Mohawks are "Squatters" According to Local Real Estate Company

The General Real Estate Company (www.generalrealestate.us), with an address on Frogtown Road in “Hogansburg” NY has a curious, and controversial property listing with the cite of MLS #158999. The property for sale is described as 240 acres of “investment and development” land within a few hundred feet of the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino (it is actually further away) with “tribal water and sewer” (not connected but implied it could be).

Besides the suggestion that the land could be a business site, the summation also notes that the property is within the land claims of the “Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe’s Land Claims Settlement area”.

And unnamed “squatters” currently occupy the land.

Squatter is an ugly sounding word, which means someone who occupies land without any legal rights. It is a word of contempt and in law, used to charge someone with trespass. In England and Australia it refers to ex-convicts and criminals who occupy land without permission.

Squatter comes from the word squat which means to bend over and defecate or to cower in fear. “To take a dump” is how one dictionary describes what it means to squat.

It is a hard way to describe the Kanienkehaka Kaianerehkowa Kanonhsesne, the group that took back the land from a downstate investor named Horst Wuersching. Mr. Wuersching purchased the land for $17,500 in 1981. He passed away in 2014. The property was appraised at a value for tax purposes at $16,000 with a real value of $500,000. The current asking price is $750,000.

Charges were brought against one of the Kanienkehaka as a result of the takeover but were subsequently dismissed. The property lies within the original boundaries of the Saint Regis Indian Reservation as set by the 1796 Treaty of Seven Nations, itself a territorial cession never acknowledged as legitimate by the Mohawk Nation. The Seven Nations Treaty does not mention the Mohawk Nation nor were any of the four signatories (William Gray, Louis Cook, Thomas Williams or Goodstream) Rotiane within the Nation or representatives of the Mohawk people.

The four men were sent to Albany to inquire as to why New York was sending a survey crew onto Mohawk lands. While in Albany they were manipulated by State officials to cede land, When they sought to secure a reservation whose boundaries would have stretched from Oswegatchie to Akwesasne and inland for six leagues (18 miles) they were opposed by Joseph Brant who claimed he was the only legitimate leader for the Mohawks.

Once the reservation limits were set by the Treaty, the Mohawks of Akwesasne were restricted to that small area. Yet New York would repeatedly violate US federal law by taking more sections from the reservation and thereby causing considerable harm to the Native people.

It was this action which has formed the basis of the land claims initiated by the St. Regis Tribal Council which is an actual extension of the four signatories to the Seven Nations treaty, the four were reduced to three who in turn became the “trustees” for the “St. Regis Indians”. This was later codified in 1892 by the New York State Legislature and is the legal basis for the existence of the current Tribal Council.

This imposition of an alien administration has never set well with the Mohawk people. The loss of our lands for any reason, whether as part of the original reservation or the traditional lands, has been opposed by the Mohawk people.

That the Kanienkehaka would decide to take back what it morally and lawfully Mohawk land without waiting for a non-Native US court to issue its ruling is consistent with traditional law and is endorsed by edicts such as the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which has now been endorsed by Canada and the United States.

For a real estate company to place the land claims in jeopardy by offering the property for sale is a mistake. For that company to then place the freedom of the Mohawk people at risk is dangerous. This is what will happen if the land is sold and the buyer seeks to take physical control from the Mohawk people. They will seek an injunction and an order from the local non-Native court to issue criminal trespass charges against the Mohawk which in turn will involve the NY State and Tribal Police as they will seek to make arrests.

More controversy, more problems, of which Akwesasne does not need.

The Mohawks are not squatters and to refer to them as such is wrong. To get involved in a land rights issue without consulting the Mohawk leadership and the Mohawks who have taken back our territory shows a remarkable lack of judgment.

Each of the prospective candidates in this year’s tribal elections should be asked their opinion about the land issue and the reference to Mohawks as “squatters”. They should be asked if they support the return of our lands without qualification. They should be asked if they endorse the real estate company’s actions or stand by the Kanienkehaka Kaianerehkowa Kanonhsesne.

Our territory is, according to our teachings, sacred. Land is not a commodity; the earth is a living entity. Our duty is to protect her. That is what the Kanienkehaka have sought to do-to remove a section of that sacred land from a non-Native “investor” and return it to the people. This is not squatting; it is an act of the highest moral principle.