Beginning on July 11 and lasting until September 26, 1990, Kanehsatà:ke was the centre of a brutal standoff between Indigenous land defenders and government forces. One provincial police officer was killed, several people on both sides were injured, and Canada found itself at the centre of international attention.

By mid-August, about 4,000 soldiers supported with artillery, armoured vehicles, navy vessels, and the air force were stationed around Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke, another Mohawk community just to the Southeast of Montreal. To put that in perspective, about 5,100 Canadian troops served in the Persian Gulf War that year, with no more than 2,700 deployed at one time.