Quebec Policeman Killed in Shoot-Out With Mohawks : Land dispute: A plan to expand a golf course sparks the confrontation. Both sides have moved in reinforcements.

TORONTO —  A Canadian provincial policeman was killed Wednesday in a furious shoot-out between heavily armed Mohawk Indians and a special weapons and tactics force near the Quebec village of Oka, about 25 miles west of Montreal.

The gun battle did not last long, but soon after the air cleared, the police and Indians began moving in reinforcements, causing concern that the violence will resume and escalate.

Involved in Wednesday’s events were members of the Warrior Society, a Mohawk paramilitarygroup that claims to defend native interests but that has terrified both Indians and whites as far away as New York state in its quest for native power.

Late Wednesday, provincial police and Oka Mohawks were facing off around a golf course in the village, and an unknown number of armed Indians were lying in wait in the local woods. In addition, a second group of well-armed Mohawks was barricading a bridge leading across the St. Lawrence River into Montreal in a demonstration of support for the Mohawks of Oka.

The Mohawks blocking Montreal’s Mercier Bridge began stopping traffic Wednesday morning, snarling traffic and making it impossible for cross-river commuters to get to work. Provincial police in Montreal say thousands of commuters normally use the bridge.

The violence in Oka was the outcome of a months-old dispute over a proposed expansion of the local golf course. Municipal officials planned to convert the golf course from nine holes to 18, but Mohawks living nearby said the land that would be used is theirs.

In addition, the Mohawks say the expanded golf course would be adjacent to one of their traditional burial grounds. Some Quebec environmentalists had earlier joined the Mohawks’ preservationist cause, saying the area contains some of the oldest trees in the province.

About three months ago, Mohawks erected a barricade on the property scheduled for development. They attracted little attention at the time, since it was still too cold to play golf. But this summer, the Oka town council obtained a court order to dislodge them. About a week ago, police began warning the Mohawks to move out.

Provincial police in helmets and riot gear moved in at dawn Wednesday. Exactly what happened is unclear. Mohawks who were present said the police opened fire in the direction of the barricade, shooting over the heads of unarmed women and children. The police said they were met with a hail of automatic weapons fire and responded with tear gas.

Fumes from the tear gas were blown back on the police, however, and they retreated, abandoning several squad cars and a front-end loader at the golf course. The Mohawks seized the vehicles and used the front-end loader to crush the squad cars, using the resulting wrecks and a number of fallen trees to build new barricades.

Cpl. Marcel Lemay, 31, a SWAT officer from Quebec City, was shot in the face and was declared dead an hour later at a nearby hospital. Mohawks handling the appropriated police vehicles say they heard on a police radio that Lemay had been accidentally shot by a fellow officer. The provincial police declined to give any details of the shoot-out, saying an investigation was in progress.

Tension and violence between Mohawks and police is nothing new in this part of Canada. Police had occupied the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve--reservations are called reserves in Canada--just last May, to quell a lucrative illegal trade in smuggled duty-free cigarettes. Kahnawake Mohawks had blockaded Mercier Bridge to protest the police occupation. The Kahnawake Mohawks were the ones blockeding the bridge again Wednesday.

The Kahnawake Reserve, like the Akwesasne Mohawk Reserve straddling the U.S.-Canadian border where Quebec and Ontario meet New York state, has also operated illegal high-stakes gambling parlors and suffered violence as a result. A dispute over gambling at the Akwesasne Reserve led to a shoot-out earlier this year in which two Mohawks were killed.

The repeated police raids in the region have prompted many young Mohawks to join the vigilante Warrior Society. The Warriors stand for native sovereignty, but they carry AK-47 assault rifles, act as mercenary guards for the illegal casinos and frighten Mohawks who disagree with their methods and goals. They have announced plans to replace elected “white-backed” native governments in the United States and Canada with their own governments. Mohawks who oppose the gambling and smuggling operations think this means violence and anarchy.