First published 2008
The summer of 1990 brings armed confrontation to the small Mohawk community of Kanesatake when the town of Oka announces plans to expand a golf course onto sacred burial grounds. Jake Beauvais, a young Mohawk man caught between two worlds, watches as his community erects barricades to protect their ancestral land. The Canadian military arrives with tanks and helicopters while international media descends on the formerly quiet reservation. Jake must navigate the growing tension between Mohawk Warriors determined to defend their territory and government forces ordered to end the standoff. As the crisis stretches from days into months, Jake faces impossible choices about loyalty, identity, and the price of resistance. The weight of centuries of broken promises and cultural survival rests on decisions made in moments of crisis.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, canadian-literature, 21st-century, native-american, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Kanesatake, Oka
Period: 1990
309 pages · Hardcover · Canadian Museum of Civilization/Musee Canadien Des Civilisations
Content warnings: violence