INDIAN TIME - Vol. 23 #44 - Kentenko:wa / November 3, 2005 Edition 4

The following letter, dated October 12, 2005 was written by Grand Chief Angie Barnes and sent to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection:

Sekon / Greetings:

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne would like to respond to your Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding "Documents required for travel within the Western Hemisphere." (Docket ID USCBP-2005-005).

Unique Geographical Situation:

The Mohawks of Akwesasne are uniquely situated on islands and mainland between the United States and Canada. Older than both of these countries, the traditional homeland of this ancient pre-contact Mohawk community is currently dissected by the International border. To further complicate matters, two of the districts within our community that are located within "Canada" are only accessible by roads in the United States.

Daily Commutes:

Our people commute daily and even several times a day to carry on their normal routines and to carry on the daily business of living in this highly complex Akwesasne community.

Therefore, community members who need to travel to districts within the community for daily commutes such as school, health appointments, work, business, social gatherings, church, traditional ceremonies, and visiting relatives, must routinely travel through the US customs port at Rooseveltown/Massena N.Y. - often several times in a day.

Our police, ambulance, conservation, fire and emergency measures departments travel through customs - several times in a day.

Deliveries of goods and services essential to the operation of our grocery and convenience stores, governments, businesses, elders homes, elementary schools, day care facilities, youth group homes, health center and numerous other facilities - travel through Customs throughout the day.

Economic Impacts:

Regarding the delivery of goods and services to our community and within our community, the added costs of a passport, as well any added time delays or deterents to international travel, could have serious impacts on our local economy and would severely impact on our to sustain ourselves.

Identification:

We understand that a passport is currently treated as appropriate and satisfactory identification for crossing the US-Canada border. Though many of our people have utilized the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) passport for overseas travel in the past, most of the people in our community do not have passports.

Passports are quite expensive and call on individuals to undertake quite a lengthy procedure to obtain one. Not all of our community members, especially our numerous elders, will be able to afford this kind of identification. Some of our people may not be eligible for passports and some of our people may not be in favor of a Canadian or US passport simply because we do not regard ourselves as US or Canadian citizens.

Given all of the complications regarding passports, we believe that we may be able to support an identification card that our community members may embrace - in lieu of a passport. We will need a little time to develop a card that is accessible for your use as well as ours.

In the meantime, our community has a few forms of identification that should satisfy your needs in the interim. The Certificate of Indian Status Card issued by the Canadian Government, the Haudenosaunee "Red" Card, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Identification Card and the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Employee Identification Card should meet your needs until we have arrived at a mutually acceptable card.

Practical Measures:

There are going to be numerous examples where travelling with identification will not be practical and at this early date we will not be able to provide you with an all-encompassing list of the numerous circumstances where this could occur.

One example will be our school children. Given the large amount of very young children that travel on our school buses on a daily basis, we believe that some sort of accommodation must be made for their travel so that their trip is not unnecessarily delayed. It would not be prudent to have these 6 and 7 year olds carry their own identification and some accommodation will have to be made so that their daily commute does not be unduly extended.

Request For Public Hearing:

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne would like to request a public hearing, so that community members and local communities may express their opinions on crossing the border. It is our hope that you will take the time to hear the concerns and issues from the people directly impacted by your future decisions. Please contact us to discuss this further. Call Renee Sunday at 613-575-2348 or 613-551-6702.

Niawenkowa / Thank You

MOHAWK COUNCIL OF AKWESASNE