Speaker 1: Campsite media. How's it going, How are you right? Very
Speaker 1: nice to meet. I don't usually get black jeeves with
Speaker 1: men I just met, but I'm not gay. But ten
Speaker 1: bucks is ten bucks right. Looks like we're off to
Speaker 1: a good start already, so you want to see my reservation.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year, I drove up to upstate New York
Speaker 1: to meet a man we're calling Danny. He's a retired
Speaker 1: New York State Police officer who agreed to show me
Speaker 1: around the aguasas Name Mohawk Territory. He has to be
Speaker 1: anonymous because he still investigates and testifies on cases in
Speaker 1: the area. Should we get rolled? Absolutely sounds good. Danny's
Speaker 1: a longtime trooper who spent twelve years working in this
Speaker 1: part of New York, just by the Canadian border, and
Speaker 1: back in the day, a big part of Danny's job
Speaker 1: was patrolling the Aguasasna Territory. They called it res duty.
Speaker 1: What was the reaction of most Brickey cops that had
Speaker 1: their first year on resduded uh deer in the headlights
Speaker 1: when we first take them take them down there, They
Speaker 1: just they couldn't believe. They go, well, can they do that?
Speaker 1: And we'd go. Yeah, yeah, there is For those cops.
Speaker 1: Res duty felt like frat house hazy, but Daddy loved it.
Speaker 1: Early eighties to late eighties, it was It was the
Speaker 1: wild West. It was nothing back then to have yes
Speaker 1: pursuits in a night and you're doing a D D
Speaker 1: and ten and the car you're pursuing is throwing beer
Speaker 1: bottles at you. And it wasn't their first rodeo. They
Speaker 1: don't throw them straight back, no, no, no, they throw
Speaker 1: them up in the air so they land in front
Speaker 1: of you. But yeah, lost a few windshields. But it
Speaker 1: was just a crazy time, crazy time. Someone nicknamed him
Speaker 1: res Rockets because their cars went fucking fly. Aside from
Speaker 1: car chases and beer bottles, this was a turbulent time
Speaker 1: in Agrasasna. Angry residents who believed that the Native police
Speaker 1: were siding with the federal government demanded that the police
Speaker 1: disband and leave the reservation, and in the years that followed,
Speaker 1: that security void was filled by folks who had money
Speaker 1: and more importantly, had weapons. What would this entrance have
Speaker 1: looked like thirty years ago, blocked with tires stack five
Speaker 1: or six deep, ten high. At night, they'd have bonfires
Speaker 1: and they're all standing around it, the natives with their
Speaker 1: faces covered with masks, carrying assault weapons, shotguns, and they
Speaker 1: had actual shifts that people were assigned to roadblocks, and
Speaker 1: they had roving patrols. Danny isn't native and he's a
Speaker 1: law enforcement officer, so he doesn't really provide the definitive
Speaker 1: perspective of agassn but the picture he paints to the
Speaker 1: place is compelling themtheless and shows just how tense things
Speaker 1: were back then. He was forced to work undercover because
Speaker 1: of the hostility that state police faced. I mean, we
Speaker 1: didn't have, you know, the fancy lighting the spoiled punks
Speaker 1: have today. He had fucking burn barrels, and it was
Speaker 1: he was medieval here. You go up to the burn
Speaker 1: barrels and you got guys standing there with cowboy hats
Speaker 1: and shotguns and spoken big cigars, And do you feel
Speaker 1: like you're in a movie? Back then? It could have been.
Speaker 1: It apps to fucking lutly could have been if that
Speaker 1: movie ever got made. There's no doubt what the opening
Speaker 1: shots would be. A gigantic warehouse looking building on the
Speaker 1: corner of the main road here in Aguasas. Today it's
Speaker 1: totally abandoned and boarded up. But thirty years ago this
Speaker 1: was a casino and in the summer it was the
Speaker 1: scene of one of the most dramatic events of Aguasas's history.
Speaker 1: The casino was full of gamblers and security guards, the
Speaker 1: parking lot was full of protesters who wanted to shut
Speaker 1: it all down, and a cavalry of police cars were
Speaker 1: on their way. It was a classic Mexican standoff. And
Speaker 1: when we got to the casino, there's probably troop cars,
Speaker 1: probably troopers, officers, investigators. We were met with two Maudus
Speaker 1: fifty caliber machine guns on the roof of that casino.
Speaker 1: From Campside Media and Dan Patrick Productions, this is running smoke.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I'm rogi Gola and this is episode seven
Speaker 1: Civil War. When Derek turned himself into the police, he
Speaker 1: knew then and there that he was going to fight
Speaker 1: this case all the way to the end. Whether it
Speaker 1: was bankruptcy, jail time, or victory. Derek was all in
Speaker 1: and now he was appealing his case on a constitutional basis.
Speaker 1: This was the first time a tobacco case had come
Speaker 1: this far. In every other instance, the case would languish
Speaker 1: and appeals for years before being dismissed by a judge.
Speaker 1: It seemed like Canada wasn't interested in addressing the issue
Speaker 1: head on, But this time was different. The judge had
Speaker 1: agreed to hear the case and the stage was set
Speaker 1: for a landmark decision. But it's exactly because the stakes
Speaker 1: were so high that the Mohawk Nation had asked Derek
Speaker 1: and Hunter to drop their case. The risk of losing
Speaker 1: was too great and they'd ready seen what could happen
Speaker 1: when things went wrong. They were concerned that we're using
Speaker 1: these agreements that were made as a defense, which is
Speaker 1: true Hunter Montur Derek's co accused, and they were worried
Speaker 1: that if we lose that it's going to affect the
Speaker 1: Mohawk Nation. I said, well, what the hell's the point
Speaker 1: of having these tools if we can't use them, when
Speaker 1: are you going to use them? Well, there's another time
Speaker 1: for this, when this is the time. Right now is
Speaker 1: the time. So don't be dumbass. Oh well, we know
Speaker 1: we shouldn't do this right now. You should just roll
Speaker 1: over and take it. Not me. I have every right
Speaker 1: to use these laws or whatever you want to however
Speaker 1: you want to phrase it, agreements that were made that
Speaker 1: are binding. So why can't I use this to defend myself.
Speaker 1: If I can't use it, what the hell good is it?
Speaker 1: And are you going to use it? I don't see
Speaker 1: any of you fighting for land or or or pushing
Speaker 1: for more rights. I don't see it. I've dedicated myself
Speaker 1: to whatever I could to help our nation, and I
Speaker 1: should be able to use my what I'm fighting for
Speaker 1: to help myself to get out of whatever. It is.
Speaker 1: Stupid ass predicament I'm in. That's what we do this
Speaker 1: for them and c C is basically stating that I'm
Speaker 1: using my rights because of a criminal activity. What is
Speaker 1: not criminal in activity? In the eyes of the government,
Speaker 1: it's criminal activity. But for us here, it's just our
Speaker 1: our how do you put it, It's what we've grown
Speaker 1: up to to do. I mean there's not much left.
Speaker 1: I mean they stole all our land. Um, they have
Speaker 1: highways coming truer reserve at all ends. I mean we
Speaker 1: have to benefit from it somehow. I mean we have
Speaker 1: the gas stations and we have secrets. So that's what
Speaker 1: they get for stealing our land. The question at the
Speaker 1: heart of Derek's case boiled down to this, the rights
Speaker 1: belong to an individual or do they belong to a community.
Speaker 1: Derek argued that the rights belonged to individuals. Mohawk's had
Speaker 1: a right to trade tax free, and he had just
Speaker 1: as much claim to that right as any other Mohawk.
Speaker 1: But the Council of Chiefs, well, they believed that right
Speaker 1: belonged to the community and community institutions. The way they
Speaker 1: saw it, Derek had done his business without the permission
Speaker 1: of the Mohawk government, so it wasn't appropriate for him
Speaker 1: to claim Mohawk rights now that he was in trouble.
Speaker 1: It's a debate over what sovereignty actually means, and it's
Speaker 1: one that nearly tore apart one Mohawk territory decades ago.
Speaker 1: To understand why it's such a difficult question, we have
Speaker 1: to go back to the nineteen seventies, to the birth
Speaker 1: of the modern Native rights movement. We'll get into all
Speaker 1: that right after the break. This was the era when
Speaker 1: groups like a I AM, the American Indian Movement but
Speaker 1: Native rights on the map and staged radical protests like
Speaker 1: reclaiming Wounded need from corrupt leaders. Either we forced the
Speaker 1: federal government to kill us all, or else they come
Speaker 1: out and they negotiate and meet our demands. They occupied
Speaker 1: Alcatraz and demanded its return to Native people. They d
Speaker 1: a learning in peaceful Their sub fishermen's wre was shattered
Speaker 1: suddenly by the ridic mean of Indian timetowns, and they
Speaker 1: even took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs in d C.
Speaker 1: After a cross country march they called the Trail of
Speaker 1: Broken Treaties. The Indians came from everywhere, and they came
Speaker 1: with a purpose. By the time we start doing something,
Speaker 1: I think this is a test to see how the
Speaker 1: government can uphold the law. Native Americans were developing a
Speaker 1: radical political consciousness, and sovereignty became the political project of
Speaker 1: the moment. Sovereignty meant writing your own rules, standing on
Speaker 1: your own two feet, and not letting anyone else tell
Speaker 1: you otherwise. An important part of that fight for self
Speaker 1: determination was economic, but not everyone agreed on exactly how
Speaker 1: to build up that economy. It became an especially contentious
Speaker 1: issue once some Native community started experimenting with gambling and
Speaker 1: tax free tobacco. It was a sort of legal gray
Speaker 1: area that would soon become a battleground. Doug George Canendio
Speaker 1: is a prominent Mohawk journalist and advocate who lives outside
Speaker 1: of Agua Sas. Back in the day, he reported on
Speaker 1: how these new ideas were changing his community. I was
Speaker 1: involved with this issue when it first came to our
Speaker 1: attention in n when individuals from our sister community of
Speaker 1: Gonawaga approached us and ask they could secure a license
Speaker 1: to transport tobacco products across the international border. And they
Speaker 1: wanted to do this in order to form a new economy, UM,
Speaker 1: to introduce wealth and to our our communities. Tobacco was
Speaker 1: risk free, had high profit margins and a constant demand.
Speaker 1: It seemed like a golden ticket. But Doug George and
Speaker 1: the Traditional Leadership Council he sat on weren't fully convinced
Speaker 1: that council was concerned at tobacco, Uh, something that's extremely
Speaker 1: sacred to the Mohawk people should become a commodity. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they knew that there would be serious ramifications. You know.
Speaker 1: Our elders told us, they warned us, don't do this,
Speaker 1: and we thought we could control it. We were wrong.
Speaker 1: Pretty quickly, the tobacco industry swept through the Mohawk territories.
Speaker 1: Before the Nation Council could make a decision. The handful
Speaker 1: of the Native entrepreneurs who got into the cigarette game
Speaker 1: early on, became massively wealthy in a short amount of time,
Speaker 1: and Doug George was afraid of the implications of that
Speaker 1: sort of wealth gap. Unless we had firm control of this,
Speaker 1: these individuals, we're going to grow very powerful. They were
Speaker 1: going to do something that was fairly alien to our
Speaker 1: Mohawk way of life, in that they were going to
Speaker 1: create a handful of very rich people who are then
Speaker 1: going to turn around and use their wealth to manipulate
Speaker 1: the community, Uh, towards our own ends. Ours is not
Speaker 1: a community that is given to capitalism. You know. We
Speaker 1: were a people who develop a system by which all
Speaker 1: of us could prosper, and we were adamantly opposed to
Speaker 1: the rise of a wealthy elite who would then dictate
Speaker 1: how that society would be to the rest of us.
Speaker 1: That that's something that is so alien to to Mohawk tradition.
Speaker 1: Tobacco money started pouring into other lucrative gray markets like
Speaker 1: casinos and Bengo halls, even though gambling was illegal elsewhere
Speaker 1: in Canada and the West. The smugglers and casino owners
Speaker 1: claimed that the reserves were sovereign territory. Federal laws didn't apply.
Speaker 1: Tobacco and gambling were controversial issues within the territory, but
Speaker 1: they were symbols for an even bigger set of questions.
Speaker 1: These people are using that and saying, I am sovereign,
Speaker 1: therefore I got a right to do what every what
Speaker 1: I want on my sovereign territory. While it's not your territory.
Speaker 1: You aren't sovereign, You're not Sovereignty belongs to the collective.
Speaker 1: And we fought great battles, as as Mohawks and as
Speaker 1: natives to in order to secure a certain level of
Speaker 1: self control and self determination. But these guys are undermining that.
Speaker 1: They espoused all of this rhetoric about helping the nation
Speaker 1: and the people and you know, upholding traditional values, but
Speaker 1: they were destroying the very thing that they were claiming
Speaker 1: to try to strengthen. You know, they were destroying the
Speaker 1: idea of of a stable central government. They were undermining
Speaker 1: the authority of traditional law. They were violating um our
Speaker 1: customs and our culture. This was the battleground on which
Speaker 1: the Mohawks Civil War would play out. Anti tobacco and
Speaker 1: anti gambling advocates on one side trying to preserve their
Speaker 1: traditions against an influx of money earned off of vice
Speaker 1: and exploitation. These were known as the antis. On the
Speaker 1: other side were the casino and tobacco supporters, tired of
Speaker 1: playing by the old rules. Gambling and cigarettes offered a
Speaker 1: way out, offered a way to build an economy. Why
Speaker 1: should they sit out while everyone else moves ahead? How
Speaker 1: did the antis see rights differently than you see rights?
Speaker 1: They don't mind being in the arm pit up the
Speaker 1: United States government. Lauren Thompson was a traditional leader in
Speaker 1: Agrasas back in the nineteen eighties. He had a reputation
Speaker 1: as a fierce and wily defender who would take radical
Speaker 1: action to protect the community. Once, when laggers tried to
Speaker 1: cut down trees to establish a border around agass Lauren
Speaker 1: confiscated their machinery and kicked off a month's long standoff
Speaker 1: with government officials. Lauren believed that tobacco and gambling offered
Speaker 1: massive potential for Mohawks to lift themselves up. Sure it
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly clean or noble money, but he felt that
Speaker 1: was a reasonable cost to achieve true economic independence. He
Speaker 1: clashed with others in the community and ultimately lost his
Speaker 1: leadership position for trying to bring a casino to the reserve.
Speaker 1: He felt that the antis were holding the community back.
Speaker 1: They don't mind their treaties being secondary Trudeau United States
Speaker 1: law and court decisions. They do mind that. In other words,
Speaker 1: they accept being American citizens. Okay, where's the the hardcore
Speaker 1: traditional people will stand up and fight for the rights
Speaker 1: in their own land, just as the settlers was stand up,
Speaker 1: grab a gun and fight for their freedom. Say that's
Speaker 1: how we fight. We we stand as equals to the
Speaker 1: government of the United States, the people of the United States.
Speaker 1: But it created a problem because there was so much
Speaker 1: money being made that a lot of the community wanted
Speaker 1: a part of it because they were starting to say,
Speaker 1: you're using my rights to do this right. So so
Speaker 1: there was all kinds of conversations going on at that time,
Speaker 1: and that were created a different of opinion all over
Speaker 1: the place and from there and it just kept growing.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden was um uh protests
Speaker 1: from the Longhouse people. People we thought we were on
Speaker 1: that were on our side. So they did the protests
Speaker 1: and then they came to the point where they shut
Speaker 1: off they closed off the toll gate where the buses
Speaker 1: were coming through, so that put a halt tool the
Speaker 1: major part of the casino going on when they were
Speaker 1: right back, you're listening to running smoke left. By the
Speaker 1: late nineties, tensions between the antis and the tobacco gambling
Speaker 1: crowd were growing intense. Cigarettes were coming in by the
Speaker 1: semi truck load, and streets were backed up with tour
Speaker 1: buses full of Americans and Canadians coming into gamble at
Speaker 1: the casinos. Money was flowing into the reserve like never before.
Speaker 1: Buildings were going up, roads were being paved, and smoke
Speaker 1: shacks were popping up like mushrooms after a rain. And
Speaker 1: just as Doug George had predicted, a new class of
Speaker 1: wealthy elites was turning the old way of life in
Speaker 1: Aguas upside down. The casinos had become incredibly contentious on
Speaker 1: the reservation, and Tony's Vegas International was at the center
Speaker 1: of the debate. There was a federal ban on gambling,
Speaker 1: but the owner of the casino, Tony Laughing, said that
Speaker 1: didn't apply in aguasas it was his right as a
Speaker 1: Mohawks citizen. State police beg to differ. What ignited really
Speaker 1: the issue in ninety was Tony was running an illegal
Speaker 1: casino out of there. At the time in New York State.
Speaker 1: It was illegal run I illegal casino, go figure. So
Speaker 1: we had undercover officers go into the casino and he
Speaker 1: had I don't know, a hundred D slot machines. Well
Speaker 1: that was illegal. So state police put a detail together
Speaker 1: to raid the casino and somehow the Natives were apprized
Speaker 1: of the oncoming rate armed mohawks and casino security were
Speaker 1: standing by ready to defend the casino. We were met
Speaker 1: with two Maudus fifty caliber machine guns on the roof
Speaker 1: of that casino. That's an impressive site when you're sitting
Speaker 1: there with a magnum and at twelve game jack. So
Speaker 1: discretion being the better part of valor, we left and
Speaker 1: as soon as we left, that's when the roadblocks went
Speaker 1: up and the fun really started. Once the police left
Speaker 1: the scene, anti gambling protesters realized that they were on
Speaker 1: their own, and in the spring of they decided to
Speaker 1: fight this battled themselves. A group of people said enough
Speaker 1: and they decided that they were going to stop a
Speaker 1: lot of these uh large buses that were coming onto
Speaker 1: reservation every day and to patronize at casinos. And so
Speaker 1: they formed a roadblock and they said, holy cal that
Speaker 1: they had actually done this in the people had their roadblocks.
Speaker 1: We were well aware that they did this at high risk.
Speaker 1: That risk came from the fact that at the time
Speaker 1: there were no state or Mohawk cops operating on the reserve.
Speaker 1: They'd been kicked out years earlier in a different set
Speaker 1: of protests. The only policing force in Agusas now was
Speaker 1: the Mohawks Sovereignty Security Force, otherwise known as the Mohawk Warriors.
Speaker 1: The Warrior Society had been around for decades, and in
Speaker 1: the early days it was simply a revival of older customs.
Speaker 1: It was a society for young men who wanted to
Speaker 1: fulfill traditional roles. Their symbol was the flag of a
Speaker 1: Mohawk Warrior head on a red background. It was the
Speaker 1: same flag that Derek had painted on the hood of
Speaker 1: his Race car Warrior handbook. Who was really about the
Speaker 1: role of the men and it channeled that energy and
Speaker 1: it put it in to me in a good way
Speaker 1: that it gave the men direction and what to do.
Speaker 1: Kenneth Dear was a spokesperson for the Mohawk Nation during
Speaker 1: these years, and he saw how the Warriors in August
Speaker 1: Sassy were getting drawn into a political battle. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a criminal organization. Wasn't supposed to be a criminal organization,
Speaker 1: you know. It was supposed to be a way to
Speaker 1: teach the men are responsibilities and within tradition, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, some unfortunately, some people used it like a gang.
Speaker 1: And and I can't support that. When anti gambling protesters
Speaker 1: set up roadblocks in the spring of they knew that
Speaker 1: they'd be up against the Mohawk Warriors and there was
Speaker 1: going to be a reaction in the Mohawk Sovereignty Security Force,
Speaker 1: which was supposed to provide a protection for the community,
Speaker 1: showed where they're real allegiance slide, and that they became
Speaker 1: deeply involved with the casino group and trying to break
Speaker 1: the roadblocks in order to resume the smuggling and resume
Speaker 1: the casino gambling. And these guys were lazy, They weren't trained,
Speaker 1: they didn't have the discipline, they didn't have the psychological background,
Speaker 1: the spiritual background. Uh, they didn't know how to control
Speaker 1: their weapons. They would ride around in and the souped
Speaker 1: up cars and trucks and r vs, not RVs but SUVs,
Speaker 1: and and with with these weapons whose only purpose was
Speaker 1: to kill other human beings and They were fueled by
Speaker 1: alcohol and drugs, and they were employed as goon squads
Speaker 1: by the cigarette smugglers who had now become the casino owners.
Speaker 1: They had nothing of the virtues of a real mohawk
Speaker 1: if you want to call a warrior. The roadblocks were
Speaker 1: an escalation in the war between antis and casino owners.
Speaker 1: Each side was dug in, accusing the other of collaborating
Speaker 1: with the World government of corrupting the community. Mohawk warriors
Speaker 1: would drive around the reservation and pickup trucks with automatic
Speaker 1: weapons and military fatigues. They manned checkpoints at the border
Speaker 1: of the reserve and became a vigilante force. They had
Speaker 1: become a flashpoint in this conflict. Their supporters saw them
Speaker 1: as defenders of the community, but to the anties they
Speaker 1: were a marauding gang serving the smugglers. Tensions rose every
Speaker 1: day and violence was becoming a regular part of life
Speaker 1: in agrasas arson, vandalism, beatings and shootings, even a grenade attack.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, automatic gunfire, all sorts of things
Speaker 1: going on there, and that people across the river in
Speaker 1: Ontario would come out in their porch and listen to
Speaker 1: and say what no world has gone on over there,
Speaker 1: but it was it was, it was, it was. It
Speaker 1: was a combat situation. Eventually two people were killed in
Speaker 1: the crossfire. Other Mohawk nations, which had done their best
Speaker 1: to stay out of Agrasasne, now had little option but
Speaker 1: to intervene. Kenneth Dear, the traditional leader in Gonawage, was
Speaker 1: sent to aguas Sasine to see what could be done
Speaker 1: about bringing both sides back together. You know, we we
Speaker 1: tried our best to stay out of the the casino
Speaker 1: war over there. We were trying to be pulled into that.
Speaker 1: And our guys went there and and looked at what's
Speaker 1: going on, and they came back and said, stay out
Speaker 1: of there. He says, there's no there's no middle ground
Speaker 1: over there. Either you're four or against. The situation was
Speaker 1: so bad that if you weren't for them, you're against them.
Speaker 1: If you want to build an economy, that's fine, and
Speaker 1: it should be also be a collective, you know, but
Speaker 1: when the collective didn't agree with what was going on,
Speaker 1: and then it became uh an individual issue. It's hard
Speaker 1: to to make peace when there's no middle ground and UH,
Speaker 1: and that's why you know, it ended up with two
Speaker 1: people being dead. You know, it's it's It was unfortunate.
Speaker 1: But then came the Oka crisis. Hear firing. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if the weapons bard that we had the day
Speaker 1: that they're firing at it good evening. It was a
Speaker 1: bloody day at the Mohawk Indian community and Oca Quebec
Speaker 1: near Montreal. Provincial police in riot gears stormed the barricades
Speaker 1: the Mohawks had set up. There's an out of weapons
Speaker 1: fire and now is this police firing or Mohawk firing
Speaker 1: here to be coming from the police find the Combet
Speaker 1: Police Force swap team moved in. It done and if
Speaker 1: ever a police operation was to go tragically wrong, it
Speaker 1: was this one. What kind of people are you? There's
Speaker 1: children here and you're shooting tear gas at us. We're
Speaker 1: unarmed and you're aiming your weapons at us. What kind
Speaker 1: of people are you? Police use gas, then bullets, but
Speaker 1: they weren't prepared for what met them. Dozens of heavily
Speaker 1: armed Mohawk men determined to hold what they say is
Speaker 1: their sacred ground behind a tree. There were clouds of
Speaker 1: tear gas, a hail of bullets, and in the midst
Speaker 1: of the battle of policemen was killed. All this because
Speaker 1: of a dispute over a piece of forest. The Indians
Speaker 1: claim is there's a forest owned council wants to bulldoze
Speaker 1: to expand the local golf course. Back in, the mayor
Speaker 1: of a small village near Montreal called Oka was pushing
Speaker 1: a plan to develop a condominium complex and expanded golf
Speaker 1: course on the outskirts of town, but that land belonged
Speaker 1: to the Ghanesstaga Mohawk Territory and served as a cemetery
Speaker 1: for the community. The protests that followed made international headlines
Speaker 1: and turned into a three month long standoff between armed
Speaker 1: Mohawk warriors and the Canadian military. That's what's killing our people.
Speaker 1: These people here who don't give a ship about anybody's
Speaker 1: rights under mown Indian has a right on this under
Speaker 1: this land, Well, let's got to tink. It's Mohawk land,
Speaker 1: it's our land. After the police retreated, the warriors celebrated,
Speaker 1: but it didn't last long. Tonight, the barricade is completely
Speaker 1: surrounded by the Canadian armies. The soldiers have dug themselves
Speaker 1: in After a day of high tension and drama. The
Speaker 1: images from the front lines were icon overturned cars barricades
Speaker 1: made out of burning tires and trees. Men dressed in
Speaker 1: camouflage fatigues with bandanas over their faces and a K
Speaker 1: forty seven's on their backs, all standing against Canadian soldiers
Speaker 1: in tanks and humbies. Again. Today, Native leaders in Ottawa
Speaker 1: demanded the federal government do something about the confrontation. In Oka,
Speaker 1: warriors were nearing hysteria the site of soldiers near their
Speaker 1: tribal cemetery. The Indians at Oka have said they won't
Speaker 1: abandoned their barricades until they get what they want. After
Speaker 1: such a sudden, violent beginning, this could turn out to
Speaker 1: be a long standoff. And there's also trouble on the
Speaker 1: Conawaga Reserve south of Montreal, a sympathy blockade. Indigenous territories
Speaker 1: across the continent took part in the protests. Leaders in
Speaker 1: Gnawaga made the decision to shut down the Mercy A Bridge,
Speaker 1: one of the major highways that links Montreal with towns
Speaker 1: across the St. Lawrence River. In the end, the protests
Speaker 1: were successful and the golf course was never expanded. Nevertin
Speaker 1: calmed down after ninety because that was one, you know,
Speaker 1: we went into the court system and all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: But but it was one are people were known all
Speaker 1: over the place for defending and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: Maybe we didn't win in court, or maybe some people
Speaker 1: lost in court, but overall we won, we wont, and
Speaker 1: then gambling and cigarettes it didn't seem like the biggest issue,
Speaker 1: and the more the victory at Oka was hard one,
Speaker 1: and months of protests had changed the perspective of many
Speaker 1: people in Mohawk territories. Of course it was a traumatic issue,
Speaker 1: but also it was an enlightenment to a lot of people.
Speaker 1: They realized those people a lot of people who were
Speaker 1: against cigarettes. Uh, all of a sudden, we're surrounded by
Speaker 1: the by the s Q and the army, and there's
Speaker 1: more important things that the series. And so when the
Speaker 1: crisis was over, I thought cigarettes would be dead. And
Speaker 1: then it was struggled for a little while, but then
Speaker 1: it just owned and you saw a whole lot of
Speaker 1: people who were against cigarettes who were now bright in
Speaker 1: there because they felt that why be against cigarettes? They
Speaker 1: felt that they didn't matter anymore. You know, if the
Speaker 1: government also treat us that way, then that then I
Speaker 1: have no problem with getting involved, no serious. There was
Speaker 1: a change the attitude towards cigarettes. It was like night
Speaker 1: and day. From was like night and day. Aguas's internal
Speaker 1: conflict had cooled down completely, but it left the debate
Speaker 1: over individual and collective rights unresolved. Danny the Company met
Speaker 1: at the top of the episode, saw the entire evolution
Speaker 1: of the conflict and how radically the smoke shops and
Speaker 1: casinos changed again over the following decades. I think the
Speaker 1: biggest lesson in my mind at the people down here
Speaker 1: learned from ninety was blockade cuts their own throat as well.
Speaker 1: Nothing was moving, Um, you couldn't smuggle anything out be
Speaker 1: because the state police had patrols at every exit. Just
Speaker 1: I mean, it was kind of like a stare down
Speaker 1: with the mohawks, and so the smuggling went downhill. There
Speaker 1: was no civilian traffic. And back then they depended tremendously
Speaker 1: on sales from non natives for cigarettes, tobacco, gasoline, and
Speaker 1: that was just just like somebody through a switch, and
Speaker 1: so economically it was a disaster for the people down here.
Speaker 1: I think that comes into play at why it's been
Speaker 1: so calm for so many years. So interesting to hear
Speaker 1: you say that those things like the casinos, the gas
Speaker 1: station and uh, tobacco is what improved life because in
Speaker 1: a lot of the books that get written about the
Speaker 1: Mohawks Civil War and stuff, it's always the cops and
Speaker 1: the anti is standing together against the warriors. And the
Speaker 1: antis didn't like any of what they were seeing with
Speaker 1: the new new businesses. Right, So I guess I just
Speaker 1: didn't expect law enforcement to take the side that cigarettes, gambling,
Speaker 1: gas stations were actually helping the community. Yeah, I agree, Um,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I don't know if it's fair to classify
Speaker 1: as taking sides, but possibly just being realistic. I don't
Speaker 1: think the gambling has been detrimental to the reservation in
Speaker 1: the way the antis thought it was gonna be. Um.
Speaker 1: I know they pictured, you know, crack on the corner,
Speaker 1: hookers every five ft, um, you know, Tony Sopranos sitting
Speaker 1: in the lobby. But I don't think that has come
Speaker 1: to fruition at all. And since the gas stations came in,
Speaker 1: and the tobacco and then a casino, Um, the quality
Speaker 1: of life really has improved tremendously down there on the reserve.
Speaker 1: I mean, it provides opportunity. I mean it's not all bad.
Speaker 1: It's not all bad. Which brings us back to the
Speaker 1: present day, and so the case that Derek is fighting
Speaker 1: against the Canadian government, well, to be more precise, the
Speaker 1: conflict between Derek and the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs,
Speaker 1: which is trying to get him to drop his case.
Speaker 1: Derek is claiming that as a Mohawk, he has the
Speaker 1: right to conduct his business tax free, but the Council
Speaker 1: of Chiefs is claiming that Derek was not acting with
Speaker 1: the permission or authority of the Mohawk Nation, so therefore
Speaker 1: he can't claim native rights. It's the same question that
Speaker 1: was at the heart of the Aguasasni conflict. Two rights
Speaker 1: belong to the individual or do they belong to the community.
Speaker 1: Kenneth Dear believes that those rights are best in the
Speaker 1: community and that Derek's case could do more harm than good.
Speaker 1: What is the risk of presenting a case of collective
Speaker 1: france as in the majority, because they judges could decide
Speaker 1: that a very bad judgment against them could affect all
Speaker 1: of Lolla Mohawks. You know, the judgment could say that
Speaker 1: the Mohawks do not have the collective right to transport
Speaker 1: of cigarettes over the border, and that would be you know, disastrous.
Speaker 1: You know if if a judgment said that, and particularly
Speaker 1: since the collective didn't make the argument. So if an
Speaker 1: individual uh makes the argument and loses, we all lose.
Speaker 1: If they if they think they phoned me guilty, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, the whole nation is going to suffer
Speaker 1: from this. I shouldn't be fighting this. It's it's the
Speaker 1: whole nation. It's the whole community of everywhere, every community
Speaker 1: in Canada and the United States. Basically, it's their fight.
Speaker 1: It's not mine. But I'm the only one that is
Speaker 1: bringing it to Supreme Court and fighting this. It was
Speaker 1: plain to see that Derek was not going to drop
Speaker 1: his case. He was going to fight it all the
Speaker 1: way to the end, come hell or high water. The
Speaker 1: Council of Chiefs had no choice but to take things further.
Speaker 1: They were going to do something that they've never done before.
Speaker 1: They demanded that the court allow them to intervene in
Speaker 1: the case against Derek. The judge agreed. Coming up next
Speaker 1: time on running smoke, I have to say the Nation
Speaker 1: Council's involvement in the case right from the start was
Speaker 1: damage control. It was how do we minimize the potential
Speaker 1: damage to this This court could do not our court,
Speaker 1: not our judge, not our law. Running Smokes a production
Speaker 1: of Campsite Media, Dan Patrick Productions and Workhouse Media. The
Speaker 1: series was written and reported by me Roger Golan. Our
Speaker 1: producers are Leah Papes, Lane Gerbig and Julie Denachet. Our
Speaker 1: editors are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez. Sound designed and
Speaker 1: original music by Mark McAdam. Additional sound and mixing by
Speaker 1: Ewen Lyon from Ewan. Additional reporting by Susie McCarthy. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Dan Patrick, Josh Dean of Campsie Media,
Speaker 1: Paul Anderson, Nick Vanella and Andrew Greenwood for Workhouse Media.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Mary Matthis and Angelie Mercado, artwork by
Speaker 1: Polly Adams, and additional thanks to Greg Horne, Johnny Kaufman,
Speaker 1: Sierra Franco, Elizabeth van Brocklin and Sean Flynn