Mounties and Indians clash

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33654, 2 October 1974, Page 17

Mounties and Indians clash

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) OTTAWA, October 1. Militant Indians forced off Parliament Hill by riot-equipped police and soldiers with fixed bayonets yesterday moved into a century-old Federal building today and declared it their embassy.

Three Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were slightly hurt when they clashed with 300 Indians during the demonstration on the first day of Parliament. It was not known how many protestors were injured. Eighteen people were arrested, but four were later released. Seven have been charged with obstructing police and assaulting police, four were charged with obstruction and three with assault. , The militant Indians were part of a caravan which travelled across Canada from British Columbia to present the Federal Government with a list of demands to better their living conditions. An Indian spokesman, Mr Louie Cameron, told reporters last night that their list of demands would be increased. He refused to say i whether they planned ■ another march on Parlia[ment or any other action. “For now, we claim this i building, wrecked as it is, as the embassy of the native people,” Mr Cameron said. [The three-storey, 100-year-old building is an empty warehouse which was to be restored by the Federal Government

"We have always recognised ourselves as an independent nation in this formal democracy. We have established ourselves as an independent Government,” Mr Cameron said. He said that the Indians did not plan to try to arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister (Mr Pierre Trudeau). [ “Trudeau has gone all. over the place, so he can! come on over here,” he said,] referring to Mr Trudeau's] trips abroad. Indian guardsmen armed, with clubs and wearing; crash helmets stood on watch around the dilapidated building while R.C.M.P. officers on foot and in patrol cars cruised past. Slogans were painted on the walls, most reading, “Bless the native people. F ... the R.C.M.P.”. A small scuffle broke out as a few militants tried to force their way through a single line of Mounties guarding the entrance to the Parliament building during the demonstration yesterday. Later, when police tried to push the demonstrators off the steps to Parliament, numerous fist fights broke out and protestors broke the sticks off their placards and hurled them at police.