The American democratic experiment has been an object of fascination since its infancy. Pretending to study the penitentiary system, French magistrates and aristocrats Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont traveled across the United States in 1831 and 1832 to see it up close. They observed in this country not only “its inhabitants, its cities, its institutions, its customs” but also “the mechanism of its republican government.” Tocqueville drew two emblematic works from this 10-month stay: On Democracy in America And Fifteen days in the desert. The Duty followed in their footsteps, 193 years later, at a time when this democracy seems more threatened than ever. Second stop: the territories of the Cayugas and the Senecas, in the State of New York.
By weakening the feeling of homeland among the Indians of North America, by dispersing their families, by obscuring their traditions, by interrupting the chain of memories, by changing all their habits, and by increasing their needs beyond measure, European tyranny has made them more disordered and less civilized than they already were. The moral and physical condition of these peoples has continued to worsen.
Crossing New York State from east to west in the summer of 1831, Tocqueville and Beaumont discovered with dismay a region inhabited “by a few ragged savages who inspire more pity than fear.” Nearly two centuries later, descendants of these Natives are still working to reclaim their ancestral lands.
Among them, businesswoman Missy Barringer is calling on her fellow citizens of the Cayuga nation, now scattered across the United States, to make the land of their ancestors flourish in the Finger Lakes region, south of Lake Ontario.
When Europeans arrived in America, this region was the homeland of the Haudenosaunee, the Iroquois confederacy, which included the Cayuga and Seneca. When the Revolutionary War broke out, Iroquois fought on both sides. But after attacks by Iroquois allied with the British, General George Washington ordered reprisals, particularly against the Cayuga. “They burned everything. They killed everybody,” says Missy Barringer. Women from each of the matrilineal clans—bear, heron, snipe, turtle, and wolf—were sheltered in a ravine between Cayuga and Owasco lakes, then on Seneca territory two days’ walk away. Survivors of the attacks fled and scattered across the continent.
Elevated to President of the United States, George Washington recognized in 1794, through the Treaty of Canandaigua, the reservation of the people of the Great Swamp (name given to the Cayuga nation).
George Washington had declared in an address to members of Congress that he was “of [leur] honor to treat [les nations autochtones] with kindness and even with generosity” since they are “more enlightened and more powerful”, notes Alexis de Tocqueville in On Democracy in America“This noble and virtuous policy has not been followed,” he noted during his visit.
The passionate reader ofAtala by François-René de Chateaubriand and the Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper says he “never experienced a more complete disappointment” than at the sight of Native Americans lining up in downtown Buffalo to receive payment for the land they had surrendered to the United States. “An ancient people, the first and rightful masters of the American continent, are melting away every day like snow in the rays of the sun and disappearing before our eyes from the face of the Earth,” he laments in his account. Fifteen days in the desert. In the same places and in its place, another race is growing with even greater rapidity. Through it the forests fall; the marshes dry up, lakes resembling seas, immense rivers oppose in vain its triumphant march. Each year the deserts become villages, villages become cities. Daily witness of these marvels, the American sees in all this nothing that astonishes him. This incredible destruction, this still more surprising increase seems to him the usual course of events.
“Believe me, we’ve been fighting for years to get our own land back without having to buy it back,” says Missy Barenger, nearly two centuries later. The president and CEO of Lakeside Enterprises is urging New York State and the United States to once and for all recognize the Cayuga Nation’s sovereignty over some 260 square kilometres — an area about the size of the city of Laval — on the shores of finger-shaped lakes. “Since we’re not winning that battle right now, we’re buying what we can at the seller’s price, piece by piece,” she adds, estimating that less than 10 square kilometres of land have been purchased by Cayugas so far.
To get there, the Cayuga Nation is working to get convenience stores, casinos and cannabis dispensaries rolling on its territory. “We had to start businesses to generate money, buy homes and bring people back,” the businesswoman says.
According to her, 50 to 75 Cayugas have returned from exile so far. “People are slowly coming back after being scattered for hundreds of years… We have citizens in almost all 50 states in the United States!”
Cayugas, Senecas, same fight
Rebecca Bowen looks at a portrait of her ancestor Cornplanter (1752-1836). The Six Nations war chief who fought and later recognized the general-turned-president is the star attraction at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca, a 75-minute drive south of Buffalo. “He was a huge part of our history. He helped us get through this.” [de la Révolution américaine]”He was very respected,” she says at the foot of an obelisk erected in his honor.
Along with dozens of other Seneca descendants and elected officials, the septuagenarian is helping to open the Cornplanter exhibit. Thanks to him and others, including Quaker allies, many Senecas and Cayugas were able to remain on the banks of the Allegheny River, on a strip of land straddling the New York-Pennsylvania border, in relative indifference until the construction of the Kinzua Dam in the 1960s. Others left to make their lives west of the Mississippi River, hence the existence of a small Seneca and Cayuga territory in Oklahoma.
Approved by President John F. Kennedy on the recommendation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the construction of the Kinzua Dam forced 700 Seneca to relocate. The Bowen family reluctantly left Red House for Salamanca, to the north, in 1965. “Our houses were burned, our churches were burned. The feds came and burned them,” says the University at Buffalo history graduate, recalling images of her relatives being moved, ostensibly to avoid being swallowed up by the dam’s floodwaters. “It’s something that stays with you for the rest of your life.”
Treaties that are supposed to recognize the sovereignty of indigenous nations are no match for decisions by the United States Congress, she laments, like Missy Barenger.
Rebecca Bowen will not vote in the upcoming presidential election because she says she belongs to “a sovereign nation” with its “own government” and its own relationship with the U.S. government. But that doesn’t stop her from hoping Democrat Kamala Harris wins against Republican — and “very bad businessman” — Donald Trump on Nov. 5. “Long before he got involved in politics, he had confrontations with indigenous people. He didn’t like the fact that First Nations could build casinos, etc. He saw it as unfair competition,” she says in front of signs recalling Cornplanter’s military exploits.
“If Kamala Harris becomes president, I would like her to make an executive decision and say, ‘Come back [dans vos terres ancestrales] ! No one will bother you.” That would be wonderful,” she said.
Nearby, Ryleigh John smiles broadly. The biology student at the University of Albany had learned a few hours earlier that she, too, was a descendant of Cornplanter. “My father only told me today,” she says, her eyes amused.
Unlike many Seneca citizens, who flatly refuse to participate in any election other than those organized by their nation, the 21-year-old woman intends to have a say in the choice of the next president of the United States. She wants to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House and the appointment of new justices to the United States Supreme Court who could erode the ancestral rights of First Nations. “A lot of Indigenous people are afraid that more conservative justices on the Supreme Court will overturn decisions that are very important for Indigenous rights,” such as the right of Indigenous children to be placed primarily within their families and tribal communities, “where their cultural identity will be understood and celebrated.”
“I’ll definitely vote,” says Johnna Crous, after joining in the discussion. Then, as if she couldn’t help it, she adds: “I don’t like Trump. And Trump doesn’t like Indians. He’s full of prejudices.”
Many raised eyebrows when he hung in the Oval Office a portrait of his predecessor Andrew Jackson, known for giving more power to the “common man” — and for authoring the Indian Removal Act, which ordered the forced removal of Native Americans west of the Mississippi River.
In Buffalo, Alexis de Tocqueville had seen a Native American lying on the side of the road, drunk. “A few muffled moans […] were struggling to escape from his chest,” he reported. Fearing for his life, he called for help from the pioneers. “What is the life of an Indian?” “The real owners of this continent are those who know how to take advantage of its riches,” they replied to the outraged French aristocrat.
In addition to fighting for recognition of their sovereignty, the “Great Mountain People” are also fighting to renew the operating permits for their three casinos, says a member of the Seneca Nation in the next room where a buffet is being offered. “Have I talked too much?” she asks her tablemates. “No!” Relieved, she bites into a “Buffalo bite” and takes a sip of strawberry juice.
A voice comes from the room. “There’s plenty of food left. Take some home. We have Tupperware dishes for you!”
This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-The Duty.