Tracking the Kenora Indian Beaters and passed down hate – APTN News

When Elder Tommy Keesick describes what life was like for him in Kenora as a young man it sounds awfully similar to the deep south of the United States in the 1960s.

Segregation.

Beatings.

Deaths.

White supremacy.

“We couldn’t even walk the streets of Kenora,” recalled Kessick, 77.

“If you were only one Anishinaabe, walking the streets … you’d get beaten up.”

There was also a high number of sudden deaths in the Kenora area.

Nearly 200 of them between 1970 and 1973.

Emotions boiled over in 1974 when Keesick and the Ojibway Warrior Society took over Anicinabe Park demanding equality.

The armed stand-off lasted six weeks.

Read More: https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/tracking-the-kenora-indian-beaters-and-passed-down-hate/