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For a lot of you who might need some background, I will put some
detail into this.
The Akwasasne reserve is a Mohawk reservation with unique properties.
It lies on the Canada/US border near Cornwall, Ont. Part of it is
in New York and part of it is on St Regis Island on which is located
the border. As well St Regis is partially in each of the provinces
of Ontario and Quebec. We now have five governments involved US
Indian Affairs, NY State, Prov of Ont, Prov of Quebec and Cdn Indian
Affairs.
As well the reserve is internally divided into two sections, Canadian
and American; each with its own traditional chiefs. As well there
is an elected tribal council which oversees the whole reservation.
Now we have in effect eight levels of government.
A couple of years ago, some of the residents of the American side
built a huge Bingo hall which offered, at times, a million dollar
jackpot. People would come by chartered bus to attend. Since then
other gambling halls have been built on the American side where
it is legal, or rather there is no law against it. It is illegal
on the Canadian side.
Akwasasne has also been know for years as a smuggling ground, primarily
for cigarettes and booze. Buy tax free or cheap in the US and smuggle
into Canada.
In the last year or so, the gambling has started to split the reserve
into pro and anti camps. The pro-gambling group claim it brings
a lot of money onto the reservation and, in fact, some people have
made a lot of money but not many. The anti-gambling group claim
that it is contrary to tradition and is bringing in unwelcome elements.
The pros have a group called the Warrior Society protecting them.
They are heavily armed and form most of the Native Police on the
American side. The Canadian side also has a separate native police
force.
In the past few months things have really escalated. First there
were random shots fired, then fusilades against the native police
stations. Roadblocks were set up to keep gamblers off and
confrontations occurred there.
A couple of weeks ago two natives were killed. Neither was involved
with either group. Apparently they were both neutral. Following
the deaths the five governments got together to finally do something
about it. Now the reservation is patrolled by members of the RCMP,
the Ont Prov Police and the NY State Police.
Last week a joint raid was carried out by the police forces and
arrests made for drug smuggling. Several people were arrested on
the Canadian side. Last night a lightening strike by a combined
force arrested four natives, two of them native police, and flew
them to Montreal for questioning into one of the deaths. It now
appears that the murder might have been drug related and the troubles
used to disguise it.
So there we have it. A very tense situation indeed.
As more develops, I will enter it.
Roger
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| My family and I drove through the NY side of the reserve twice (one time in
direction) in the last 10 days or so. The first time was on Friday, June 1
going to (actually, through) Cornwall. The second time was last Wednesday
(June 6) returning to Mass. via NY, Vermont and NH.
We weren't sure about driving through the area, but we thought that if it was
really dangerous, the police would turn us away. On the Friday, we drove
(slowly) through 4 or 5 police roadblocks (checkpoints, etc.). At each of these
there were 6-10 state troopers, and exactly one trooper at each point had a shot
gun in his hand. There were also half a dozen clusters of two or three police
cars at certain sideroads and the bingo halls and casinos. When we got to the
border, there were a "ton" of OPPs and some RCMPs ready and waiting.
There was no apparent trouble, but we were glad to be through the area. We
learned later that the reserve elections were being held that day or the next.
On the trip back, there were about half of the state troopers on duty. Although
there were quite a few parked at area motels, and we saw quite a few on their
way to the reserve. This time we counted the vehicles that we saw. There were
about 20 on duty, that were visible from the main highway. Another dozen were
seen outside of the area.
Anyway, we had no trouble getting through.
Scott
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