My friend Neil Gabriel, a self-employed, successful tradesman and Mohawk warrior from the Kanesatake Reserve in Oka, Quebec, is humorously skeptical of the claims and exemptions abundantly supplied by our Native populations. Many of these indigenous tribes are committed to challenging national jurisdictions and dismantling the historical structure of the country in a torrent of land-claims and legal negotiations.
Neil is having none of it and puts the matter to rest with a joke that is solidly anchored in reality. “If we want to know what kind of winter we can expect, we look at the white man’s woodpile.”
