Letter to the editor:

Letter to the Editor:

Dear Akwesasronon,

We, mothers and women of Akwesasne, and Akwesasne Eagle Watch requested that the recognized leadership of Akwesasne deliver this message to our people. Although we know that recognized leadership supports the spirit of this message, for whatever reason it has not been delivered.

The following is a draft notice to those in our community who are dealing drugs, providing alcohol illegally or smuggling drugs through our territory.  This notice will actually be hand-delivered to the first drug dealer soon and Akwesasne needs the community to take this stand with us. We will be communicating with people to provide more information on what is going to peacefully take place. Niawen.

NOTICE TO

ALL DRUG DEALERS

In Akwesasne:

We are telling you that what you are doing must stop dealing drugs, providing booze and smuggling drugs through our community. We recognize how difficult it is to address this issue in our tight-knit community, but we must be responsible for change, we cannot wait for someone else to clean up our rez.

Our hearts go out to everyone in our community for the losses we have suffered because of the drug epidemic here. We can see that there are many people in mourning. We have lost far too many people to drug and alcohol abuse and related violence. We, as the mothers and women of this community, have no choice but to try to protect our families and our children from people like you.

Notice is hereby given to you and to all people on this territory who are dealing drugs or who are in any other way hurting our children by providing illicit drugs or alcohol to them; you must stop what you are doing.

You are on notice that you cannot use the territory of Akwesasne to advance your greed or the greed of people located elsewhere, by smuggling drugs. The rights of our entire community are jeopardized by your actions and you must stop. You do not have the right to use our territory and community in a manner that brings harm to our people.

We will support any lawful and legal means to protect our children and our community from the drug trade and from illegal drug and alcohol abuse.

We will continue to watch you and report illegal activity to the police. Akwesasne Eagle Watch provides a peaceful way for people to vent their anger about what you are doing to our community. If you do not stop, we will seek enforcement of the banishment laws and we will continue to bring attention to your activity. Maybe no one has come right out and told you before that what you are doing is wrong – well now someone has. Please be a member of our community and not someone who chooses to hurt others or benefit from other’s addictions.

Akwesasne Eagle Watch