Today marks the 16th anniversary of the Oka land dispute that saw a police officer lose his life over a golf course expansion into treaty-contested land. It's a good moment to lift up the carpet and re-examine the nasty bit of evil we like to keep sweeping away: Canada's 300 unresolved land-claim disputes with our first nations neighbours. All these years later, Oka negotiations are still unresolved, barricaded natives in Caledonia, Ont., are six months into their standoff, and who knows what's next? Isn't it time we consider what we might gain by considering the spiritual dimensions of these disputes?

Quite a lot, I thought, as I stood recently at a fascinating intersection of state and church at Her Majesty's Chapel of the Mohawks, not far from the current Caledonia land-claim dispute. The Canadian Bible Society had brought political and church leaders, both native and white, to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the Mohawk translation of the Gospel of John. The Mohawk Chapel is one of Canada's oldest churches and, from there, the ceremony moved to one of the newest, a nearby Baptist church sitting amidst the disputed Caledonia land claim with a Six Nations warrior flag planted high in the tree in its yard.

Ontario MPP David Levac, whose riding covers this disputed ground, spoke passionately of the need for peace and pleaded with churchgoers to "eliminate the tricksters -- they are all over us."

Tricksters, in aboriginal tradition, are imaginary devils who interfere with human activities. Mr. Levac didn't need to explain to the audience the reality of demons disturbing human affairs. The Mohawk translation we had gathered to celebrate was written by a frustrated native war hero, John Norton, who was kept waiting months for an 1806 hearing by the British Privy Council on the land-claim disputes along the Grand River in Caledonia. While he waited, he translated the Gospel of John; 200 years later, we were on the same disputed land. Nothing much had changed in the course of justice.

What of the "tricksters," could they be working against us? Perhaps it's best if you decide. One of Christianity's greatest contemporary authors, Oxford professor Clive Staples Lewis, helped millions imagine how the great trickster, the devil, might try to distract humanity from God's best ideas. In his popular wartime book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imagined an exchange of letters between a senior devil, Screwtape, and his nephew, Wormwood, a junior tempter. Those letters helped people acknowledge their personal worlds were also a battleground for issues of the heart, issues that could stop a nation from moving forward in the goodness of God.

I could imagine, taken from such a perspective, the Caledonia dispute might sound like this.

My dear nephew,

Your battles in the media have been remarkably successful.

The angry images at Caledonia have evoked fear and delicious voices of racism. Telling a story of 200 years complexity in sound bites and two-minute runs has been brilliant; the humans have gobbled it up and the loss of knowledge is on our side. They are impatient and ill-informed on all these areas, and neither side has an appetite for facing truth -- which is where we have the advantage. I am also glad you have kept their chief, David General, out of the press. He does not support the barricade and his voice must continue to be silenced and divided from his people at Six Nations. Keep your distortion tactics vigilant.

Your affectionate uncle,

Trickster

Nephew,

They were singing Khenorankwha at our battleground at Caledonia and it cannot continue. It is Mohawk for love and medicine. "Jesus is good medicine," they sang; I'm not pleased. It was a wretched scene, dancing and drumming to the Creator. It cannot happen again. Don't mistake their little Mohawk translation as a harmless distraction. The Jesus in their Mohawk Bible demands unqualified just treatment of all peoples and asks the oppressed to forgive and love their oppressors. How is our cycle of greed, bitterness and repayment supposed to survive that? We have had an unfortunate setback and we must regain as quickly as possible.

See that the singing to the Creator stops.

Your uncle,

Trickster

Dear nephew,

Perhaps I am overreacting; I am sorry if I caused you second thought. Let's assess our advances: Both sides have become quite hardened in their ways; there have been so many of our inspired transactions completed, I can't foresee any hope of forgiveness or reconciliation. Remember our stroke of genius decades ago, when our state efforts conspired to ask the church to enforce our policy to wipe out Indian identity? Oh, the delicious wounds run so deep. Remember, the human is designed with free will, which, for the most part, chooses to go its own path separate from the Creator. This forgiveness the Creator inspires doesn't stand a chance. I approve of your heavy use of the drug of apathy on the masses; I'm sure we can continue to destroy first nations people and justice in Canada for many more years.

The church holds the secret, make sure it continues to hide it. Stay the course.

With satisfaction,

Uncle Trickster

Lorna Dueck hosts Listen Up TV, a spiritual perspective on Canadian news on Global TV, CTS and Salt and Light TV.