Steven Bonspille (Mohawk) is a political leader; he was Grand Chief (2005–2008) of the

Kanesatake Kanesatake () is a Mohawk (''Kanien'kéha:ka'') settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers and about west of Montreal. People who reside in ''Kan ...

community located northwest of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

Bonspille is a traditionalist, elected to the chiefs' council in 2001. The community had adopted a new system of electoral politics in 1991, following the

Oka Crisis The Oka Crisis (), also known as the Mohawk Crisis or Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (), was a land rights, land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, over plans to build a golf course on land known as "The Pin ...

. Formerly chiefs were selected by

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

mothers as part of a traditional, hereditary system based in

matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

. Children are considered born into their mother's clans in the community, and derive their status from the mother. In the early 2000s, Bonspille became a key figure in a power struggle in the government of Kanesatake. He and two other traditionalist chiefs at the time, Pearl Bonspille and John Harding (Sha ko hen the tha), opposed then-Grand Chief James Gabriel (1996-2004), who had been elected three times. These three men generally considered Gabriel a modernist. Journalist Benoit Aubin has observed that there are strains of ethnic tension among people in the community. Harding and Gabriel both have mixed ancestry, but Harding's mother is Mohawk, so he belongs to her clan under the matrilineal system. Gabriel has a Mohawk father and is a registered member of the community, but his mother is not Mohawk.Aubin, Benoit (March 23, 2004)
"Kanesatake Chief in Exile"
''Maclean's Magazine,'' online at ''The Canadian Encyclopedia,'' Retrieved on: 16 October 2015. Among the issues, the traditionalists were concerned about Gabriel's trying to reduce sales of contraband cigarettes. Most importantly, they opposed his having hired private police forces (with funding from Ottawa) for a drug raid to be conducted in the community in January 2004. More than 200 protesters confined these officers to the police station, and that night there was violence and arson in the community. Numerous people were prosecuted. Grand Chief Gabriel left the community for his safety after his house and car were burned.Jeff Heinrich, "Wide-open race in Kanesatake"
''The Gazette'', 27 Jun 2008, La Nation Autochthone du Quebec, accessed 29 Jan 2010 During an interim period, traditionalists created a police force in the community; an official interim police director provided support to those Mohawk living in

Oka, Quebec Oka is a small village on the northern bank of the Ottawa River (''Rivière des Outaouais'' in French), northwest of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Located in the Laurentian Mountains, Laurentians valley on Lake of Two Mountains, where the Ottawa has ...

, which surrounds Kanesatake.Irwin Block, "Oka standoff, Quebec; Kanesatake divided over police chief's legitimacy; Thompson's opponents say they have no intention of recognizing his position"
''The Gazette'', 12 April 2004, accessed 14 October 2015 In 2005 Bonspille defeated Gabriel in the popular election for grand chief. A slate of six persons were elected to the chiefs' council (

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

council), replacing both Harding and Pearl Bonspille. All were supporters of James Gabriel. After finishing his term in 2008, Bonspille moved with his family to adjacent

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonspille, Steven Canadian Mohawk people Indigenous leaders in Quebec Living people Mohawks of Kanesatake people Year of birth missing (living people)