The camp appeared not long after the Mounties moved in to enforce an injunction against members of Wet’suwet’en blocking Coastal GasLink construction. When I visited the camp during its first week, everyone I spoke with said it was set up spontaneously and was intended both to show solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en opponents and their land claims and to draw attention to Mohawk land disputes. The Mohawks there have a long history of disrupting the rail line in protests.

The camp is not endorsed by the local band council leadership and is relatively small in numbers. No one acts as an official spokesman, although three or four of its members appeared to have informal leadership roles.

Everyone I spoke with said they were Mohawk. Although some of them lived in other First Nations in Ontario and Quebec and at least one was a resident of Ottawa.

Is There an Obvious Solution?

Many of the Mohawks at Tyendinaga have said that they’ll let trains roll again if the Mounties leave Wet’suwet’en territory. The police force has offered to move its temporary detachment at the pipeline into a nearby town if the construction road remains open. As of midday Friday, no one in the Indigenous community has said if that would satisfy them.

Legal experts agree that neither the federal nor the provincial governments have the power in this case to order police to move in, tear down the blockades and arrest the protesters. The potential for violence aside, there is little guarantee that other blockades won’t immediately replace them elsewhere.

Finally sorting out the hereditary chiefs’ grievances over Coastal GasLink will most likely be a protracted affair. One that will continue much longer than the nation will tolerate the disruption and economic costs of the blockades.