Billy Two Rivers, a retired Mohawk wrestler, politician and activist, has died at 87. Chief Billy Two Rivers of Quebec's Mohawk Grand Council acts as a witness to Phil Fontaine after Fontaine was re-elected as the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations at the annual general meeting held in Vancouver Wednesday, July 12, 2006. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Lam
MONTREAL – Billy Two Rivers, a retired Mohawk wrestler, politician and activist, has died at 87.
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake announced his death in a statement published today.
Two Rivers rose to fame as a wrestler in the 1950s, and spent nearly a quarter of a century in the ring before he turned to politics.
He was first elected to Kahnawake council in 1978 and served 10 consecutive terms, where the council said he was an influential leader during the Oka crisis of 1990.
The council says Two Rivers stayed active in in his later years, acting in several movies and TV shows and remaining a prominent advocate for the promotion of the Mohawk language.
In 2017, he reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit against singer Van Morrison, whom Two Rivers had accused of using his photo on an album cover without permission.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2022.
