Oka City Map Poster

About Oka

The crisis began when the Mohawk people of Kanesatake, a Kanien'kehá:ka community located near Oka, Quebec, learned that the town of Oka planned to expand a local golf course onto land claimed by the band as their ancestral burial ground. The Mohawks had filed land claims in 1979 and 1980 which were rejected after an investigation by Quebec's Bureau des Affaires Indiennes (BAI) concluded that there was no evidence to support them. In response to this decision and other actions taken by both sides over time leading up to 1990—including court challenges on both sides—the Mohawks blocked access roads with barricades on July 11th.