CONSTITUTION OF THE MOHAWK RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES ASSOCIATION (v.1.1)

A founding meeting of the Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association will be held on _____ at the Mohawk Council House in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory to ratify and adopt this constitution.

Basis of Unity for the Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association

We the members of the Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association agree that:

The Mohawk (Kanyen’keha’ka) people are a free and sovereign people with the right to individual and collective self-determination, including the development of a self-supporting, self-regulated economy outside of the system of the Crown and its Canadian government.

Mohawk people are allies – not subjects – of the Crown and its Canadian government. We have a Covenant Chain treaty of peace and friendship with the Crown, but we have never surrendered our lands to the Crown. Because we are a free and sovereign people, we do not pay or collect tax to, or for the Canadian government, the Crown, or anyone else. We do not require Canadian licenses or regulations to run our businesses or economy.

The Mohawk people are organized into nine clans and clan families connected to the bear, wolf and turtle totems. The Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association organizes in harmony with this traditional system and works to support it.

Historically, the Mohawk are a matrilineal society. The MRRA recognizes this fact, as well as the fact that the Canadian government has been imposing a patriarchal system on us through the imposition of the Indian Act.

The way our traditional system of governance works is that our leaders serve our people, and express the consensus decisions made by the people. In the consensus decision making process of our people, all are equal, and all have a voice that must be taken into account when making collective decisions. As an association, we meet regularly at pre-arranged times in meetings that are open to all of our members.

We have inherent individual and collective rights as free and sovereign Mohawk people to consume, cultivate, process, utilize, and trade or exchange any part of creation in our territory for our own sustenance and benefit, as long as we do it in a way that does not harm others. The rights of the collective are defined by the individuals exercising their rights. We need to stop the Canadian government from determining what our rights are, and to assert them ourselves.

Our individual and collective rights are enshrined in our Great Law, the Kayenerekowa and our relationship with the Crown is known as the Silver Covenant Chain. Our rights are further recognized and affirmed in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, Sections 25 and 35 of the Canadian Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

Mohawk people have the inherent sovereign right to use natural medicines to treat ourselves, and the inherent sovereign responsibility to provide medicines to those who need them. Mohawk people have the sovereign right to grow, process, and sell cannabis, tobacco and any other product in accordance with the customs and traditions of our people. This includes Nation-to-Nation trading relationships with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous Nations.

Mission Statement

The Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association shall:

Advocate for the inherent and sovereign rights of the Mohawk people.
Support the self-organization and self-regulation of the Mohawk economy on a sovereign basis in accordance with Mohawk custom and convention. We will uphold and defend Mohawk people exercising their inherent rights to economic self-determination and oppose the colonial system imposed by Canada’s racist Indian Act.
Advocate and promote the rights of all Mohawk people to access key economic products such as fish, wood, cannabis, tobacco, etc. and to build an “above ground” self-regulated industry to grow, process, transport, retail, and trade these products on a nation-to-nation basis. This advocacy may be done through means including, but not limited to, workshops, publications, advertisements, and public relations campaigns.
Resist Canadian police incursions and defend and build political and legal support for any Mohawk person who faces criminalization or state sanctioned targeting for exercising our sovereign rights.
The association shall create a mechanism whereby a portion of the revenue made within the Mohawk economy will be apportioned to political, social and cultural programs that improve the lives and support the identity and values of Mohawk people.

Bylaws of the Mohawk Rights & Responsibilities Association (MRRA)

Membership
1. For the purpose of membership in the MRRA, a member must be descended from an ancestor from the Mohawks living at the Bay of Quinte (Tyendinaga) and/or the Grand River (Six Nations) and meet at least one of the following criteria:
  1. having a “Indian”/Onkwehonwe name and being named or adopted in the longhouse
  2. Be born to a Mohawk mother
  3. Having an Indian Status Card from Grand River or the Bay of Quinte
  4. Having the membership decided by the group through a vetting process
2. Any Mohawk person who agrees to uphold the mission statement, bylaws, and Community Standards of the MRRA, will be accepted as a member of the association.
3. A membership card will be issued to each member of the MRRA with their name, address, and membership listed on it. Members of the MRRA are entitled to a 10% discount on personal purchases at participating MRRA businesses.
4. Each member will make a yearly personal contribution to the MRRA of an amount that they consider appropriate. This sum will be held and accounted for by the treasurer of the Association and used to fund the work of the MRRA.
3.0 Biannual Gathering
1. The highest decision making body of the MRRA is its Biannual Gathering, which is a meeting of all members held twice a year.
2. Biannual Gathering meetings of the MRRA shall occur twice yearly, on the second Saturday of November and the first Saturday of March.
3. Meetings shall begin at 12pm on Saturdays.
Making Decisions
1. Business is advanced through the making of proposals and the use of consensus decision making processes between members present at the Biannual Gathering.
2. If a consensus on a matter cannot be reached, then the matter shall be referred to the next meeting. If a matter has been brought up at three consecutive meetings and has not been resolved, then the matter shall be deemed closed and shall not be discussed again.
3. Motions that are agreed upon with the consensus of the group are written down and recorded as official decisions of the MRRA by the MRRA secretary and shall be published on the MRRA’s website at _____________.
Executive committee
1. At its Biannual meeting on _______, the MRRA shall choose an executive committee made up of a spokesperson, a treasurer, a secretary, as well as three other executive members. The terms of the executive members is for a one year period.
2. The MRRA as a whole must come to consensus on who will be chosen as members of the executive.
3. The role of the executive is to operate the affairs of the association in between MRRA Biannual Gatherings.
4. The executive shall meet at minimum once a month and shall communicate the minutes from its meetings to the membership via an email newsletter within 4 days of the meeting.
5. The spokesperson speaks on behalf of the association publicly and is responsible for external communications.
6. The treasurer is responsible for the group’s finances.
7. The secretary is responsible for keeping minutes of executive and general assembly meetings, keeping track of membership, and handling internal communications amongst the membership.
8. The other executive members may assist the spokesperson, treasurer, and secretary as necessary, or take on other areas of responsibility as needed.
9. Executive members may be removed from their position and replaced at any of the Biannual Gatherings of the MRRA.
10. The executive committee shall produce a proposed agenda, an update on the groups finances, and provide a written report of the executive’s activities on behalf of the MRRA no less than three weeks before each Biannual Gathering.
11. The executive is collectively responsible for organizing the Biannual Gathering meeting and communicating the decisions made to the membership.

A phone list / directory of all members numbers

Eligibility Criteria for MRRA Financial Assistance

The MRRA gathers funds through membership dues and fundraising activities to support its mission and activities. The MRRA may also provide financial assistance to its individual members to support them in the payment of expenses related to expert consultations, travel, accommodations, and other associated costs arising from the exercise and defence of their Aboriginal and treaty rights.

In order to enhance fiscal responsibility and support equitable access to MRRA resources, the following criteria must be met for any MRRA members seeking financial assistance from the MRRA:

The applicant must be a registered MRRA member in good standing for at least three (3) months prior to the application date;

The applicant must provide a letter or email or text message to the MRRA Finance Committee explaining the context for the support they are requesting;

The applicant must provide verifiable evidence of financial hardship, such as documentation of income constraints, unexpected expenses, or other circumstances that impede their ability to cover the requested costs independently.

Financial assistance will be granted at the discretion of the organization based on available funds and organizational priorities. Applications failing to satisfy the eligibility criteria listed above will be denied.

All applications for financial assistance will be received and compiled by the MRRA Finance Committee, which will issue a recommendation on the matter, which will be approved or denied by the MRRA Executive Committee.

The MRRA Finance Committee will keep a file with the records of all financial assistance decisions and will provide a report to each biannual meeting detailing these expenses.

Commissions & Committees

At its Biannual Gatherings the MRRA may create commissions and committees as necessary to fulfill its mandate. These bodies may include:

Bodies created from the membership of that relate to specific projects, initiatives, or problems that need to be resolved.

An Education and Skills development committee to build capacity within and outside the MRRA.

An arms length compliance body / Ombudsperson to handle and investigate complaints. The Ombudsperson shall serve as a non-decision making member of the executive and shall be the person to whom complaints concerning MRRA members shall be referred to.

Removal from Association

The following are grounds for removal from the association:

Infiltration and surveillance carried out on behalf of a foreign institution such as an Indian Act body or Canadian police force,

Affiliation with organized crime,

Other such actions that undermine and attack the sovereign rights of the Mohawk people.

The executive of the association has the right to suspend a member of the association for violation of the “MRRA Community Standards” document. That suspension may be dismissed, altered or confirmed into a removal from the Association at the next Biannual Gathering meeting.

Modification of bylaws and principles

The bylaws and statement of principles of the MRRA may be modified at any Biannual Gathering as long as the notice of such change is provided to the membership with a two weeks notice before the Biannual Gathering meeting.

Communications

The Executive shall maintain a communications infrastructure for the Association that will include:

An internal Signal chat for all members,

A Facebook discussion group and email list,

A website to share information with the public and the group membership,