Sep 23, 2004 — When one thinks of business on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation near Massena, casinos, cigarettes, and gas stations usually come to mind. Because native people are exempt from taxation, those commodities have been rare bright lights in an otherwise bleak economic picture in Indian Country. A new federal tax regulation threatens to devastate Akwesasne's gas station industry. As David Sommerstein reports, it may also endanger a fragile entrepreneurial economy that's sprouting up alongside the mainstays.