06/16/24 - Doug George-Kanentiio
It means you're such a threat. We choose the right to be who we are. We know the difference between the reality of freedom and the illusion of freedom. There's a way to live with Earth and a way not to live with earth. We choose the way of earth. It's about power.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Greetings and good day and welcome, my relatives. I I give you greetings with a good heart, and, it's good for all of us to be here. This is First Forces Radio. My name is Tiokasin Ghosthorse. From the Highlands in this of the Esopus or what Americans and Dutch call the Catskill Mountains in the lands of the Muncie speaking Lenape.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:This is All Native hosted, All Native produced First Voices Radio, and Liz Hill is a producer of First Voices Radio. Well, we're gonna go north to Mohawk Country near Akwasasne where natives have been arrested as part of what Royal Canadian Mounted Police are calling a large scale human smuggling ring they they say funneled illegal migrants into the United States in the area of Cornwall, Ontario. And here to talk about it is Doug George Ganachio, who is Akwesasne Mohawk and born and raised at the Mohawk territory of Akwesassee. Doug attended school on and near the reservation before enrolling at Syracuse University and then the Antioch School of Law. Doug cofounder of the Native American Journalists Association, now the Indigenous Journalists Association, before serving the Mohawk Nation as editor of the journals Akwesassee Notes and Indian Time.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:He worked with Vang Deloitte junior on traditional knowledge and conferences before joining the board of trustees for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Indian. Doug is a vice president for the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge, a nonprofit higher learning facility that is based on Iroquois principles. He resides on Oneida Iroquois territory as a returning guest, Doug George, to talk Yeah. About the arrest of the Natives arrested in that part of, Ontario. Welcome, Doug.
Doug George-Kanentiio:It's, always good to be here and to share this information and knowledge with you and your listeners, And I appreciate them dialing in and hope they'll be generous in their support for this medium. And, the situation on our community is unique in that, is about 26, 7000 acres. It's located astride the Saint Lawrence River. We have about 32 islands. We're about a 100 kilometers south, west of, Montreal.
Doug George-Kanentiio:It's always been a place of commerce and, a place of great natural beauty and and, resources. And when the Americans and the British decided after the American Revolution to arbitrarily, put a borderline along the 45th parallel from Vermont all the way to what was called then Upper Canada. It dissected, Akkasekine to have. So on one side, we had the American community and the other side, Canadian community. But that region, throughout the Saint Lawrence all the way from to 2000 Islands has always been a place where people have carried goods and individuals back and forth.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Vast majority of that, conveyances was non native people who were using the Saint Lawrence in order to, what they call, smuggle. It became very serious during, whenever we had a warfare like the war of 18 12. And one of the things is that, that we noted is that the it was the American farmers along the Saint Lawrence who kept the British well fed, because the British paid for their goods in Spanish to bloom, and the Americans only had scrip. Well, that continued throughout the 19th and early 20th century with Prohibition and then a lot of organized crime individuals, including the Chicago, syndicate led by Al Capone, was using Mohawk territory to bring alcohol from Canada into United States and then from there into Boston and New York City. Well, in the 19 eighties nineties, that turned into cigarette smuggling, tobacco that was taken from the US and then brought, into Canada because of taxation.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And then in the 19 early part of the 21st century, it became a problem for us in that we noticed there was a human trafficking going on. That the conditions as they worsened, especially in the Asian, Southwest became, acute. And many of those people who were given tourist visa visas in order to fly into Montreal or Toronto, even Vancouver, would find their way through these handlers, Chinese tongs, the Vietnamese snake people, and then, mafia people in Montreal, Risotto crime family. They would've they came with these people to our community, and then they began to pay some of our Mohawk people an enormous amount of money to take, these individuals across the St. Varts where they were met by their handlers on the American side of the reservation, then transported to, some of the major cities.
Doug George-Kanentiio:New York City was a prime destination for the Chinese refugees, most of whom came from that province around, Canton, north of Hong Kong. That continued because it was so lucrative for many years. There was some interruption after 9 11, but after that, it gets resumed. Now we're faced with a situation where it's almost a daily occurrence, where residents will see people from Asia crossing on to our territory, Chinese people, Pakistani people, people from India. Not so much people from Central or or or America or Colombia or Venezuela, but primarily, people from southern part of Asia because it's easier for them to get visas to come into Canada.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And it's no surprise that, the this has attracted the attention of the, Canadian Border Security Agency, the CBSA, backed up by the Royal Canadian Mallet Police, and the ICE, immigration control on the American side. And is the most, surveyed community in North America when it comes to the US military and the policing agencies. For those who don't know that the the, conditions there, we are we have many police agencies who cross over our territory or above it with drones. The first instance of civilian spying by the military using drones happened at about 15 years ago. And since then, you have US border patrol, New York State Police, the FBI, immigration, the American Tribal Police.
Doug George-Kanentiio:That's just on one side of the community. On the other side, we have RCMP, we have CBSA. We have, a Canadian security agency based in Ottawa. We have the, Mohawk Council of Akersesen Police, and yet they're not able to stop this. It continues, as I said, more often than than people are comfortable with.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And only recently, by chance, did they intervene and arrest those individuals who are involved in this. Now if you're a a young Mohawk, the amount of money you can make from smuggling humans is is really, really appealing. You can make upwards for 3 to 4 to $5,000 a person. You can load up a 16 or 18 foot boat, with anywhere from a half a dozen to a dozen people. And then once your handler on the in Canada has brought those people to you, then it's a quick dash across the river.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Takes maybe 15 or 20 minutes to get to the American side, in which the individuals are placed in in vehicles and then driven through the hadron decks, all the way to these coasts. And they they arrested these 4 people. But to those of us from Akkizessni, who live there, it doesn't deter anything. Matter of fact, it even makes it more profitable because the risk factor goes up and the cost per, individual refugee also, increases, sometimes dramatically.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Doug George, migrants, as you said, were charged 1,000 of dollars by the smugglers. Is that, an indication of the economic disparity most natives experience, including there at Akwesasne?
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yes. What we have is because you have people who are involved know, according to our law, never mind that of the Canadians or Americans, this is not something that is permissible. But you have a a group of individuals who rake in enormous profits from doing this. At any given night, you can come on the shoreline and, listen and watch as these these cargos as these human, cargos are brought across. And so what it does is it, certain people get very wealthy doing this, and there's a disparity in our community between those people because of what they're doing when it comes to, smuggling, and it's not just humans.
Doug George-Kanentiio:There's a lot of narcotics, become very, very rich, and they begin to exercise, as rich people do, control over the community. And so we have our an elite class, who have money, lots of it. And then you have the rest of the Mohawk people who are who are, you know, suggest doing hourly wages and another contingent of Mohawks who risk their lives when they do, high steel, iron working. But when you come back home after you've done all of this and and you see what these kids are doing and and and, yes, they are they are children of of of our community, and and it just becomes just frustrating. And what happens is smuggling is not isolated to a singular individual or a couple of them, a spotter.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Somebody might be using a drone to locate where the police are. It affects every family, including my own. I have very close relatives who cannot and have not resisted the temptation to do this. And they they somehow insulate themselves by believing that what they're doing is part of their their Aboriginal right. And it it isn't.
Doug George-Kanentiio:So they adopt the cloak of nationalism, And this is by no means something that, traditional people support nor do any of the councils that have cause destiny endorsed. We have the Canadian Bank Council, the American Tribal Council, and then the traditional council. But they're handcuffed, because the police have proven to be less than effective on deterring this. And the courts, once they get these individual arrested and processed, either in Canadian or American court, they're always used they always use as a defense that this is something that is their right to do because they are indigenous. Generally, the sentences that they receive are are very fairly light, and they don't act in any way as a deterrent for other individuals who might consider doing this.
Doug George-Kanentiio:It's very dangerous. It's dangerous for the operators of the boats. We've had any number of people who have died on that river. And it's dangerous for the the, refugees, and that river can be very, very subtle. And if you don't know the currents, you don't know the islands, you don't know where some of the eddies are in the water as rivers merge with each other, you could be at risk.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Last year, we had 8 individuals drowned when in March of 2023 when when the the aluminum boat they were in, 16 footer, flipped. And then all the people who were in there were died in the frigid waters. And the operator of the boat, the smuggler, he also died. But you don't last long in in Saint Lawrence, Rotter, if you don't have a flotation device or you can't swim to shore. Only recently has the water begun to heat up because of the summer, but even then, it's dangerous because what happened is your your body temperature, tries it it what it'll go and descend to the same temperature as water around you.
Doug George-Kanentiio:So if the water is 60 degrees, that's the temperature your body's gonna gonna take, and it doesn't after that, it's only a very short time before you go into shock.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:It's it's suffice to say, Doug, that the border was not there any time during our history as native peoples. No. Still in in our minds doesn't exist. But, yeah, that border runs north, east west all along from the state to to Maine. And what I'm thinking about, Doug, is what happens to the community?
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:I know you mentioned that it's very disturbing to the community. What were the precautions that the the native people there have to deal with? The Mohawk? Yes.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yes. This is very important for every native community, especially those who are near or adjacent to the border like Tohono O'odham or or the Blackfoot in Montana, or to in Washington, state or the Anishinaabe. We all have that in common. We are all protected, guaranteed by US federal law under the 1794 jade tree that we have free crossing of that imaginary line with our personal goods and with our, with our physical body cells. That applies not only to to the Iroquois, the Haudenosaunee, but also to all other native people.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And it might very well appeal apply to those people who can prove their indigenous heritage coming up from the South. But the US government I was at a, conference, not too long ago when all the various legal agencies were there. RCMP, border patrol, troopers, all of those people. And I was sitting way out in the back, so they didn't notice me. And that they zeroed in on our possessing.
Doug George-Kanentiio:They had a target like you would fire an arrow or a, firearm mat, the circular thing. And they said Arkuszewski was, the place of greatest concern when it comes to, border issues, north of Mexico. And they were right. Our our area, because of their decision to put that border arbitrarily through our community, they created the conditions that foster smuggling. If we had one singular people, then we could easily put an end to it.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And the same with. If they had acknowledgment that they you know, their community existed, across from Mexico to Arizona, That would not be a problem. But we were targeted, and we have been heavily monitored. And I've been telling our community, as have others, that when we do these things, we're playing into their heads. Because Sesame is ground point 0 as far as Canada and US is concerned.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And if they're gonna make a move to, restrict our crossing anywhere across North America. It's gonna happen at Akazasne. One more incident, like, similar to the one that happened in March of 2003, then they're gonna impose, that border by putting that fence straight to the heart of. And they're gonna it's gonna be heavily police. And the guys who are smuggling and the women, they don't know who they're smuggling.
Doug George-Kanentiio:They don't do a check on these people. They could be anybody. They could be, not just people seeking, better jobs or fleeing from, oppression in their own countries. They could be other people who have designs on bringing harm to to the United States, and that's where the Americans are most concerned. And if but one incident of this happening, then they're not possessing to be shut down.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:And the shutdown, I'm I'm sure that there has been near threats of border and defense possibilities. But from a native perspective, not from Akwesasne but from the Thames area, that border of reservations to us Yes. Is marginalized. We were mod we're included marginalized, but when it comes to their laws that they brought Yeah. The land they didn't bring, how would that apply morally to those peoples who impose their laws upon us, the borders, whatnot, the laws, and now even the possibility of the threat of offense.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:You mentioned earlier the colonial revolution where Yeah. The hawks were supporting 1 or the other because of pay in the script, the coins. That's still been workable all this time.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yeah.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:It's almost like there's a payback because who is helping who, the French or the British Right. Back then or the Americans. You know? It it kind of stumbled, and they haven't figured it out.
Doug George-Kanentiio:No. No. They have not. And, they demanded or manipulated for our influence because, you know, as aboriginal people, we held the, key to survival during the revolution before that, during the French so called French and Indian war. And afterwards, as late as the 18, early part of the 18th century, it was, you know, our coalition of of native people that could have had me stood together, push back the Americans.
Doug George-Kanentiio:They were deathly afraid of that. But, separating us by these arbitrary lines is and they know dang well what the end result is. They know that the smuggling was an inevitable result of that border. And the solution is so simple. That's what I told the, assembly of law agencies, you know, when they had that session in Toronto.
Doug George-Kanentiio:I said the solution is very simple. You put that damn border there. You foster the conditions under which people exploit that border. Remove it. Allow the people of Akkadsekne to govern themselves as a singular indigenous people, and, we could easily put an end to this.
Doug George-Kanentiio:We will empower our own people to patrol our waters. We were we were intervened. We will stop the non native facilitators, tongs and, mafia gangs. We will stop them. We will bring an end to this, but they won't do that.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Instead, they're fixated on the idea that, Mohawks, by definition, are all agitators and have criminal intent. And they believe that, and that's why they arm themselves accordingly. Every once in a while, when you go to Akhozesny, you know, I I really urge people to go there. You'll you'll see what we go through on a daily basis when we have to cross from the so called American side to the Canadian side and all the restrictions that we have to abide by in an implied threat. And it becomes really, just a a crazy source of, agitation for for families and and and for the community.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And we know what happens if we challenge that. You know, they're gonna come down at us with a with a with a sledgehammer. And my feeling is they already have plans in the works right now to do just that, set up a a barrier, along right to the heart of our possessing. They can get away with us with us. They can do that with native people anywhere.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Anywhere. And I'm glad you Anywhere. Because that jurisdictional authority that they think they have on the land, then they're not involving the people. Under duress, as you mentioned, the complexities of that, but it's a constant threat of, impending doom. People it's it's like when they step it up, it becomes very what did you say?
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Insanely normal. We have to go through that all the time and help non natives to understand that.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yeah. You're gonna get to school. A typical, a possessive teenager who's going to high school, who lives on one side of the let's say, in the so called Quebec side, has to go through this arduous journey, be picked up by bus, go past the American customs, cross into the Canadian customs. They're subject to search arbitrarily. They go to high school.
Doug George-Kanentiio:They go to their classes at the end of the day to get back on the bus, and then they have to go to the American customs with the exact same level of scrutiny that they went through in the morning. And then finally, after this journey, they might make it home in time for, but that's that's what we go through. If you're sick of that posessing on the Canadian side, the ambulance you're riding into to get you to Canadian hospital, again, has to go through that international border. And it's it's it gives you a sense of, what do you call it, schizophrenia.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Yes.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And it's it is amazing how humans can adjust to this. It's like take an example. If you were living on the border of the former East and West Germany, and I I was there once. And you have to go through that multiple multiple times in a given day. That's what we have to go through.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:And not just recently, but, the density recently, but it was back back in the colonial times also. Yeah. Natives were watched, hunted, and the holiest that we could talk about. But you're a citizen. You're you're a member of Yeah.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:The Akwesasan and Ghana
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yeah.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:The Mohawk people. What you know, I don't wanna go there, but, Doug, what what happens if they do and you mentioned something, reaction of the people. If they do build a fence, even let alone fall, that's kind of expected in these days.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yes. The American response will be, will be physical. It'll be direct, and it'll be, awful for us. What will our response will be? What will our response be?
Doug George-Kanentiio:Well, we could engage in acts of defiance and resistance the way we always have, But we have to know that, because we've been identified as the most poorest entry, into the United States, along the northern border, because they've been monitoring us. They're aware that, our possesses a community that is, fairly, well armed, that we do have a history of physically standing up in defense of what we define as our indigenous rights, that we can expect an equal and opposite, reaction, from the Americans. I'll give you one example. About 2 weeks ago, a group of our people went to reclaim part of our territory that had been taken by the New York State Power Authority in in complete and blatant defiance of, the US constitution article 6 about treaties being supreme law of the land. They just took it, and they built this massive facility there that supplies a great deal of power to Syracuse and to New York City.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Well, that area is now considered high risk and high security. So when our people went there and said we're gonna exercise physical control over land that was closed, stolen from us. They responded the way, I thought they were, with a massive amount of of police police officers there heavily armed. That's just the way it's gonna be. If we think if we can see that as one example, we think that the Americans are gonna show restraint.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Are overly fond of speaking. You know, when they separate people, and they are overly fond of speaking. You know, when they separate people in Mexico, they're not just separating people. Those are human beings, and most of them have very strong indigenous roots. And the same with us.
Doug George-Kanentiio:But we know it's gonna happen. All it takes is one more incident or somebody confronting a law a border patrol agent or a custom agent, and and then our possessions sealed off. That's inevitable.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Just, thinking it could be a consequence or it could be a learning Yeah. Movement as they say. I mean, that's where we're at as needed. I'm with you, and hopefully we can talk again about this. There's any other Sure.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:You can add, Doug?
Doug George-Kanentiio:Yeah. Just keep aware of, what we're doing. You know, listen to some of the things that Mohawk people are talking about. You can go on Facebook, and see what the daily conversation is. But watch the candidates very closely because whomever wins this upcoming election, they're gonna, as Biden did last week, they're gonna begin to impose some fairly rigid rules and regulations about border crossing.
Doug George-Kanentiio:It's not just gonna apply to Mexico, but native people are considered, have always been and will always be, marginal people, people always in the state of imminent threat to the to the both Canadian and Americans. So they will make an example of us. So watch out. They will as it goes with Akwesassee, so too will it go to native people across, this continent.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Just one more thought, if you could add thought to this is Yeah. In South Dakota, all of the tribes, all of the reservation banned the governor from coming off to native land. What do you think about that?
Doug George-Kanentiio:I think we gotta take a direct control over who enters our territory. We cannot assume or concede, state jurisdiction if we have if we truly believe we are treaty people as the Lakota have. Well, you know, I'll give you one example with the Black Hills with and I was at the Indian Claims Commission when the black the Lakota people said, no. That's not for sale. We stand on our Fort Larimer Treaty rights.
Doug George-Kanentiio:And 40 years later, you know, they're turning down 1,000,000,000 of dollars for what is sacred. If we can do that and hold on to what we believe is sacred in our instructions as given to us by our creator, then that spiritual essence, that strength will carry us through. That's what we're trying to do with our possessions. Despite these provocation, despite the the knowledge that, both Canada and US are manipulating the suffering of these, refugees, people crossing our territory. They know this.
Doug George-Kanentiio:They know how to stop it. They elect not to do so. So how do we deal with that? Well, we gotta show morality or strength and, affirmation of who we are as indigenous people. That's our that's how we have endured, and that's how we're gonna do it, at our.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Hopefully, when when prior to this this next conflict. Thank you, Doug Jewell, for being here Thank you.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:These voices and up with you, and, talk to you soon. Okay, Doug? Okay. Thank you. And this is First Voices Radio.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:My name is. We'll be right back. We wanna talk a little bit about the weather and maybe play some songs accordingly. Stay tuned. Thank you for rejoining on First Voices Radio.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:I'm your host, Teo Kosseng, ghost horse. And to let you know who First Voices Radio is produced by for the last decade plus is this hill from Red Lake Ojibwe Nation in Northern Minnesota. This is a quote from Doug George Conatillo from the interview in the previous half hour. Akwasasne or the people of Akwasasne are once again held in a state of stress by the external agencies, this time the Canadian Border Security Agency, CBSA, with its impending strike. This is also the case with ICE, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the US which periodically has heavily armed agents monitor traffic heading across the bridge into the Kahnawake section of Akwesasne.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:While visitors to the res are amazed by the jurisdictional and policing complexity for the residents, it is insanely normal, unquote. And this is something to think about as corporate America senses your free thinking and forces you its rights to freedom. That in order to merit its definition of freedom, you must behave binarily as it pathologically dictates. If indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere are dismissed as only opinionated and not experienced, then the detriment to your democracy will always be fractured tacticity. Remember, indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere were free before we were forced to have freedom, with that one in the artificial intelligence quotient.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Now I turn to the ignored, the unseen, and the abhorrent denial of what is happening to the war against mother earth. As she has begun to react normally to an unnaturally, apparent, and abnormal situation caused by the lack of empathy for her by today's civilizational rationale. This first song you hear is ablaze which is a release for in these trees and tardy. A poignant protest against our heartless treatment of earth, particularly resonant in these times of increasingly destructive environmental events. Tardy wrote and sings ablaze.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:The song was co produced and co arranged by Benny Cline and appears on the album The Quiver. You will hear Jennifer Kreisberg of the Tuscarora nation in the background as they collaborate from Australia to Turtle Island.
Doug George-Kanentiio:Ablaze.
Music:We are her. How much does she deserve? You went and put a number on her. Why do we wait
Doug George-Kanentiio:till it's too late? Okay. You
Music:afar, calling through the ocean channel, saying, say, can you hear me?
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:Are
Music:you free? People killing, people dying, people lying, people blind, people don't see the sign, watching money all the time. Get the pennies, get the dimes, get the dollars is the mind. State of the human race, people on a paper chase. The environment is fragile, and we've been on the gradual.
Music:Declining in a lifetime will lose the battle. Get burned by volcanoes, get blown by tornadoes, because mother nature signals is trying to warn NATO. We got a new terror threat. It's called the weather. We're deadly of a chemical and nuclear together.
Music:It's hotter in the winter, even hotter in the summer. People like calculators. And we can't add it up because calculators do the math for us. And then it come chopping down and chopping down the rainforest, picking up our air for us. They don't really care for us, and we can't complain because the only one to blame is us.
Music:The gas is rising up, but we keep on filling up. C o two levels got the whole planet heated up. It's blazing in the winter, instead of just pumping and selling and slinging the gas. And while we purchased the gas, we was watching soap operas while they steady brainwash the masses because they could make a vehicle that runs off ashes. But they don't own a patent for that.
Music:And that's exactly what's happening. Corruption in both politics. The planet's gonna die because of both politics. It's hotter in the winter, even hotter in the summer, and ain't nobody coming to the rescue to help
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:You have been listening to First Voices Radio, and I'm your host, Theo Kacinth Kostors. And you just heard a set of music for Mother Earth. We started off with Ablaze by Tardy, followed by Mercy, Mercy Me, The Ecology Song by Marvin Gaye. Next, in the Anthropocene by our friend, Nick Mulvey, and following with SOS, mother nature by will I m. And lastly, a personal favorite, Feals Like Summer with Childish Gambino.
Tiokasin Ghosthorse:See you next time on First Voices Radio with first person,
