Day-long negotiations ended Tuesday with hope the end of a standoff between rival Mohawk factions in Oka, Quebec is near. Quebec's Public Security Minister announced a tentative deal has been reached that would see besieged police officers go free.

The deal came after negotiations between Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon and the Kanesatake and Kahnawake police commissions.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Laval, Quebec, Chagnon said that under the tentative deal, the 60 officers brought into the Kanesatake reserve from native communities across the province by Grand Chief James Gabriel would be asked to withdraw.

And, until a new chief can be appointed, an interim police chief would take over the job, he said.

As details of the deal emerged late Tuesday, CTV's Jed Kahane said the police chief whose firing sparked the protest would get his job back, but he will be overseen by peacekeepers from another Mohawk community.

The deal, which Chagnon said had been reached without Chief Gabriel, was taken to the reserve by members of the Kanesatake police commission.

Negotiations have been ongoing throughout the day, and early signs of progress were seen Tuesday evening when band members opened up the main highway around the reserve which they had blockaded.

Members of the Peacekeepers, the Kanesatake reserve's police force, had been barricaded inside their headquarters. They'd been trapped inside since Monday afternoon and protesters were not allowing them out, nor food supplies in.

The standoff began Monday afternoon, a day after the new police chief, Terry Isaac, arrived at the station with 60 new officers from 18 aboriginal communities from outside the reserve.

Isaac arrived promising to crack down on alleged marijuana growing operations and the reserve's ballooning number of illegal cigarette vendors.

Policing policy sparks standoff

About 30 Kanesatake band members, angry that their former police chief had been fired and outsiders brought in, began a protest. They trapped Isaac along with his officers inside the Peacekeepers headquarters, where they remain.

They then knocked down trees to block a highway near the reserve and the home and car belonging to band Grand Chief James Gabriel was set on fire. Gabriel's dog was killed but his family was uninjured.

Dissident Kanesatake council member Chief John Harding said the community no longer acknowledges Gabriel's leadership and says he has ceased being a member of the band council.

"What you see here is our members supporting our police chief and police commission. They want these outside forces to leave, so we can get law and order established," Harding told Canada AM Tuesday.

Gabriel says the torching of his house was an attempt on his life. He said he has "no doubt" the aim of the fire was to kill him and says he's relieved he and his family had left the house before the fire began.

"We narrowly escaped being burned in that building. They had no clue that I wasn't there," he said without naming who he believes was responsible for the fire. 

The band's policing has been a source of tension for some time in the community. Gabriel has called for a tougher stand on alleged pot growing and other criminal elements in the community and has said he needs outside help to effort a real crackdown.

He has discussed hiring outside police officers from the Surete du Quebec and the RCMP to sweep in and shut down the large number of cigarette vending operations on the reserve.

The reserve is able to sell its own brands of cigarettes for discount prices. But selling them to non-Indians tax-free is illegal.

Gabriel began his crackdown by deeming the former police chief too soft and hiring Isaac. But band members say they have the situation under control and don't need outsiders coming in.

Chief Harding says cigarettes are not the issue -- band council politics is. He says Gabriel has overstepped his bounds.

"It's been a hostile takeover of our police force. The grand chief doesn't have the authority to do such an action," he says.

"The only body with the authority to take such an action is the police commission, which is an independent body appointed to ensure that the police are not guided or interfered with in any way by the politicians of the community, such as myself or James or any other chief."

The police commission says Gabriel signed a deal in November with the federal and provincial government to give him the power to throw out the police fore and bring in a a new one. They say that deal was made in secret and was illegal.

This is not the first outbreak of violence at Oka. In 1990, a standoff there lasted all summer as Mohawks protested plans to expand a golf course into disputed native land. A police officer was killed in the tension and the military was brought in to bring calm to that dispute.