Letter to the Editor

Sekon Akwesasronon,

Brothers and Sisters, my name is Greg (Gigs) David and I am the “Native American Facilitator” here at Bare Hill Correction Facility.

I realize with this Novel Coronavirus (covis19) pandemic ravaging our planet that this is a bad time to be asking the people of Akwesasne for help, but here I am doing just that.

The Native American Services here @ Bare Hill folded 4 years ago (2016) and last year we were able to start them up again. We were able to hold the “Harvest Thunder and Mid-Winter” Ceremonies so far, and then our “Maple Syrup” Festival was cancelled due to the coronavirus the day before the festival, this past February!

Since then we’ve missed out on the “thunder & Planting” Festival’s and it looks like the Strawberry Festival as well. Guests are not allowed in yet, and our guests were the people bringing in the food for the feasts, after the ceremonies.

Bare Hill had told us we can have the Festival with no guests and food supplied by the mess hall; no strawberries! What’s a strawberry Festival with no Strawberries? All of the Natives here consider this a disrespectful insult to our “Way of Life’”

Strawberries and Corn Soup are a mainstay to any Festival/Ceremony and they know this, so I had to ask myself, “What the hell are they thinking?”

Now I come to the part where I ask Akwesasne for help because on Nay 25th, the Chaplain came to me to either sign off on the Festival or agree to eat their food with no strawberries. I said I would have to ask the group first. Needless to say it was a “no.”

Then I said to the Chaplain, “Wait a minute, in 2016 the group was able to take money out of the “Native American Fund” to buy their own food and prepare it themselves. If we had the money in our account, why can’t we do that now?” So far there’s been no answer.

So now I’m asking Akwesasne to make monetary donations to our “Native American Fund” to benefit all your Native brothers incarcerated here @ Bare Hill just in case something like this happens in the future. We would greatly appreciate any amount you could provide us in our time of need. Check or money orders please. No cash!

We would also like to ask the people if they could supply us with other essentials such as: sage, cedar and sweetgrass for smudging. Also Arts & Crafts materials including: leather, feathers, beads and beading supplies (including, needles & thread), hoops and strings for dreamcatchers etc. These will have to be sent to the “Native and Inuit Liaison Officer” at another facility, then he will send it to us. D.O.C.C.S. rules!!

We are allowed to have fund-raisers for our “fund” with a percentage going to the facility, even so we hope to be able to make our group self-sufficient in the near future with a little bit of help from our friends of Akwesasne to get us started.

We’ve been listening to CKON and it’s good to hear the community has come together during this crisis. Our leaders have stood tall and handled this crisis with the health and safety of our people first and foremost in their minds. Particularly the elders, the children and the less fortunate.

They should be commended for all that they’ve done for Akwesasne at every opportunity.

Their actions have made me proud to be Akwesasronon, and proves that “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Our minds are as One.”

Sincerley,

Kanienthariio

(Grigs David)

Monetary Donations:

Native American Fund

Bare Hill Correctional Facility

Caller Box 20

181 Brand Road

Malone, NY 12953

Supplies/Materials

Clint Shenandoah

Native American Coordinator

Cayuga Correctional Facility

PO Box 1150, Route 38A

Moravia, NY 13118

Niawen Kowa,

The Natives of Bare Hill C.F.

Greg David - 17A0232 – Mohawk

Lawrence Bone-90C0639-Ojibway

Brandon Thompson-18A3229-Mohawk

Elliot Printup-95B1690-Seneca

Allen Oshier-17A4583-Mohawk

Jason Vanderbeck-14A0617-Mohawk