St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (; ) is a Mohawk

Indian reservation An American Indian reservation is an area of land land tenure, held and governed by a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States#Description, U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose gov ...

of the

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, located in

Franklin County, New York Franklin County is a County (United States), county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. To the north across the Canada–United States border are the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, from east to ...

, United States. It is also known by its Mohawk name, ''

Akwesasne The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne ( ; ; ) is a Mohawk Nation (''Kanienʼkehá:ka'') territory that straddles the intersection of international (United States and Canada) borders and provincial (Ontario and Quebec) boundaries on both banks of the St ...

''. The population was 3,288 at the 2010 census. The reservation is adjacent to the Akwesasne reserve in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

( Akwesasne 59) and

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

() across the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

. The Mohawk consider the entire community to be one unit and have the right to travel freely across the international border.

Location

The reservation contains the community of St. Regis and borders the community of Hogansburg in the Town of

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

. The Mohawk people dispute the Town of Bombay's claim to jurisdiction within the "Bombay Triangle", as these lands are part of the 1796 Treaty with the United States and have never been diminished by the US Congress. Under the terms of the

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

(1794), the Mohawk people may pass freely across the

Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...

. The two parts of the reservation are separated by the

and the 45th parallel. The Mohawk are one of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois League, historically based south of the Great Lakes and in present-day New York and Pennsylvania. This nation was located primarily in the Mohawk Valley west of what developed as Albany and were known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door". They were prepared to defend the Iroquoian territory against other tribes located to the east of the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. The St. Regis Reservation, and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal government, adopted

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

in the 1980s. It has generated deep controversy. Broadly speaking, the elected chiefs and the Mohawk Warrior Society have supported gambling, while some traditional leaders have opposed it. Today, the reservation is home to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino, which has generated revenues for tribal welfare. The elected tribal governments on the New York and Canadian sides and the traditional chiefs of Akwesasne often work together as a "Tri-Council" concerning areas of shared interest, for example to negotiate land claims settlements with their respective national governments. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and the Mohawk people view the reservation as a

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

nation. Under US treaty law, the federal government has jurisdiction over certain crimes on the reservation, but the Mohawk have their own police force for other cases.

Geography

The reservation is at the international border of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

along the St. Lawrence River. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the Indian reservation has a total area of . of it is land, and of it (9.76%) is water. It is bordered by the New York towns of Fort Covington (east),

(south), Brasher (southwest), and Massena (west), and by the

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

to the north in the Canadian provinces of

and

. The nearest city is

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the U.S. state of New York (state), New York converge. It is Ontario's easternmost city. Although it is the seat of the United ...

, which lies to the northwest, across the Akwesasne Reserve. In August 2021, the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation acquired 41.5 acres in

History

The original settlement was known as

, called Saint Régis by French Jesuit missionaries, after Jean François Régis, the priest canonized as a Catholic saint in 1737. He had expressed a desire to be a missionary to the Iroquois people.William C. Sturtevant, ''Handbook of North American Indians'', 1978, p473. Quote: "It was named Saint Regis in memory of Jean Francois Regis, a French ecclesiastic canonized in 1737 who before his death in 1640 at the age of 43 had wanted to become a missionary to the Iroquois (Hough 1853:113-114)." The settlement was founded about 1755 by several Catholic

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

families, primarily Mohawk, who moved upriver from the mission village of Caughnawaga, Quebec (now known as Kahnawake), which was south of Montreal. They were seeking better lives for their families, as they were concerned about negative influences of traders at Caughnawaga, who plied the Mohawk with rum. The Mohawk families were accompanied by Jesuit missionaries from Caughnawaga. After the United States acquired this territory in settlement of its northern border, relations among the people and the varying jurisdictions became more complex. But according to the 1795

settling the border, the Mohawk retained the right to travel freely across the border in either direction. Since the reservation was established, the Mohawk on both sides of the St. Lawrence River have lost land and been adversely affected by major infrastructure projects conducted by state and federal authorities. These include construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway, what is now known as the Three Nations Crossing bridge, and dams on the rivers for hydroelectric power projects. Since 1762, mills and dams were built by private, non-Native interests on the St. Regis River at what developed as the village of Hogansburg. It is now within the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. In 1929 Erie Boulevard Hydropower built an 11-foot-high dam at the site to generate hydroelectric power. It disrupted the annual

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

fish run from the St. Lawrence, depriving the citizens of the reservation of one of their staple foods. The dam adversely affected the populations of salmon and other migratory fish. By 2010 the dam had become uneconomical. It would have cost too much to upgrade, which would have included current requirements to provide for fish passage in efforts to preserve the species. The owner gave up its federal license. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal government applied to the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates the interstate transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas and regulates the prices of interstate transport ...

to take over and dismantle the dam, which they did in 2016. Based on restoration of fisheries after such dam removals in other locations across the country, they are optimistic that salmon and other migratory fish, such as

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

, will quickly return to the region. Thus 275 miles of the St. Regis River has been reopened to migratory fish that spend part of their lives in the Atlantic Ocean.Karen Graham, "Hogansburg Hydroelectric Dam Taken Down by Native American Tribe"
''Digital Journal'', 11 December 2016; accessed 20 January 2018 In 2013 the tribe received a $19 million settlement from " GM,

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...

, and Reynolds for pollution of tribal fishing and hunting grounds along the St. Lawrence River". The companies have undertaken cleanup of the pollution. The tribe intends to use this money to redevelop the former dam site as "the focus of a cultural restoration program that will pair tribal elders with younger members of the tribe to restore the Mohawk language and pass on traditional practices such as fishing, hunting, basket weaving, horticulture and medicine, to name a few."

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 2,699 people, 904 households, and 668 families residing in the Indian reservation within the US boundary. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 142.2/mi² (54.9/km²). There were 977 housing units at an average density of 51.5/mi² (19.9/km²). The racial makeup of the Indian reservation was 97.41% Native American, 2.07%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.07% from other races, and 0.44% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.74% of the population. There were 904 households, out of which 44.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 23.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.0% were non-families. 22.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.97 and the average family size was 3.44. In the Indian reservation, the population was spread out, with 34.1% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 18.1% from 45 to 64, and 7.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.2 males. The median income for a household in the Indian reservation was $32,664, and the median income for a family was $34,336. Males had a median income of $27,742 versus $21,774 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the Indian reservation was $12,017. About 19.4% of families and 22.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 31.3% of those under age 18 and 14.9% of those age 65 or over.

Controversies

Drug and human smuggling

Because of the latitude of this area, rivers freeze in winter, providing shortcuts for the Mohawk crossing the international border. These conditions also make the border more porous for smugglers of many items, including liquor, cigarettes, drugs, and people, including

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

. ''The New York Times'' covered this issue in February 2006 in an article headlined "Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country". The Akwesasne police and government spokespersons have defended their work, saying they have had to take on an unfair federal burden of border enforcement while not receiving additional funding. Due to a quirk in the law, they were not eligible to receive grants from the federal

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

that were available to local jurisdictions to support the extra work at the border. The chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk police noted that drug smuggling was a problem that extended along the Canada–US border and was not limited to Akwesasne. In March 2006, the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation was awarded a $263,000 grant from the US

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

Office of Legal Services, in order to "fight drug use, violent crime, and drug and human smuggling." The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

said that 300 people were caught illegally passing through the reservation from September 1995 to September 1996.

Collection of state sales tax

For decades New York state has threatened to collect

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

from sales of gasoline and cigarettes on Native American reservations but has not done so. The legislature often passes such a resolution but the federally recognized tribe says that it has sovereign authority on its reservation and does not need to collect the state tax. New York residents often fail to report their applicable use taxes; this has become a problem both here and at areas surrounding other Indian reservations across New York. Merchants near the reservations complain that the tax-free sales constitute an unfair advantage for Native American-owned businesses. The Mohawk frequently respond that this is their only advantage, as they have suffered from centuries of discrimination and being dispossessed of their land. While the government officials argue, a Zogby poll commissioned in 2006 by the

Seneca Nation of New York The Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized Seneca tribe based in western New York. They are one of three federally recognized Seneca entities in the United States, the others being the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (also in western New ...

, who are also Iroquoian and allies of the Mohawk, showed that 79% of New York residents did not think sales taxes should be collected from reservation sales.

Education

Salmon River Central School District covers the whole St. Regis Mohawk Reservation.
Text list
/ref>
Text list
/ref> The district has one school on the reservation: * St. Regis Mohawk School - Pre-K to grade 6 - It is located on the reservation property. The State of New York owns the building and provides repairs, while the school district staffs the school and provides operational services. The zoned secondary schools of the Salmon River district are Salmon River Middle School and Salmon River High School.

In popular culture

* The reservation is the setting for the movie '' Frozen River'' (2008). It depicts smuggling of illegal immigrants by Mohawk and associated Americans across the Canada–US border. The film was shot in

Plattsburgh, New York Plattsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The population of the sur ...

. * The reservation was the setting for the first, original '' Tom Swift'' children's book series (1910–1941). * The tribe was featured in Season 2, Episode 5 of the CBS drama '' FBI: Most Wanted'', where a racist militia takes up arms against the tribe to defend the US border.

Patent income

In 2017, the tribe entered into an agreement with

Allergan Allergan plc is an American, Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops, manufactures and markets brand name drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system, and gastroenterology. ...

Plc, under which Allergan transferred intellectual property rights to the drug Restasis to the tribe in an attempt to shield those patent rights from legal challenges. Allergan will pay the tribe $13.75 million, plus $15 million a year in annual revenues. On February 23, 2018, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office deemed the Restasis patents invalid and rejected the St Regis Tribe's ability to use sovereign immunity to protect the Restasis patents. Following the announcement, both Allergan and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe appealed the ruling.

References

External links

*
Tribal Constitution

"Saint Regis Mohawk First Tribe Approved for Clean Air Plan"
Environment News Service
Akwesasne Cultural Center, Library and Museum

Mohawk Casino

Mohawk Bingo Palace and class II Casino
* Moore, Evan.
Gambling, murder split reservation 'It's nothing but a damn war zone'
, ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'', 6 May 1990. A1. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation, New York Akwesasne American Indian reservations in New York (state) Canada–United States border Federally recognized tribes in the United States Geography of Franklin County, New York Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe New York (state) populated places on the Saint Lawrence River Environmental racism in the United States