0:01

Campsite Media. Hey

0:05

everyone, we've got another bonus for you. We'll

0:07

be back to Derek's story next week, but right

0:09

now, I want to share a story I came across

0:12

while reporting the series. It's about

0:14

a handful of Mohawk activists back

0:16

in the nineteen seventies who redefined what sovereignty

0:18

could look like. The battle they

0:20

fought laid the groundwork for the case that Derek

0:23

is making today. Their story

0:25

begins at a small campground in the Adirondacks.

0:28

Today, the Adirondacks in Essex County,

0:31

New York are only a day's drive

0:33

from home for half the people in the United

0:35

States and Canada. Reminds

0:38

me of Switzerland. Moss Lake Camp is

0:40

tucked away at an inlet at Eagle Bay,

0:42

surrounded on all sides by forest and

0:45

mountain range. It's that part of Upper

0:47

New York State where you can't find any cell

0:49

service and gas stations double as town

0:51

squares, but that's sort of what

0:53

makes it a perfect getaway for canoeing,

0:55

fishing, and camping. And Scron Lake

0:58

one of the most beautiful of the hundreds of lakes dot

1:00

the Adirondack landscape. Again,

1:02

I'm reminded of Switzerland. From the nine

1:05

twenties all the way through to the nineteen seventies,

1:07

Moss Lake hosted a girl Scout sleepaway

1:10

camp. Thousands of girls would spend their

1:12

summer breaks riding horses, playing tennis,

1:14

practicing archery, sailing boats, and learning

1:16

how to fence. Picture a perfect summer

1:18

break postcard. And that was Moss

1:20

Lake well until Mohawk

1:23

warriors from Gonawaga arrived on winter

1:25

and told the world that they were taking their land

1:27

back from

1:30

Campside Media and Dan Patrick Productions.

1:33

This is Running Smoke. I'm

1:36

Rogi Gola and this is our second

1:38

d tour episode, the Standoff.

1:43

In the course of reporting Running Smoke, I took

1:45

a lot of drives between New York City and Montreal.

1:48

It's a beautiful drive through the cat Skills and Adirondacks,

1:51

with plenty of tiny towns along the way. Before

1:53

colonists arrived in the America's this

1:56

whole swath of wooded, mountainous land

1:58

was Mohawk territory for the

2:00

most part. That history has been totally

2:03

wiped off the map, and just about all

2:05

the Mohawk territories and reservations around

2:07

today are in Canada.

2:09

But on one of those drives, I took a

2:11

small country road lined with abandoned barnes and

2:13

forest proper middle of nowhere, and

2:16

I ran across the sign that said Gnana

2:19

Territorial High Stakes Bingo and

2:21

there was a line of cars down the road for the smoke

2:23

shop next door. Now, I may

2:25

be a simple city slicking podcaster, but

2:28

there seemed to be a story here. So I

2:30

asked around to see if there was anyone in Gnange

2:32

that could sit down with me and talk about the history

2:34

of the place. And that's how

2:36

I was introduced to this young man Um.

2:39

My name is Rio de herne Um.

2:41

I currently live here in the community on

2:44

Bear Klan and I come from the family

2:47

called Ryalwady

2:50

told me the story of Ganyange actually began

2:52

in Gnawake, Derek's territory.

2:55

It was back in the late sixties and the community

2:58

was dealing with internal tensions. Mohawk

3:00

people, the traditional long house people there in Gonawaga,

3:02

were having difficulty being able to

3:04

practice who they are. The traditional culture

3:07

practiced the long house and the laws

3:09

and everything that um goes

3:11

along with being a traditional Mohawk Indian.

3:14

Now, a lot of Mohawk politics can get boiled

3:16

down to divide in the community between

3:19

folks who ascribed to an older form of

3:21

Mohawk tradition and folks who split

3:23

off from that back in the eighteen hundreds. It's

3:25

a million times more complex and nuanced than

3:28

that, of course, but for now, that's

3:30

the divide Gnawaga was dealing with. One

3:33

large effect of that split in the community was

3:35

the presence of outsiders, white

3:37

people. The offshoot community

3:39

was happy to intermarry with white people and bring them onto

3:42

the reserve, where as the more traditional

3:44

community wasn't quite on board

3:46

with that. There was maybe over a thousand

3:48

um French people living in the community of Gonawaga

3:51

at the time, and you

3:53

know, the community was growing, and the

3:55

long House people were saying, like, you

3:58

know, why are so many people, Why

4:00

are so many white people within our territory.

4:03

You know, all our all of our all of our lands

4:05

have been taken away from us,

4:07

and we live on this little posted postage

4:09

stamp size of of land. And yet

4:11

they still they still want more, they still

4:14

want to take that from us. You know, it was an issue

4:16

that has divided the community for generations, and

4:18

it is still immensely controversial in modern

4:20

gotwage politics. But back

4:22

in the seventies that question was amplified

4:25

by the burgeoning Native rights movement sweeping across

4:27

North America from Wounded Knee.

4:29

The occupation of Wounded Knee ended yesterday

4:32

on the Fifteen of the occupants were arrested.

4:34

The others were allowed to go. Breathe

4:47

in to

4:52

Marlon Brando and Saggy Little's protests

4:54

at the OSCARS accepted the award for Marlon

4:57

Brando and the Gut Brother This Jock

5:00

Little Feather. Hello,

5:05

my name is Sashin Little Feather. I'm

5:08

APACHE and I'm president of

5:10

the National Native American Affirmative

5:13

Image Committee. I'm representing

5:15

Marlon Brando this evening. The

5:17

reasons for this being are

5:19

the treatment of American Indians

5:22

today by the film industry

5:25

excuse me and

5:33

on television and movie reruns,

5:37

and also with recent happenings

5:39

at Wounded me the March

5:41

on Washington, and the occupation of Alcatraz,

5:43

and so many more acts of defiance against

5:45

an oppressive system that had robbed Native Americans

5:48

of their rights, dignity, and ancestral

5:50

lands. Doug George Canndio,

5:52

a Mohawk journalist and historian, was

5:54

around when these things were all happening at

5:56

that time. Gonalaga was influenced

5:59

by this, and they decided that they're going to

6:01

create something called a Warrior Society.

6:04

The warriors were a remnant of old Mohawk

6:06

tradition and represented a sort of Night's

6:08

code for what a man should be and how

6:10

he should serve as community. It

6:12

was a revival of Mohawk pride. They're

6:15

more protectors than anything else. The

6:17

name they use for warriors, let's

6:20

calla gheta at its root

6:22

um refers to them providing,

6:25

you know, that's what they do. The elders

6:27

need more wood for their fireplace, the warriors

6:30

will provide that. The garden needs tending.

6:33

The warriors can help. The protest

6:35

needs to be organized. The warriors got

6:37

you. Warrior society needs symbols,

6:39

It needs, you know, things that they

6:42

can show. And so

6:44

Louis Hall Duchy, who

6:47

was an incredible artist and a

6:49

great student of history, decides,

6:51

well, how do we do this? You know what symbols

6:54

can I come up with that that can

6:56

we can use that define us as a group

6:58

that's willing to to actually take

7:00

a physical stand and fight. The

7:03

flag featuring a long haired

7:05

man over a sunburst against a red background

7:07

became the symbol for resistance. It's

7:10

the same flag depicted on Derek White's

7:12

car. The formation of the Mohawk

7:15

Warriors added fuel to the fire, and tensions

7:17

in Gottawaga boiled over on October

7:19

fifte and

7:24

so basically the Mohawk Uh, the

7:26

traditional traditional Mohawk people and all

7:29

the other groups kind of clashed.

7:32

The traditional community of Gonawaga had

7:34

issued a notice for all outside people

7:36

to leave the reserve, and October

7:38

fifteen was supposed to be the deadline.

7:41

Of course, things didn't pan out that way,

7:43

and Mohawk Warriors staged a protest

7:45

that quickly turned violent. Newspapers

7:48

at the time called it the Siege at the Long

7:50

House. So there was a lot of fighting

7:52

going on and it came to the point where

7:55

after one night it became very very violent.

7:57

There was like it was like kind of like riots

8:00

and um

8:02

like police cars were being flipped and stuff like

8:04

that. The Montreal Star reported

8:06

that supposed outsiders were threatened, even

8:09

though they lived in Gottawaga for generations.

8:11

Homes were set on fire and cops fired

8:13

tear gas, and once the dust

8:16

settled, the traditional Mohawk people decided,

8:18

you know, there has to be a better way. They didn't want to fight

8:21

their their own people. So instead

8:24

of going back out to cause any more heartache,

8:27

they went to the Long House and they start having meetings.

8:29

They start having meetings what are we gonna do? Like, how are we

8:31

gonna approach this? Where are we gonna

8:33

go? So they decided that

8:35

they needed their own place. So

8:37

some of the older people that were still alive

8:39

at that time basically said

8:42

that, you know, we have all of

8:44

this land outside of this

8:47

this community Gonawaga. We have this

8:49

land. We have to go back to it. So the

8:51

people decided, well, why don't we

8:53

just do that, We'll

8:59

be right back. Yeah. They

9:09

asked my brother and

9:11

a cousin of mine. Um, they were

9:13

just teenagers to enter this girl

9:16

scult camp that they had found in

9:18

the western at run Ducks. And

9:21

they went into the camp and

9:24

it had been, um a

9:26

former girl scult camp, and the girl scults

9:28

left it and they went in. The

9:31

camp had actually been built in nineteen thirties

9:34

as a camp for Native boys

9:36

and girls, a summer camp. Here's how a booklet

9:38

from one described the spot. Have

9:41

you ever dreamed of the spot? Far? From the madding crowd,

9:44

an ideal spot in the wilderness, away from

9:46

the din and dirt and the noise of the city and

9:49

the company with congenial friends. Wouldn't

9:51

you like to know of a spot so near that it's easily

9:54

reached, so well equipped that you can be as comfortable

9:56

as at home, and yet wild, beautiful

9:59

and unspoiled. The traditionalists

10:02

now had a location to build their own community,

10:04

but they were wary of being stymied, not

10:07

just by law enforcement but their own

10:09

community, so they kept the location

10:11

a secret. They didn't want anybody

10:13

else to know, so everybody else in the community

10:16

of ghana Wage who was involved

10:19

um didn't know the location, and that was

10:21

for security reasons. They didn't want any

10:23

policing agencies or anybody to get

10:26

win of this, just in case they

10:28

would attempt to stop them from from moving.

10:31

They let out just enough false information

10:33

that the location was going to be

10:35

in Vermont, so it was a diversion. So

10:38

in yeah, May

10:40

thirteenth, nineteen seventy three

10:43

is when they ultimately decided to make

10:45

the move. So they had gathered

10:47

at the two oh seven long house in ghana

10:49

Wage and they

10:51

got all the people there they packed up everything.

10:54

Some people just packed up whatever they could fit in

10:56

their vehicle and left everything behind

10:59

house Ferner sure, everything

11:01

just what they could fit, and then they took off. Nobody

11:04

knew this location, but they just kept driving.

11:07

The border between New York State and Vermont.

11:09

There was state police and different

11:11

policing agencies kind of set

11:13

up along the border just to catch

11:16

anybody trying to come in, like any any any

11:18

Indians trying to come into the States. So while everybody

11:21

was looking over here, the rest of the traditional

11:23

people were moving in the opposite direction.

11:26

They arrived about five o'clock in the morning

11:29

and it was raining. They just arrived and

11:31

they set up and they just slept in there

11:34

in their vehicles that night. In

11:36

the morning when they all woke up and they started exploring

11:39

some of the cabins and the

11:43

the recreation hall I believe it was was still

11:46

was still there um and it was scheduled to

11:48

be torn down maybe a week later, and it

11:50

just you know, so they got lucky there and

11:52

they just went in and they occupied

11:55

it. It seems like a great fine, but

11:57

they realized very quickly for the

11:59

first winter that this was not place where

12:01

mawks actually lived.

12:04

They hunted, but it was too

12:06

cold for them to grow gardens, you know, to

12:08

grow the things they needed to sustain

12:10

their lives. It's great for hunting hulk

12:13

or moose or whatever it was, but it wasn't a place

12:15

for mawks would established permanent

12:17

villages. Hence

12:19

the whole summer camp thing. Winter

12:22

camp just didn't work there. So

12:24

I heard one story that a woman donated

12:27

two horses to uh

12:29

Lewis Hall and a couple of years later asked

12:32

how they how the horses treated them, and he said they

12:34

tasted good. Yeah, yeah, you know, things

12:36

are tough. So Moss Lake

12:38

was cold as hell and not the best for growing

12:41

food, but there were still

12:43

advantages to the location. It was a tiny

12:46

lake and surrounding this lake was

12:48

essentially like mountains, so

12:51

it provided a good

12:53

protection, a good fortress for the people at the time.

12:55

Because it was there was a lot of roadblocks.

12:58

The state police where there, and you

13:01

know, there was tension

13:03

there, you know, every day the people that

13:06

the people didn't know whether the police

13:08

are gonna come in or not or when, so

13:10

they were on The tensions

13:12

were high for for quite some time, and

13:15

so from nineteen seventy

13:17

three to nineteen seventy seven,

13:20

um Ganyaga existed in Eagle

13:23

Bay, and throughout those three years

13:26

there was over two hundred negotiations

13:29

between the State of New York, UM,

13:31

the federal government, and the people

13:33

of Ganyaga about how they're gonna how

13:35

they're gonna deal with the situation. At first,

13:37

they just wanted to kick the people out of

13:40

the territory. But at the time the

13:42

people were lucky because the

13:44

world was watching, so it kind of kept

13:47

them back, um from doing anything. So

13:50

within that time they negotiated back and forth,

13:52

like whose land is it? Is it?

13:54

Is it the State of New York? Is it the traditional

13:57

people? And do you you

14:00

The white people will say, you know, you proved

14:02

to us that this land belongs to you. But the

14:04

traditional people switched. They

14:06

said, no, this line belongs to

14:08

us. We've been here since time memorial. You

14:11

proved to us that it belongs to you. And

14:14

so they were never able to prove

14:17

the land belong to them throughout

14:19

those three years. That's what they tried back and forth. They

14:21

couldn't prove the land was theirs. And even

14:25

though it was never officially publicized,

14:29

we are are legitimate, we are

14:31

correct that the land belongs to us uh

14:34

and it doesn't belong to the State of New York where

14:36

it does not belong to the federal government.

14:39

That's to me, is incredible that

14:42

the traditionalists were successful

14:44

in getting the New York government,

14:46

the American government to

14:49

grant them land rights of

14:51

any kind, right, I mean, just it seems

14:53

extraordinary given the history. I

14:56

don't know any other examples where something like this has been

14:58

successful, either, do I.

15:00

I don't know of any other examples right

15:03

now, any situation that anybody

15:05

else has has been able to pull

15:07

off that similar to what Kanyanga

15:10

has been able to do. Um as

15:12

with the the United States

15:15

federal government or New York State, it's not

15:17

it's not that they granted us. They

15:20

were forced to

15:23

acknowledge and give us back our

15:25

land, so we

15:27

we just took it back. You're

15:38

listening to your running smoke. Once

15:42

New York State had agreed to return territories

15:44

to the Mohawks, there's still one more step

15:47

left, actually returning

15:49

the land. Turns out it wasn't

15:51

a straightforward hand over. The State of New York

15:53

had to figure out how they were going to deal

15:55

with the situation. How are they gonna

15:58

deal with it without having to tell the public.

16:00

There are people that the land doesn't

16:02

belong to them. Uh

16:05

So, in order to save face, they

16:07

basically created a trust, a Turtle

16:09

Island Trust is what it's called. And

16:12

that was a nonprofit organization that gang

16:14

the people of Gunyaga and the land can be put

16:16

into. Uh So, it's not taxed

16:20

and it can't be touched. Part

16:22

of this deal with New York was that they needed

16:24

a new location. Most Lake was

16:26

great, but completely unsustainable.

16:29

They needed a place that was better for agriculture

16:31

and year round living. They liked

16:34

the location here, which is

16:36

originally was called Minor Lake. So they

16:39

moved here in ninety seven. And

16:41

we're just simply moving from one part of our territory

16:44

to the other. All that land, all the

16:46

the land in the Adirondaic Mountains, nine

16:49

million acres within New York State

16:52

is Mohawk land. We're not relinquishing that. And

16:54

then ever since we've been here, we've

16:57

been kind of developing slowly.

17:00

Younge was founded on principles of true

17:02

traditional Mohawk life, hunting,

17:05

fishing, and farming for your own food, real

17:07

self sufficiency and respect for the land.

17:10

It was regarded by many mohawks, is one of the

17:12

few places where real mohawk life

17:14

could actually still be practiced. It

17:17

was a place of such purity that it even served

17:19

as a drug and alcohol rehab location

17:21

for natives from around the country. But

17:24

even a community built on such strong

17:26

principal tenants has to make compromises

17:28

somewhere just to survive in the modern

17:31

world. So, um,

17:33

when we first got here, we didn't have very many

17:36

We didn't have you know, essentially, we didn't have

17:38

any anything. We're pretty poor,

17:40

nom, no money whatnot. So

17:42

a lot of people would kind of give us donations

17:45

food, um, clothing.

17:47

So with these donations, um, sometimes

17:49

we would get other things like beads or sometimes

17:52

that women would buy beads

17:54

and and sewing thread and which

17:56

they started making craft And

17:58

so with they started making crafts

18:01

and selling it. They made the money from the crafts,

18:03

and that's what they put towards the cigarettes. And so they would

18:05

buy like one case of cigarettes

18:07

at a time, and they would travel back and forth from

18:10

Guanyanga to Akwazasne getting

18:12

the one case of cigarettes today, so they would

18:14

sell that. Then they would take

18:17

that money and go buy another case and next you know, it

18:19

was like two cases, then it was

18:21

three, and so on and so forth, until you know,

18:23

we were getting many, many cases

18:25

of cigarettes and that's how our cigarette business

18:28

started. One of the first things

18:30

that was built here was the Bengal

18:32

Holl to help generate

18:34

some income so we can start moving forward

18:37

with the projects that we needed to

18:39

get done or what the projects that we

18:41

felt most important portant to us. Since

18:44

then, we've we've developed, UM,

18:46

we have a gas station over here, we

18:49

have a small holistic center, m

18:52

we have a golf course that's

18:55

being developed. The first nine is

18:57

pretty well developed. They're they're working on the back

18:59

nine right now. And

19:02

yeah, and then we were once we got enough

19:04

money, we were able to build a school. I

19:07

think they were altered. There could have been alternatives.

19:09

We didn't need to fixate on tobacco. We

19:12

didn't need it was it was the thing that produced

19:14

a great deal of profit, and it did so

19:16

fairly quickly. The same with the Bengal Hall.

19:19

And UH. The traditional rules

19:22

UH say that we're not supposed to get involved

19:24

with that commercial activity because it brings harm

19:26

to people. You know, it creates an addiction

19:29

and it exploits people. The weakness. It's

19:32

based on greed, and the same with tobacco,

19:34

as I mentioned before, because it is a

19:36

sacred thing. There were I think that

19:38

we're alternatives to doing this, but I think

19:40

people by that time, you

19:42

know, we're geared towards a high

19:45

profit at that minimum effort, and

19:47

so that's what they that's what they did. But

19:49

forty three years later they're still there. So

19:52

I give him enormous credit. It's not a

19:54

community where you have one or two

19:56

people that have all the money. You

19:58

know that it's fairly share. It's share or do I

20:00

think fairly equitabilia for

20:03

whoever loves here. So that's that's

20:05

actually a good example of

20:07

all thinks these things can be done. Thanks

20:11

for listening. We'll be back next week with

20:13

the final episode of Running Smoke.

20:21

Running Smokes a production of Campsite Media, Dan

20:23

Patrick Productions, and Workhouse Media. The

20:26

series was written and reported by me Roger

20:29

Gola. Our producers are Leah Papes,

20:31

Blaine Gerbig, and Julie Dennischet. Our

20:33

editors are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez.

20:36

Sound designed and original music by Mark McAdam,

20:39

additional sound and mixing by Ewen Lyone

20:41

from Ewan, additional reporting by Susie

20:43

McCarthy, our executive producers

20:46

or Dan Patrick, Josh Deano camp said, Media

20:48

Paul Anderson, Nicknella, and Andrew

20:50

Greenwood for workhouse media, fact

20:52

checking by Mary Matthis and Angelie mccotty,

20:55

artwork by Polly Adams, and additional thanks

20:57

to Greg Horne Johnny Kaufman. Sierra Franco

20:59

Blue has been Van Brocklyn and Shawn Flynn h