The Waters

Why the CCP Didn’t work for the Mohawks of Akwesasne

As has been mentioned earlier, the Kaswentha or Two-Row Wampum Belt recognized that two distinct societies, the Haudenosaunee, in our canoe, and the Dutch, in their ship, were to travel down the river of life together, side-by-side, but each in our own vessel. We believe that the principles of the Two-Row-Wampum Belt apply to the re-licensing of the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project. The Dutch have been replaced by the New York Power Authority and we represent the Haudenosaunee people.

The CCP was a process that worked for the people who were already in the ship, the various entities, organizations, and upriver communities who are affected by the Project. However, we are not in the ship, we are in the canoe. The CCP did not meet the unique needs of our people. It did not encourage our best or full participation and did not allow us to contribute our rich culturally-based approaches and perspectives as seen from the canoe. In essence, the CCP asked us to leave the canoe and jump into the ship.

We do not categorize ourselves as a “community” group in the same sense that the New York Power Authority views the non-Mohawk community groups. We are not ‘’the general public” or “interested parties” in the same way that the Authority perceived those entities to be. Our issues were not the same as the participants in the CCP and how we view things are quite different (not better or worse) than the CCP Team.

We are the First Peoples in this land and our treaties with the United States and Canada provide us with inherent rights that separate us from the members of the CCP Team. The sovereignty of the Mohawk Nation and the two Mohawk Community governments is a well-established principle in United States, Canadian, and International Law. We have the ability to set our own water and air quality standards. We could co-author the Environmental Impact Statement. We have jurisdiction over our territories. We have Traditional Cultural Properties that must be respected.

No single group of people has been as adversely affected by the construction and operation of the Project as we have. There are outstanding health, environmental, social, and cultural issues that we have that could overwhelm those in the ship or be diluted by the issues of the people in the ship.

- Creating a Parallel Process -Honoring the Two-Row Wampum Belt

While we said that we did not want to participate in the CCP, we never said that we did not want to participate in re-licensing of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project. Instead, we said that we must participate in a manner that is respectful of the canoe, that is based on helping each other as was intended by the Two-Row Wampum Belt. The focus must be on our common interest, the St. Lawrence River, which is part of the river of life, and not on the ship.

It is our belief that the Cooperative Consultation Process is but one path to the re-licensing of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project. We asked the New York Power Authority for a separate, parallel process that would allow us to participate in a manner that is consistent with the Two-Row Wampum Belt. This parallel process would complement what the Authority is doing with the CCP, and be consistent with its objectives. It would allow us to contribute our knowledge and expertise while allowing us to remain in the canoe. The need for this parallel process was presented to the Authority during several meetings that took place in 1996 and formally in November 1996 in the document “Building a New Relationship: The Proposition of the Kahniakehaka (Mohawk) Nation Council of Chiefs and the Mohawk Community Governments known respectively as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne to the New York Power Authority.” The New York Power Authority agreed to this parallel process and funded the Mohawk governments of Akwesasne in January 1997 to develop our issues related to re-licensing of the Project.

Through this parallel process we were able to capture the adverse effects from the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project on our community. Our issues were presented to the CCP Team in March 1997 and are summarized as follows:

The construction, opening, and ongoing operation of the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project has caused more harm to our community than any other event in our history. While upriver communities have enjoyed the benefits of the Project, it has come at the expense of our community.

The construction of the Project saw tremendous changes to the river, to the heart of our community. Before the Project, the elders tell us you could see twenty to thirty feet into the waters. Today, the waters are muddied and visibility is cloudy. Access to many of our islands, such as Yellow Island and St. Regis Island could be achieved in the summer time by walking through the shallow waters of the river. Now the river is too deep and the current is too fast. Our people took their drinking water directly from the river. Instead, we have to rely on drilled wells, many of them containing high sulfur and iron that renders them unfit for drinking.

Mohawk islands located west of the dam were taken from our people and flooded. Access to other lands west of the dam was denied to our people by the dam. We know that fishing holes in the St. Lawrence River within our territories were filled in with dredged material disposed of from the Project. Changes in water current velocity rendered the traditional knowledge our fishermen had of the river virtually useless. We know that the physical structures of the Project prevent the movement of fish up and down the river.

We have seen many species of fish, once abundant in the river, virtually disappear. The remaining species east of the Project have become contaminated with PCBs, mercury, and heavy metals. The Project’s three local power users, and the greatest beneficiaries of the Project are the source of this contamination. We know that fish species west of the Project have much lower contaminant levels than fish east of the Project. Today, fishing advisories tell our women of child-bearing age, infants, and children under the age of sixteen to eat no fish at all from the St. Lawrence River.

The health of our community, like the health of the river, has deteriorated greatly. Areas for traditional medicines and herbs are no longer there or provide bad medicine. Prior to the 1950s, we had rare occurrences of diabetes in our community. Today, our diabetes rate is over twice the northern New York average. Pregnant women in our community have a 1 in 10 chance of contracting gestational diabetes

during their pregnancies. Changes in diet and lifestyles are the primary source of this health problem. Endocrine systems are being suppressed as evidenced by increasing problems with hypothyroidism. Our community is concerned with increasing respiratory problems in our elders and youth.

Our traditional economies are all but gone. Our fishermen’s nets rotted a long time ago. Our cattle are contaminated with fluorides. Our people are afraid to plant gardens as the vegetables they grow could be contaminated. Our sustainable society is sustainable no more as we have been driven from the river and we have become a society increasingly dependent on government services. Even the Long Sault rapids that is the source of the name for this area is gone.

As we have been driven from the river, everything that is associated with being Mohawk has been impacted. The collective knowledge of our elders is being lost as our ties to the St. Lawrence River have been severed. Their knowledge is not being passed on to the next generation as fishing, hunting, trapping, farming, gathering, and sustainable economies have been replaced as individuals have had to resort to more uncertain means to existence that, in some cases, can place individuals and the community at risk. True economic development has not evolved due to a lack of opportunity.

Within the past fifty years, less than one generation, our language and culture is in danger. While over 80 percent of our adults over the age of 55 are fluent Mohawk speakers, only 5 percent of our youth are. As activities and lifestyles change and disappear, so do the language components become lost. An example of this is the intricacies of making fish nets, boats, oars, traps, etc. As species of fish and wildlife disappear, so do the words that describe them. As we are driven from the river, our values, relationships, and responsibilities are being lost.”

At the March 1997 CCP Team meeting, there was a lengthy discussion about how the issues would be presented in Scoping Document 1. The New York Power Authority wanted the Mohawk issues to look like all the other issues, they again asked us to join the ship. We wanted the presentation of our issues left in our words, to be presented from the perspective of the canoe. Over the course of a two-hour meeting, the CCP Team saw that the wording of our issues contained everything that the New York Power Authority was looking for, it was just presented differ­ently. Individuals from the CCP Team began speaking up, supporting us, stating that our issues should be presented as we worded them, from the perspective of the canoe. The end result was that Issue 20, the Mohawk issues, is the only one of 45 issues in Scoping Document 1 that is worded differently, as it is presented from the perspective of the canoe.

After the issuance of Scoping Document 1, the parallel process continued. Public hearings were held in the summer of 1997 to take comment on Scoping Document 1. Two hearings were held in the Massena, New York area, in June 1997. An additional hearing was held in Akwesasne, in September 1997. In a testament to the importance we placed on getting a chance to air our grievances after almost 50 years of frustration, the number of speakers at the Akwesasne hearing totaled more than the other two hearings combined.

From here, the re-licensing process entered a Settlement Negotiation phase. The New York Power Authority expressed their hope that they could negotiate a settlement of almost half of the issues with the Cooperative Consultation Process Team. They also expressed hope that the Mohawk issues could be included as well. Once again, we declined this offer to participate with the CCP Team and stated that wanted the parallel process to continue.

In early 1999, the New York Power Authority prepared $125 million proposals that they were prepared to fund in exchange for this commitment, the N York Power Authority asked that I members of the Cooperative Consultation Process Team support them getting a n license for the St. Lawrence - FDR Power Project from the Federal Energy Regulate Commission. The New York Power Authority is waiting for responses from CCP Team. Initial indications are that proposals will be accepted in principle 1 that the individual CCP Team members v ask to increase the size of the commitment that the New York Power Authority has put forward to support larger projects than NYPA has offered.

Continued next week