Defend the Territory: Tactics & Techniques for Countering Police Assaults on Indigenous Co

From the introduction: Communities that are effective in carrying out resistance will inevitably face some form of state repression, most often carried out by police forces. This text is intended as a review of tactics and techniques that have been used in countering police assaults on crowds and communities.

For police, these types of assaults are referred to as “public order” or “crowd control” operations. Communities targeted by such operations may face riot cops as well as armed tactical units, dog teams, armoured vehicles, the use of chemical agents and baton charges.

Native peoples in Canada have seen the deployment of police crowd control units on numerous occasions since the 1980s. Some notable examples include Listiguj/Restigouche in 1981, Kahnawake 1988, Kanesatake and Kahnawake 1990, Ipperwash 1995, Six Nations 2006, Barriere Lake 2008 and 2012, and most recently in Rexton, New Brunswick, in October 2013.

The most common target for police crowd control operations against Native peoples are blockades. This is because the blockade is highly effective as a form of direct action taken by communities defending their land and people.

While Native peoples in North America have a recent history of armed resistance (including Wounded Knee 1973, Oka 1990, and Ts’Peten 1995), most communities do not typically engage in such actions. Most, however, do have the capability of carrying out blockades and other similar types of low-level direct actions. As corporations and government continue to relentlessly exploit and destroy the natural world, it is highly likely that such actions will increase in frequency in the future as communities act to defend themselves and their land.

Warrior Publications, Spring 2014