
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990                   TAG: 9004280119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. REGIS, N.Y.                                LENGTH: Medium

MOHAWKS FLEEING VIOLENCE

Some 2,000 Mohawk Indians began evacuating their reservation Friday to escape factional violence that has left roadways lined with burned cars, and residents, including children, armed with guns and bats.

Gov. Mario Cuomo, meanwhile, stood firm on his refusal to send New York State Police or National Guardsmen to restore order on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, despite pleas from one Indian leader and some outsiders. One man was critically injured in the violence and another was missing.

After a week of nightly confrontations between Indians who support casino gambling and bingo and those who oppose it, Canadian Mohawk leaders on Friday evacuated women, children and the elderly from the village of St. Regis to Cornwall, Ontario.

"It has become a very tense situation and we can no longer guarantee safety for our people," said Lloyd Benedict, chief of the Canadian band council.

About 5,000 Mohawks live in the Canadian sector of the reservation, and it's expected the evacuation will affect at least 2,000 of them, he said. The reservation's total population is about 14,000.

The recent violence began March 23, when Indians who oppose gambling set up roadblocks to keep outsiders off the reservation. They demanded tribe leaders address the gambling dispute and the presence of the Warrior Society, a heavily armed faction that has appointed itself the protector of Mohawk sovereignty.

Pro-gambling Mohawks tore down the blockades in a hailstorm of gunfire Tuesday night, but gambling has largely stopped since the barricades went up.

On Friday, the reservation straddling the Canadian border had the look of a war zone.

Burned cars lined the roads, most buildings had bullet holes or broken windows and residents, including children, were armed with guns or baseball bats.

State police warn outsiders to stay off the reservation.

The latest casualty of the long-running dispute was Brian Cole, one of the leaders of the blockades. He was in critical condition in Ottawa General Hospital Friday after his skull and jaw were fractured in a confrontation Thursday.

Relatives said Cole was helping search for Horace Cook, 50, who came as a representative of the Onondaga nation near Syracuse to help monitor the barricades at the request of the anti-gambling faction. Cook, a diabetic who doesn't see well, has been missing since Thursday.

Among those calling for intervention has been St. Regis Tribal Council Head Chief Harold Tarbell, who has asked for National Guardsmen to serve as peacekeepers.

by CNB