to the elected body as “Chiefs” as opposed to “councillors.” This use of language has always been common practice, but has been criticized by traditional people in the community who assert that the title of “Chief” is reserved for unelected Chiefs, and should therefore not be used in the context of an elected person under the Indian Act band council.

39. This statement was made in his report for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and it equally applies to those institutions that have been created by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. See Gerald R Alfred, The Meaning of Self-Government in Kahnawake (Privy Council Office, 1994) at 16, online (pdf): [perma.cc/2JKJ-A2L5] [Alfred, Meaning of Self-Government].

40. Ibid (“[t]he important distinction between Kahnawake’s efforts and others is that the Mohawks have explicitly denied the legitimacy of Indian Act institutions and established or reformed structures that draw their legitimacy instead from the collective will of the people of Kahnawake” at iii).

41. The mandate was given by community members at a public forum, where the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke was mandated to “work itself out of a job.” Ibid at 30.

42. On April 15, 1982, three years after the band council was given the mandate by the community, the council passed a band council resolution stating “[that] this Chief & Council take immediate action to make a transition from the Indian Act elective system to the Aboriginal form of government which is the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.” See Mohawk Council Resolution, No 1/1982-83 (1982), enacted by Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke.

43. The Declaration for the Return of Traditional Government was signed on November 28, 2000 by all Ratsenháiens and Ietsenháiens of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. See Declaration for the Return to Traditional Government, Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (28 November 2000).

44. As Simpson notes, and as will become clearer below, this refusal to participate in any level of government that is not Iroquois includes band council elections for the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. Even though the Mohawk Council has distanced itself from the Indian Act for its source of legitimacy, the Mohawk Council is still recognized by many traditionalists as a foreign government. See Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States (Duke University Press, 2014) at 54, DOI: .

45. Tekarontakeh Paul Delaronde effectively articulates that the term “Longhouse” is used symbolically. While the term is most often used to refer to the physical building, Tekarontakeh notes that “the length of the longhouse extends from where the sun rises to where the sun sets. The Earth is its floor, the four directions are its walls, the sky is its ceiling. The longhouse buildings are just there to keep us out of the cold, rain and snow.” In Kanien’kéha, we say Kanonhsionni’ón:we to refer to one longhouse that extends not only across Haudenosaunee territory, but all of Turtle Island. See Hall, supra note 6 at 17. Audra Simpson echoes this, noting that the Longhouse “spreads metaphorically across Iroquoia.” See Simpson, supra note 44 at 15.

46. See Alfred, Meaning of Self-Government, supra note 39 at 6.

47. Simpson, supra note 44 at 226.

48. Ibid at 5.

49. See Alfred, Meaning of Self-Government, supra note 39 at 6, 17-18.

50. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 23.

51. For this Longhouse, the position is that there is not a need to return to traditional government because a traditional government already exists, in reference to their Longhouse. See Mohawk Nation Office at Kahnawà:ke, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation at Kahnawà:ke Governance Standardization Strategy (2013) [unpublished, archived at Kahnawà:ke Governance Project] at 14.

52. See Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke, News Release, “Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke Does Not Consent to Justice Mandate” (27 September 2009), online (pdf): [perma.cc/RRH6-JUU5].

53. This position reflects that of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Grand Council of Chiefs. In 1991, the Grand Council outlined the areas in Haudenosaunee communities today where Confederacy Chiefs must have exclusive jurisdiction over any foreign government, including Canada and the elected band council system. These eight points of jurisdiction include: the Kaienerekowa, land, treaties, international relations, membership, installation of Chiefs, maintenance of ceremonies, and Justice and Law. See “Confederacy Position on 8 Points of Jurisdiction – 1991” (3 February 1991), online (pdf): [perma.cc/V67U-DW83].

54. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 1-3.

55. See “Kahnawà:ke Governance Project” (last visited 5 March 2026), online: [perma.cc/M4N2-3NHT].

56. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 3.

57. Kana’tarokhón:we in Kanien’kéha means “cornbread.” It is a meal that brings many families together. See Ka’nhehsí:io Deer, “Kana’tarokhón:we,” CBC News (21 June 2023), online:  [perma.cc/92A9-FYCQ].

58. The gathered resources included Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Resolutions and related documents, photos, recorded and transcribed interviews, academic research, and other historical documents related to Kahnawà:ke and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 4.

59. For the full report, see ibid.

60. These categories are not mutually exclusive.

61. Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 9.

62. See Eve Cable, “Path to Traditional Governance,” The Eastern Door (21 June 2024), online:  [perma.cc/HF48-D2VR].

63. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 31.

64. See Declaration, supra note 6. See also Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, News Release, “MCK signs Declaration on Restoring Traditional Government and Approves Next Phase of the KGOV Project Charter” (20 June 2024), online:  [perma.cc/M2CR-5LRH].

65. What this jurisdiction looks like and entails will need to be subject to negotiations between the Confederacy, the Mohawk Nation, and Kahnawà:ke.

66. Declaration, supra note 6.

67. The Executive Directive also formally accepted all of the recommendations made by the Kahnawà:ke Governance Project’s Community Engagement Report. See Mohawk Council Executive Directive, MCED No 45/2024-2025, enacted by Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (17 June 2024), online (pdf): [perma.cc/WT97-D8WH].

68. The latter two events are the most salient in the community’s memory due to their relative proximity in time. Taiaiake Alfred writes about these key land issues as the catapult in igniting Mohawk nationalism in the contemporary area. See Alfred, Heeding the Voices, supra note 29 at 76-77; Alfred, About the Land, supra note 8 at 31.

69. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 11.

70. For example, owén:na (word, speech, voice), karén:na (song, poem), kahsén:na (name, reputation), and a’én:na (bow or bowstring). See Adams’ Expert Report, supra note 19 at 66.

71. Ibid at 36.

72. Montour, supra note 8 (Evidence, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred’s Expert Report at 3).

73. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 2.

74. Ibid at 137, 201.

75. David Newhouse, “Guswenta Space: An Invitation to Dialogue” in Coleman, Debicki & Freeman, supra note 8, 109 at 116, DOI: .

76. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 7.

77. Ibid at 2.

78. “People of Akwesasne.”

79. On July 1, 2021, Kahnawà:ke’s sister community, Akwesasne, came together for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. The community held a Condolence ceremony and a march for residential school survivors. See Celia Clarke, “Akwesasne Condolence Ceremony Remembers Children Who Never Returned From Residential Schools,” North Country Public Radio (2 July 2021), online: [perma.cc/L4QC-848D].

80. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 7.

81. Hill, supra note 22 at 40.

82. See JNB Hewitt & William N Fenton, “The Requickening Address of the Iroquois Condolence Council” (1944) 34 J Wash Academy Sciences 65 at 69.

83. See Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 12 at 60.

84. Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 20 [emphasis in original].

85. Ibid at 17 [emphasis in original].

86. “The Great Law, despite its constant references to family terms, created a civic, not an ethnic, society. ‘Family’ meant support, responsibility, and mutual aid.” See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 3, 400-401. Adoption was also critical for the survival of the Haudenosaunee. It ensured that those who had died from unforeseen circumstances such as war or disease were replaced so that the clans were equal in strength and numbers. See ibid.

87. The Haudenosaunee ceremony of adoption can either be for individuals, groups, or entire nations, and it occurs at the Midwinter Festival.

88. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 4.

89. The living tree doctrine can trace its roots to Lord Sankey in Edwards v Canada. According to Lord Sankey, “the [British North America] Act planted in Canada a living tree capable of growth and expansion within its natural limits. The object of the Act was to grant a Constitution to Canada.” See Edwards v Canada (AG), 1929 CanLII 438 at 106-07 (UK JCPC).

90. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 421.

91. See John Borrows, Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (University of Toronto Press, 2002) at 147-48.

92. See Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 12 at 8.

93. When the Peacekeeper united the Haudenosaunee together around the Kaienerekowa, he did the same thing. As observed by Williams, the law was not made up of new ideas. It kept and strengthened what worked well in the societies and governments that were already in place. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 2.

94. See Alfred, Meaning of Self-Government, supra note 39 at 17.

95. See Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7 at 113.

96. Ibid at 121. See also Kahnawà:ke Community Decision Making and Review Process, “What is the Community Decision Making and Review Process (CDMRP)?,” online: [perma.cc/2RXC-5FM7].

97. The CDMRP process has recently been revised to allow for the amendment to existing legislation and regulations. See Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, “Laws,” online: [perma.cc/B5XN-7DCT].

98. Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7.

99. The Turtle clan are known as the “well keepers.” “Drawing from the well” refers to the process of formally introducing the issue/matter into council.

100. See Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7 at 112.

101. See Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke, Press Release, “Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke Will Not Recognize MCK Community Decision-Making Process” (27 September 2009), online (pdf): [perma.cc/QSY6-AAC7].

102. See Horn-Miller, “Participatory Democracy,” supra note 7 at 129.

103. Horn-Miller addresses some of these issues in her analysis. Ibid at 130.

104. Ibid at 117.

105. See e.g. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 2.

106. See Darren Bonaparte, “The Mohawk Longhouse” (last visited 5 March 2026), online: [perma.cc/GV5H-CYH7].

107. See Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 146-47.

108. For a closer analysis of the relationship between the Creator Twins in the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, see Amber Meadow Adams, “Where the Roots Touch: tsi niyothahinen ne Tehontatenentshonteronhtáhkwa” [Adams, “Where the Roots Touch”] in Coleman, Debicki & Freeman, supra note 8, 35.

109. Kaswentha, or the Two Row Wampum, is representative of the principle of the Two Row. It is a foundational principle of Haudenosaunee law that sets out the parameters of the treaty relationship between the Haudenosaunee and settler governments. See Oren Lyons, “Gä•sweñta Reflections” in Coleman, Debicki & Freeman, supra note 8, 29 at 30. See also Williams & Nelson, supra note 33.

110. Adams, “Where the Roots Touch,” supra note 108 at 46.

111. In Haudenosaunee clan protocol, they are brothers.

112. See Alfred, Community Engagement Report, supra note 5 at 31.

113. See also Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 390.

114. See Alfred, Meaning of Self-Government, supra note 39 at 18.

115. Borrows, Canada’s Indigenous Constitution, supra note 12 at 60.

116. Williams, The Great Law of Peace, supra note 25 at 137.

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