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- WORLD, Page 54World NotesCANADABattle at a Barricade
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- Nearly 200 defiant Mohawks, some wearing war paint, fought
- a brief but furious gun battle with 100 armed Quebec police
- officers that resulted in one police death last week near the
- village of Oka, 18 miles west of Montreal.
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- Since 1947, the 1,000 Mohawks of the Kanesatake reserve near
- Oka have claimed land that the village wants to use to expand
- a golf course. The federal government in Ottawa rejected that
- claim in 1986, but the Mohawks demanded further negotiations
- and last March finally set up a blockade to prevent the
- extension.
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- Police ignored the roadblock for months, but finally acted
- when called in by Oka Mayor Jean Ouellette. At week's end, the
- Mohawks and up to 1,000 heavily armed police eyed one another
- across a tense no-man's-land.
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