Cuomo, chief hail deal
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, New York State, and St. Lawrence County have ratified an agreement to resolve “decades-old” tribal-land disputes. Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed the agreement as the start of a new relationship between the tribe and state and local governments.
“We can now look forward to years of mutual respect and cooperation,” Cuomo said. “I congratulate and thank the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and our partners in county and local government for working together to make the agreement a reality.”
Under the agreement, the Mohawks may acquire land in St. Lawrence County and add it to their territory, reported the Central New York Business Journal. The tribe can only buy land from “willing sellers”; the identified lands include more than 3,400 acres in the town of Brasher and more than 1,300 acres in the town of Massena, according to a news release from the tribe.
As part of the agreement, the New York Power Authority will pay the Saint Regis Mohawks $2 million a year for 35 years; grant the tribe up to nine megawatts of power and energy at NYPA’s lowest rate for the reservation; and offer free tuition and fees for enrolled Mohawk members who qualify for admission to any SUNY school. At the same time, New York and the St. Regis Mohawks will provide local governments a one-time payment of $2 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
“The terms to which we agree today not only repair our past by allowing our tribe to recover our lands, but they also provide opportunities for our future generations through education,” Paul O. Thompson, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council chief, said in a news release.
Not everyone is pleased about the deal. According to WWNY-TV, the Brasher Town Board has says it will not be bound by the agreement that it did not help to craft.
“We were kind of passed over,” said Brasher Town Supervisor Jim Dawson.
Massena Town Supervisor Joe Gray is frustrated Massena wasn’t in on the negotiations.
“The county thinks it can just suck up all this cash because they think they are superior and have a lack of respect for the town’s authority,” said Gray.
And even some Indians aren’t all happy about the settlement. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reports that some Akwesasne members of the St. Regis Tribe call the agreement a betrayal. In an essay sent to APTN National News, Akwesasne writer Doug George said the “historical” agreement should be met with an equally “historic” response from the Mohawk.
“Unlike our ‘leadership,’ Tecumseh demanded that the U.S. be held accountable for its actions and its breach of aboriginal rights,” he wrote. “In the current ‘land claims’ negotiations, at no point does New York State or the U.S. acknowledge any wrongdoing. No official or agency is held responsible for the theft of millions of acres of Mohawk territory, the death of thousands of Mohawks or the damages to our culture and health.
“Making this worse is that all monetary expenditures resulting from a ‘settlement’ would come from resources generated on Mohawk lands. As for the ‘free tuition,’ it is merely a tactic to impose alien education standards on our people and further diminish language and our ancestral bonds to the natural world.”
Candidate for tribal chief Jean Square said the agreement makes her “nervous” and may not reflect the views of many of the tribal members. Square is running against incumbent Chief Ron LaFrance Jr. who supports the agreement.
“We are proud to stand here with our neighbors from St. Lawrence County,” said LaFrance in the statement. “The settlement of our land matters will benefit our entire region, just as the benefits of our tribe’s economic expansion have reached far into our neighboring communities.”
