Editing St. Regis Mohawk Reservation (section)

==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]].<ref name="ictmn">{{cite web| url=http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412679 |title=BIA grant to help Akwesasne combat border drug smuggling |author=Shannon Burns|work=Indian Country Today |date=March 17, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927172544/http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412679 |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref> ''The New York Times'' covered this issue in February 2006 in an article headlined "Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/us/drug-traffickers-find-haven-in-shadows-of-indian-country.html Sarah Kershaw, "Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country"], ''New York Times'', 19 February 2006; accessed 20 January 2018</ref>

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]] 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]] Office of Legal Services, in order to "fight drug use, violent crime, and drug and human smuggling."<ref name="ictmn"/>

The [[FBI]] said that 300 people were caught illegally passing through the reservation from September 1995 to September 1996.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/14/nyregion/smuggled-aliens-now-cross-mohawk-land.html|title=Smuggled Aliens Now Cross Mohawk Land|first=Douglas|last=Martin|work=The New York Times |date=October 14, 1996|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref>

===Collection of state sales tax===
For decades New York state has threatened to collect [[sales tax]] from sales of gasoline and cigarettes on Native American reservations but has not done so.  The legislature often passes such a resolution<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/sales/pub750.pdf | title = Publication 750: A Guide to Sales Tax in New York State | publisher = New York State Department of Taxation and Finance}}</ref> 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 tax]]es; 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=8598 | title = New York Company States American Indians Supporting International Terrorists | work = American Chronicle | first = Mike | last = Graham | date = April 25, 2006 | access-date = October 7, 2007 | archive-date = March 13, 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070313021207/http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=8598 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

While the government officials argue, a [[Zogby poll]] commissioned in 2006 by the [[Seneca Nation of New York]], 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/taxgrab.html | first = David | last = Staba | title = Analysis | work = Niagara Falls Reporter | date = March 21, 2006 | access-date = February 25, 2010}}</ref>