Bonus 2: Ganienkeh

In 1974, a handful of Mohawk Warriors crossed the Canadian border and occupied an abandoned Girl Scout camp in upstate New York. Their mission was to reclaim their ancestral homeland, and after three years of talks with the state government, they did just that.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Campsite Media. Hey everyone, we've got another bonus for you.
We'll be back to Derek's story next week, but right now,
I want to share a story I came across while
reporting the series. It's about a handful of Mohawk activists
back in the nineteen seventies who redefined what sovereignty could
look like. The battle they fought laid the groundwork for

(00:22):
the case that Derek is making today. Their story begins
at a small campground in the Adirondacks. Today, the Adirondacks
in Essex County, New York are only a day's drive
from home for half the people in the United States
and Canada. Reminds me of Switzerland. Moss Lake Camp is
tucked away at an inlet at Eagle Bay, surrounded on

(00:43):
all sides by forest and mountain range. It's that part
of Upper New York State where you can't find any
cell service and gas stations double as town squares, but
that's sort of what makes it a perfect getaway for canoeing, fishing,
and camping. And Scron Lake one of the most beautiful
of the hundreds of lakes dot the Adirondack landscape. Again,
I'm reminded of Switzerland. From the nine twenties all the

(01:05):
way through to the nineteen seventies, Moss Lake hosted a
girl Scout sleepaway camp. Thousands of girls would spend their
summer breaks riding horses, playing tennis, practicing archery, sailing boats,
and learning how to fence. Picture a perfect summer break postcard.
And that was Moss Lake well until Mohawk warriors from
Gonawaga arrived on winter and told the world that they

(01:26):
were taking their land back from Campside Media and Dan
Patrick Productions. This is Running Smoke. I'm Rogi Gola and
this is our second d tour episode, the Standoff. In
the course of reporting Running Smoke, I took a lot
of drives between New York City and Montreal. It's a

(01:48):
beautiful drive through the cat Skills and Adirondacks, with plenty
of tiny towns along the way. Before colonists arrived in
the America's this whole swath of wooded, mountainous land was
Mohawk territory for the most part. That history has been
totally wiped off the map, and just about all the
Mohawk territories and reservations around today are in Canada. But

(02:09):
on one of those drives, I took a small country
road lined with abandoned barnes and forest proper middle of nowhere,
and I ran across the sign that said Gnana Territorial
High Stakes Bingo and there was a line of cars
down the road for the smoke shop next door. Now,
I may be a simple city slicking podcaster, but there
seemed to be a story here. So I asked around

(02:30):
to see if there was anyone in Gnange that could
sit down with me and talk about the history of
the place. And that's how I was introduced to this
young man Um. My name is Rio de herne Um.
I currently live here in the community on Bear Klan
and I come from the family called Ryalwady told me
the story of Ganyange actually began in Gnawake, Derek's territory.

(02:55):
It was back in the late sixties and the community
was dealing with internal tensions. Mohawk people, the traditional long
house people there in Gonawaga, were having difficulty being able
to practice who they are. The traditional culture practiced the
long house and the laws and everything that um goes
along with being a traditional Mohawk Indian. Now, a lot
of Mohawk politics can get boiled down to divide in

(03:17):
the community between folks who ascribed to an older form
of Mohawk tradition and folks who split off from that
back in the eighteen hundreds. It's a million times more
complex and nuanced than that, of course, but for now,
that's the divide Gnawaga was dealing with. One large effect
of that split in the community was the presence of outsiders,
white people. The offshoot community was happy to intermarry with

(03:40):
white people and bring them onto the reserve, where as
the more traditional community wasn't quite on board with that.
There was maybe over a thousand um French people living
in the community of Gonawaga at the time, and you know,
the community was growing, and the long House people were saying, like,
you know, why are so many people, Why are so
many white people within our territory. You know, all our

(04:03):
all of our all of our lands have been taken
away from us, and we live on this little posted
postage stamp size of of land. And yet they still
they still want more, they still want to take that
from us. You know, it was an issue that has
divided the community for generations, and it is still immensely
controversial in modern gotwage politics. But back in the seventies
that question was amplified by the burgeoning Native rights movement

(04:26):
sweeping across North America from Wounded Knee. The occupation of
Wounded Knee ended yesterday on the Fifteen of the occupants
were arrested. The others were allowed to go. Breathe in

(04:52):
to Marlon Brando and Saggy Little's protests at the OSCARS
accepted the award for Marlon Brando and the Gut Brother
This Jock Little Feather. Hello, my name is Sashin Little Feather.
I'm APACHE and I'm president of the National Native American

(05:12):
Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening. The
reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians
today by the film industry excuse me and on television

(05:34):
and movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded
me the March on Washington, and the occupation of Alcatraz,
and so many more acts of defiance against an oppressive
system that had robbed Native Americans of their rights, dignity,
and ancestral lands. Doug George Canndio, a Mohawk journalist and historian,

(05:54):
was around when these things were all happening at that time.
Gonalaga was influenced by this, and they decided that they're
going to create something called a Warrior Society. The warriors
were a remnant of old Mohawk tradition and represented a
sort of Night's code for what a man should be
and how he should serve as community. It was a
revival of Mohawk pride. They're more protectors than anything else.

(06:17):
The name they use for warriors, let's calla gheta at
its root um refers to them providing, you know, that's
what they do. The elders need more wood for their fireplace,
the warriors will provide that. The garden needs tending. The
warriors can help. The protest needs to be organized. The
warriors got you. Warrior society needs symbols, It needs, you know,

(06:41):
things that they can show. And so Louis Hall Duchy,
who was an incredible artist and a great student of history, decides, well,
how do we do this? You know what symbols can
I come up with that that can we can use
that define us as a group that's willing to to
actually take a physical stand and fight. The flag featuring

(07:04):
a long haired man over a sunburst against a red
background became the symbol for resistance. It's the same flag
depicted on Derek White's car. The formation of the Mohawk
Warriors added fuel to the fire, and tensions in Gottawaga
boiled over on October fifte and so basically the Mohawk Uh,

(07:26):
the traditional traditional Mohawk people and all the other groups
kind of clashed. The traditional community of Gonawaga had issued
a notice for all outside people to leave the reserve,
and October fifteen was supposed to be the deadline. Of course,
things didn't pan out that way, and Mohawk Warriors staged
a protest that quickly turned violent. Newspapers at the time

(07:48):
called it the Siege at the Long House. So there
was a lot of fighting going on and it came
to the point where after one night it became very
very violent. There was like it was like kind of
like riots and um like police cars were being flipped
and stuff like that. The Montreal Star reported that supposed
outsiders were threatened, even though they lived in Gottawaga for generations.

(08:11):
Homes were set on fire and cops fired tear gas,
and once the dust settled, the traditional Mohawk people decided,
you know, there has to be a better way. They
didn't want to fight their their own people. So instead
of going back out to cause any more heartache, they
went to the Long House and they start having meetings.
They start having meetings what are we gonna do? Like,
how are we gonna approach this? Where are we gonna go?

(08:34):
So they decided that they needed their own place. So
some of the older people that were still alive at
that time basically said that, you know, we have all
of this land outside of this this community Gonawaga. We
have this land. We have to go back to it.
So the people decided, well, why don't we just do that,

(08:59):
We'll be right back. Yeah. They asked my brother and
a cousin of mine. Um, they were just teenagers to
enter this girl scult camp that they had found in
the western at run Ducks. And they went into the

(09:22):
camp and it had been, um a former girl scult camp,
and the girl scults left it and they went in.
The camp had actually been built in nineteen thirties as
a camp for Native boys and girls, a summer camp.
Here's how a booklet from one described the spot. Have
you ever dreamed of the spot? Far? From the madding crowd,

(09:44):
an ideal spot in the wilderness, away from the din
and dirt and the noise of the city and the
company with congenial friends. Wouldn't you like to know of
a spot so near that it's easily reached, so well
equipped that you can be as comfortable as at home,
and yet wild, beautiful and unspoiled. The traditionalists now had
a location to build their own community, but they were

(10:05):
wary of being stymied, not just by law enforcement but
their own community, so they kept the location a secret.
They didn't want anybody else to know, so everybody else
in the community of ghana Wage who was involved um
didn't know the location, and that was for security reasons.
They didn't want any policing agencies or anybody to get

(10:26):
win of this, just in case they would attempt to
stop them from from moving. They let out just enough
false information that the location was going to be in Vermont,
so it was a diversion. So in yeah, May thirteenth,
nineteen seventy three is when they ultimately decided to make
the move. So they had gathered at the two oh

(10:48):
seven long house in ghana Wage and they got all
the people there they packed up everything. Some people just
packed up whatever they could fit in their vehicle and
left everything behind house Ferner sure, everything just what they
could fit, and then they took off. Nobody knew this location,
but they just kept driving. The border between New York

(11:08):
State and Vermont. There was state police and different policing
agencies kind of set up along the border just to
catch anybody trying to come in, like any any any
Indians trying to come into the States. So while everybody
was looking over here, the rest of the traditional people
were moving in the opposite direction. They arrived about five
o'clock in the morning and it was raining. They just

(11:31):
arrived and they set up and they just slept in
there in their vehicles that night. In the morning when
they all woke up and they started exploring some of
the cabins and the the recreation hall I believe it
was was still was still there um and it was
scheduled to be torn down maybe a week later, and
it just you know, so they got lucky there and

(11:52):
they just went in and they occupied it. It seems
like a great fine, but they realized very quickly for
the first winter that this was not place where mawks
actually lived. They hunted, but it was too cold for
them to grow gardens, you know, to grow the things
they needed to sustain their lives. It's great for hunting

(12:12):
hulk or moose or whatever it was, but it wasn't
a place for mawks would established permanent villages. Hence the
whole summer camp thing. Winter camp just didn't work there.
So I heard one story that a woman donated two
horses to uh Lewis Hall and a couple of years
later asked how they how the horses treated them, and

(12:33):
he said they tasted good. Yeah, yeah, you know, things
are tough. So Moss Lake was cold as hell and
not the best for growing food, but there were still
advantages to the location. It was a tiny lake and
surrounding this lake was essentially like mountains, so it provided
a good protection, a good fortress for the people at

(12:55):
the time. Because it was there was a lot of roadblocks.
The state police where there, and you know, there was
tension there, you know, every day the people that the
people didn't know whether the police are gonna come in
or not or when, so they were on The tensions
were high for for quite some time, and so from

(13:16):
nineteen seventy three to nineteen seventy seven, um Ganyaga existed
in Eagle Bay, and throughout those three years there was
over two hundred negotiations between the State of New York, UM,
the federal government, and the people of Ganyaga about how
they're gonna how they're gonna deal with the situation. At first,

(13:37):
they just wanted to kick the people out of the territory.
But at the time the people were lucky because the
world was watching, so it kind of kept them back,
um from doing anything. So within that time they negotiated
back and forth, like whose land is it? Is it?
Is it the State of New York? Is it the
traditional people? And do you you The white people will say,

(14:01):
you know, you proved to us that this land belongs
to you. But the traditional people switched. They said, no,
this line belongs to us. We've been here since time memorial.
You proved to us that it belongs to you. And
so they were never able to prove the land belong
to them throughout those three years. That's what they tried
back and forth. They couldn't prove the land was theirs.

(14:23):
And even though it was never officially publicized, we are
are legitimate, we are correct that the land belongs to
us uh and it doesn't belong to the State of
New York where it does not belong to the federal government.
That's to me, is incredible that the traditionalists were successful

(14:44):
in getting the New York government, the American government to
grant them land rights of any kind, right, I mean,
just it seems extraordinary given the history. I don't know
any other examples where something like this has been successful, either,
do I. I don't know of any other examples right now,
any situation that anybody else has has been able to

(15:07):
pull off that similar to what Kanyanga has been able
to do. Um as with the the United States federal
government or New York State, it's not it's not that
they granted us. They were forced to acknowledge and give
us back our land, so we we just took it back.

(15:38):
You're listening to your running smoke. Once New York State
had agreed to return territories to the Mohawks, there's still
one more step left, actually returning the land. Turns out
it wasn't a straightforward hand over. The State of New
York had to figure out how they were going to
deal with the situation. How are they gonna deal with

(15:58):
it without having to tell the public. There are people
that the land doesn't belong to them. Uh So, in
order to save face, they basically created a trust, a
Turtle Island Trust is what it's called. And that was
a nonprofit organization that gang the people of Gunyaga and
the land can be put into. Uh So, it's not

(16:19):
taxed and it can't be touched. Part of this deal
with New York was that they needed a new location.
Most Lake was great, but completely unsustainable. They needed a
place that was better for agriculture and year round living.
They liked the location here, which is originally was called
Minor Lake. So they moved here in ninety seven. And

(16:41):
we're just simply moving from one part of our territory
to the other. All that land, all the the land
in the Adirondaic Mountains, nine million acres within New York
State is Mohawk land. We're not relinquishing that. And then
ever since we've been here, we've been kind of developing slowly.
Younge was founded on principles of true traditional Mohawk life, hunting, fishing,

(17:05):
and farming for your own food, real self sufficiency and
respect for the land. It was regarded by many mohawks,
is one of the few places where real mohawk life
could actually still be practiced. It was a place of
such purity that it even served as a drug and
alcohol rehab location for natives from around the country. But
even a community built on such strong principal tenants has

(17:27):
to make compromises somewhere just to survive in the modern world. So, um,
when we first got here, we didn't have very many
We didn't have you know, essentially, we didn't have any anything.
We're pretty poor, nom, no money whatnot. So a lot
of people would kind of give us donations food, um, clothing.

(17:47):
So with these donations, um, sometimes we would get other
things like beads or sometimes that women would buy beads
and and sewing thread and which they started making craft
And so with they started making crafts and selling it.
They made the money from the crafts, and that's what
they put towards the cigarettes. And so they would buy
like one case of cigarettes at a time, and they

(18:08):
would travel back and forth from Guanyanga to Akwazasne getting
the one case of cigarettes today, so they would sell that.
Then they would take that money and go buy another
case and next you know, it was like two cases,
then it was three, and so on and so forth,
until you know, we were getting many, many cases of
cigarettes and that's how our cigarette business started. One of

(18:29):
the first things that was built here was the Bengal
Holl to help generate some income so we can start
moving forward with the projects that we needed to get
done or what the projects that we felt most important
portant to us. Since then, we've we've developed, UM, we
have a gas station over here, we have a small

(18:49):
holistic center, m we have a golf course that's being developed.
The first nine is pretty well developed. They're they're working
on the back nine right now. And yeah, and then
we were once we got enough money, we were able
to build a school. I think they were altered. There
could have been alternatives. We didn't need to fixate on tobacco.

(19:11):
We didn't need it was it was the thing that
produced a great deal of profit, and it did so
fairly quickly. The same with the Bengal Hall. And UH.
The traditional rules UH say that we're not supposed to
get involved with that commercial activity because it brings harm
to people. You know, it creates an addiction and it
exploits people. The weakness. It's based on greed, and the

(19:33):
same with tobacco, as I mentioned before, because it is
a sacred thing. There were I think that we're alternatives
to doing this, but I think people by that time,
you know, we're geared towards a high profit at that
minimum effort, and so that's what they that's what they did.
But forty three years later they're still there. So I
give him enormous credit. It's not a community where you

(19:55):
have one or two people that have all the money.
You know that it's fairly share. It's share or do
I think fairly equitabilia for whoever loves here. So that's
that's actually a good example of all thinks these things
can be done. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next
week with the final episode of Running Smoke. Running Smokes

(20:22):
a production of Campsite Media, Dan Patrick Productions, and Workhouse Media.
The series was written and reported by me Roger Gola.
Our producers are Leah Papes, Blaine Gerbig, and Julie Dennischet.
Our editors are Michelle Lands and Emily Martinez. Sound designed
and original music by Mark McAdam, additional sound and mixing
by Ewen Lyone from Ewan, additional reporting by Susie McCarthy,

(20:44):
our executive producers or Dan Patrick, Josh Deano camp said,
Media Paul Anderson, Nicknella, and Andrew Greenwood for workhouse media,
fact checking by Mary Matthis and Angelie mccotty, artwork by
Polly Adams, and additional thanks to Greg Horne Johnny Kaufman.
Sierra Franco Blue has been Van Brocklyn and Shawn Flynn

(21:06):
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