Smuggling dividing community of Akwesasne

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Native sovereignty and the smuggling of cigarettes are touchy subjects with the Mohawks of Akwesasne.

Many of the eastern Ontario reserve's 8,500 residents see the movement of contraband cigarettes across the international border as their inherent right to free trade and commerce.

But some in the St. Lawrence river community, 100 kilometres south of Ottawa, see the "trade" as a violation of both Native and non-Native laws.

"Morally, I think it's wrong," said Akwesasne Elder Julius Cook. "And if they want to argue that we have sovereignty, that we have the right to do that, I don't think that we do. A sovereign nation respects the laws of other nations and that's what these people are not doing. They are not respecting our laws."

Each day, thousands of cartons of cigarettes are loaded onto private power boats on the American side of the river and transported to secret locations along the Canadian shore. Some loads go down river to the Kahnawake and Kanesatake Reserves in Quebec and are sold in Montreal. Others go straight across the south channel to the only road on Cornwall Island, eluding Canada Customs by a mere 50 meters and ending up in Ottawa for up to 25-per-cent less than the usual price.

Cornwall Police and RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police and Customs Canada joined together in a task force Oct. 12, stepping up patrols on both land and water, searching for boats and vehicles loaded with contraband. But the number of contraband runners is high and many get through.

And it's no wonder. The profits for those willing to run the gauntlet of provincial and federal law enforcers cruising the rivers and roadways are exorbitant. New cars, fast boats and huge homes are only some of the rewards.

But smuggling cigarettes through the reserve, a practice that started more than 10 years ago, has a down-side as well. While it has brought extreme wealth to some in the community, it has also pitted neighbor against neighbor, family against family.

"It hasn't done anything good for the community," said Elder Cook. "It has done nothing but cause apprehension, fear for the loss of morality, an atmosphere of greed amongst our young people, and a material want that our people never had before."

The argument that many smugglers use - that the cigarette trade is their sovereign right - doe not apply in this case, he said.

"They are jeopardizing our collective rights as Indians to make themselves rich. And that's very selfish and it's not good for our people."

The trade is also having a negative impact on the community's youth, Cook said.

"It's degrading our young children. They can make money so easily that a lot of them don't want to continue schooling. Some day, they are going to be Elders. And what are they going to possess to pass on to the younger generation? How can a young fella look up to a man with that sort of reputation?"

"The concern right now is that the kids are being caught up in that," said Teresa David, editor of Indian Times, the reserve's weekly newspaper. "Those kids, when the shooting and stuff is going on, they're not in their right minds. There is the drugs and the coke and the crack that is really prevalent around here and with that comes the suicides. There've been a lot of suicides in the last two years."

"You don't want to do anything or say anything that is going to bring you to the spotlight."

But Loran Thompson, a south-shore cigarette distributor, denied any knowledge of intimidation by the traders within the community.

"There have been shootings out on the water. But I believe that this trade has been going on for all of 10 years. And I don't know how many people have been hurt physically by it, but I don't imagine it's too many. You can probably count them on one hand."

More people get hurt in cities like Montreal and Toronto in one day than in 10 years on the river, he said.

"It's there. We can't say it isn't. There isn't a case that has gone through court and proven that it wadirectly associated with cigarettes, so we can't really say it's because of the trade that people have been hurt on the river."

The violence associated with the trade is not confined only to the reserve. Cornwall Mayor Ron Martelle became the center of attention in September when he and his family went into hiding under police protection after he received several death threats and the city's sports complex was fired upon, supposedly by smugglers on the river.

Martelle also came under criticism by the Mohawks for supposedly accusing them in the media of being the "renegades on he river:" Although he emphasized the role of "organized crime" in the smuggling and violence during a subsequent press conference, Martelle said the tension that exists between the Mohawks and local law enforcers is, in part, the Native's fault.

"I believe the (Mohawk) Warriors...would love to create another Oka," he said. "Whenever I am confronted by members of the Warrior Society, I am told outright that they are going to continue doing it because there is no boundaries and their sovereignty rights (exist)."

But one has to be reminded that there is territory involved, said Mohawk Warrior Society spokesman John Boots.

"The boundary line that they say exists between the United States and Canada is on the south side of Cornwall Island but the boundary line between the Mohawk territory and the land they call Canada is on the north side of Cornwall Island," he said. "We are a sovereign people and we will protect our territory."

Nation-to-nation negotiations are the first step towards solving the smuggling issue, Boots said. Federal recognition of the Mohawks' "territory and treaty rights" would help avoid armed confrontations.

"We have our own government. It's my wish that those leaders will go to Ottawa and sit down and talk about economic development. This talk about hiring X number of police officers to go up and down the river with guns is not going to solve the problem. But talking il."

The traders, however, have a different perspective.

"We are not a threat to Canada," said Thompson. "But they approach us as enemies, instead of (as) people they have treaties with. What's in our mind is peace, friendship and respect. But they portray us as outlaws, terrorists to try to convince their public that they should not deal with us."

Extra police are not the answer, said Brian David, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Chief, who is also in charge of the police commission. If Ottawa dropped the high tariffs on cigarettes, the flow of contraband across the river would slow to a trickle.

"The solution is a political solution. They've got the solution in Ottawa. Ottawa, through its tax system, has created a market in Canada. Eighty per cent of the exports are coming back into Canada. In my mind, that tells me that that's 80 per cent that the United States doesn't need in the first place."

The Mohawk's traditional longhouse, the spiritual centre of the community, may be Akwesasne's only hope, said Cook.

"They are perpetuating the sacred ceremonies of our people. And when we lose our ceremonies, then we will no longer be a people. The great law is the substance of our way of life. It sets down the rules and regulations on how we should live. And we are getting away from that. We cannot lose our ceremonies and our way of life. And it's happening."

Ironically, the trade that Cook opposes may prove beneficial in holding the community together until a long-term solution is found. A three-month stand-off in 1978 between members of Akwesasne and State Troopers over the arrest of then longhouse Chief Loran Thompson saw many opposing Akwesasne Indian governments come together in sovereignty against an "outside incursion."

"It's just the idea of a foreign incursion of that type upsetting the delicate balance of the political dynamics - it changes all the time," said council chief Brian David. "What we have right now is a very broad community support (for smugglin) nd sympathizers to what has happened."

In an armed confrontation with American and Canadian police forces, people on the reserve would be "fully capable of taking care of themselves," he said.

"I fell like I'm sitting on a time bomb. It's like a powder keg that you really don't have any control over. The main player in this are the outside forces. The only satisfaction is that if the powder keg does blow....is saying 'I told you so. The Akwesasne told you 10 years ago. I told you so in the last two years.' That's the only satisfaction that I'll have."