Akwesasne & the Mohawk Nation

(01/23/12) Gov. Andrew Cuomo has released a bill to amend the state's constitution to legalize non-Native casino gambling in New York. more

(08/12/11) At the Akwesasne Freedom School on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation near Massena, kids spend their whole day, including recess, completely immersed in the Mohawk language. Nora Flaherty has more. more

(08/11/11) Seneca Nation president Robert Odawi Porter is using an historic piece of cloth to deliver a message to New York State about native sovereignty. He said payment of the cloth and a small sum according to an 18th century treaty symbolizes native nations' freedom from state taxation and right to land.

The history lesson came on the same day that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he is considering legalizing gambling in New York. That would have a profound effect on native nations and tribes around the state who rely on their casinos for revenue. Martha Foley and Dave Bullard report.

(08/09/11) The Onondaga are among only a handful of Native American nations who refuse money from the US Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. They do so to preserve their independence. They've also refused to open a casino.

But the Onondaga are reaching out--applying their traditional values and consensus-based decision-making--in a new series of business partnerships with clean tech companies. Emma Jacobs brings us this report from the Innovation Trail.

Support for the Innovation Trail comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Innovation Trail is a collaboration between five upstate public media outlets, reporting about New York's innovation economy. more

(08/08/11) This week, we're going to take a look around Indian Country in New York. Taxing native smoke shops have grabbed headlines lately. But we're going to look deeper at some of the political, economic, and social trends shaping New York's native tribes and nations.

Today, the Seneca Nation, south of Buffalo. Casinos and tobacco sales have turned it from an empoverished territory to one of the top ten employer in western New York.

The Nation's new president, Robert Odawi Porter, has taken a lead role in negotiating native issues with the Cuomo Administration.

Porter wants the Senecas to go beyond smoke shops and slot machines. He's a Harvard-educated lawyer and academic. And he wants to recast one of the darkest moments of the Seneca people into an economic boon. David Sommerstein has this profile. more

(05/06/11) The hockey and basketball playoffs are at full throttle. But there's another professional sport deep in the title series - the national lacrosse league. Tomorrow, the Buffalo Bandits, one of the league's winningest franchises, takes on the Toronto Rock in the semifinals. The Bandits are led by goalie Mike Thompson, a Mohawk who lives in Akwesasne. Thompson's had an incredible year and an incredible career, having won both major North American lacrosse championships. David Sommerstein visited him at home and has this profile.

(12/27/10) Congressman Bill Owens is one of a group of lawmakers working on a law designed to slow drug trafficking from Canada into the U.S.
A bill passed by both houses of Congress calls on the Office of National Drug Control Policy to craft a multi-agency and international strategy to tighten up on drug smugglers without hurting tourism and other commercial traffic across the northern border.
Martha Foley has more. more

(12/10/10) Four years ago, a tobacco company in Akwesasne, Jacobs Manufacturing, started a native fashion show to raise money for the local hat and mitten fund.

The "Nations Best Next Top Model Show" has grown into a big attraction. More than a thousand fans filled the Jacobs plant on the St. Regis Mohawk reservation last Saturday night. Grammy-award winner Joanne Shenandoah performed.

Models from Iroquois communities showed off the work of ten Mohawk designers. The fashions included traditional regalia, cocktail and casual wear, and furs.

Joni Sarah White, an Akwesasne artist, joined models and designers at last weekend's Nations Best Next Top Models Show in Akwesasne. Winning model Chatnie Herne won a one-year contract with an Ottawa modeling agency.
Producer Randi Rourke Barreiro was backstage and by the runway for today's Heard Up North. more

(12/03/10) Forty-five years ago, the federal government built the Kinzua dam on the Alleghany River, just south of the New York border in northwestern Pennsylvania. The government said it was needed to control flooding in the Pittsburgh area.

150 families from the Seneca Nation were forcibly removed from the area. Their homes were burned and bulldozed. Their sacred longhouse and burial grounds were flooded by the rising waters.

This week, the Seneca Nation made a bid to become owner of the Kinzua dam. The federal license of the current operator, FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio, expires in 2015. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will decide who gets a new 50-year license.

Robert Odawi Porter is the Seneca Nation president. He told David Sommerstein granting the Senecas the license to operate the Kinzua dam would correct what he calls a "grotesque injustice." more

(11/18/10) The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe says it's "at an impasse" in talks with New York over sharing the revenue from the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino near Massena. The tribe says it's paid more than $50 million to the state, St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, and four north Country towns since 2005 under the Mohawks' gaming compact.

But those payments stopped last month when the tribe claimed New York violated an exclusivity clause in the compact by allowing slot machines on a little native territory in Clinton County. David Sommerstein reports. more