Doug George-Kanentiio: St. Regis Mohawk Tribe can't sell land

Friday, June 7, 2013  

"A man's got to know his limitations" is the famous quote from San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) to his superior Lt. Briggs (Hal Holbrook) just after Brigg's car explodes in the 1973 movie "Magnum Force." As much as that phrase applied to the lieutenant it has meaning to every individual and organization including those who would sell the birthright of the Mohawk people.

Every since commercial gambling was brought to the Iroquois it was obvious that the US and New York State would use this powerful human compulsion to force us into compromises once we began addicted to its revenues.

Gambling was never, and can never be, free from the negative elements of the human character. It is based on greed, hope, desperation and exploitation regardless of the lights, bells and packaging. It neither produces anything of substance nor does it strengthen a community's self reliance. It is a qualification of our traditional values and was seen by the late Tadodaho Leon Shenandoah as a way by which the US would extinguish our status as distinct cultural and political entities.

The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee issued stern warnings against gambling based upon the prophecies of Handsome Lake. Regardless of what a person may think of the Seneca prophets blending of Christianity with the ancient customs he was remarkably accurate in his predictions of times to come. Over 200 years ago he gave the Iroquois a highly detailed map of the future with most of those forewarnings now coming to pass.

It is our generation, and the one behind us, which now has the standing to either preserve the essence of our heritage or sell it off like so many slot machine tokens.

The St. Regis Tribal Council is ready, willing and eager to do just that. It followed the reprehensible agreement entered into on May 16 between the Oneida Nation of New York (another one of those stunning contradictions) in which that entity surrendered every tangible aspect of aboriginal sovereignty from taxation to policing, land title to immunity from lawsuits. And this was done with one signature from an individual who refused to consult the Oneida people and had to learn of this deal from the media. Long after that so-called "representative" dies the Oneidas will come to curse his name for the callous manner in which he sold their birthright.

Now the Tribe also sees our ancestral lands as a simple commodity, not a spiritual or living entity. It can be bartered, sold and exchanged like anything else. Mother earth means nothing to those now in power other than a bargaining chip to be used to make money. If our tradition teachings mean anything than it is now time to defend her. It is time to take the principal of the "seventh generation" edict and make it real by acting to inform the Tribe that the earth upon which we stand and where our ancestors are buried is not for sale and cannot be ceded by any governing entity.

It is not enough to make a written distinction between the Tribe and those who oppose the imminent land sale since, as we have seen with the Oneidas and with Joseph Brant, one signature is enough for the US and New York State to validate the agreement. One signature. The people who care about their children's future and the constitutional rights of those yet to be born unto the seventh generation must make a strong stance against the land sales by setting into place strict limitations on the Tribe's authority to cede our territory.

Whatever shape or form this takes place it must be clear and firm.

In 1987-88 we had a land claims committee composed of all three Mohawk councils at Akwesasne. This was before casino gambling took root. We issued a formal joint statement on land in which we were ready to negotiate territorial usage without cessions. Authored by Tribal Council leaders Brenda Lafrance and Rosemary Bonaparte, the proposed agreement would have resulted in an annual payment of $33,000,000 (with annual inflation based increases) to the community by the State Power Authority, free electricity from the Barnhart power dams, the direct return of over 24,000 acres of land to our active jurisdiction (including Ft. Covington, the Hogansburg triangle and the Grasse River meadows sections) with recognition of the US of our inherent rights to freedom from taxation and control over all commerce entering our lands.

The agreement would have secure economic independence for Akwesasne without resorting to commercial gambling. It would have restricted New York State jurisdiction and created a single policing entity for the entire territory. It would have led to the creation of our own justice system and eliminated smuggling.

What happened? Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo intervened. He knew there was no way the State could ever pay for the lands stolen from us nor was he willing to abide by our treaties. So he adopted a pro-gambling tactic in which he would destroy the Iroquois by fostering factions in which the weakest links would be manipulated into signing "compacts" which enriched a very few and left the majority in a state of dependence. For this, he chose the Oneida Nation of New York and, despite his electoral loss in 1994, he succeeded with his son reaping the benefits.

What also happened was the opponents of Akwesasne unity organized here and worked to defeat anyone who supported the 1988 proposal. The pro-gambling group was able to exert control of the Tribe and has done so ever since. Such is the now absolute reliance on casino gambling that no deal proposed by New York, no matter how extreme, is rejected by the Tribe as long as the casino remains in operation.

So it remains to be seen if the people impose land cession limitations or simply roll over and leave their descendents to bear the brunt of their inaction.

Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk, is a co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association, a former member of the Board of Trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian and the author of many books and articles about Native history and current issues. His latest book is "Iroquois on Fire". He may be reached via e-mail: Kanentiioaol.com. Kanentiio resides on Oneida Iroquois Territory in central New York State.

More from Doug George-Kanentiio:
Doug George-Kanentiio: Oneida Nation violates Iroquois laws (05/20)
Doug George-Kanentiio: Students show courage on mascot (03/25)