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Indians Fight For Freedom: "Ganienkeh"

By VVAW

In the Adirondack Mountains, between the town of Eagle Bay, New York and a large tract of state-owned land being "developed" by the International Paper Company, there presently exists the independent Native American state of Ganienkeh. The Mohawks and other Native Americans from over fifty Indian nations spread across the US, Canada, and South America have held the land since May of last year. While no outsiders really know how many people are inside Ganienkeh, it is obvious that the newspapers' estimates of 30-90 people are a gross underestimate.

Threats, Bullets, Warrants

the nine months which have passed since they moved in, the Native Americans of Ganienkeh have been harassed by snipers, police threats, warrants, and the commercial press.

Beginning in July, there was a series of eleven incidents in which residents of Ganienkeh were fired upon by passerby. On one occasion, a passing jeep fired rounds at a woman, at which the time the jeep's license number was reported to the State Police. The police responded with, "Nothing we can do. It's hunting season." Such attacks intensified on the 26th of October which caused the Native Americans to return fire when fired upon on Oct. 28th. Tow people were wounded by the Indians. One of these was a child, and the State Police allegedly found no weapons in the car the child was in; even though the Indians maintain they were fired upon from that car.

The incident was jumped on by the local press, paper company and the state. What followed were more harassment, search warrants, and threats from police. One on occasion when the Indians cited the provisions of the 1794 treaty, they were told to "remember Attica." The Syracuse chapter of VVAW/WSO, which has been building mass support and providing food, clothing, and other supplies for Ganienkeh, was present as observers when a warrant was to have been served "peacefully" by the state of New York, with trooper cars and police helicopters! When the Indians objected to the intense surveillance, the Herkimer County DA reclined the warrant and asked the federal government to intervene.

The land, presently under control of the Indians, was stolen by means of an illegal land deal in 1797, when this country was in its early stages of expansion and exploitation. Now that the US is one of the world's imperialist superpowers, it is still the rich man's laws which again threaten the Native American's lives, land and culture.

The people of Ganienkeh are attempting to live on their stolen ancestral land. There has been little publicity on Ganienkeh since the October 28th shootings and there probably won't be any until the government prepares a siege. Now is that time to spread the word of the peoples' struggle near Eagle Bay. The struggle at Ganienkeh will not be won by the Native Americans alone; they must have the support of all people. Only by uniting will any of us ever be free of the rich man's law.

DEFEND GANIENKEH