On December 26, Boxing Day, the opponents in the struggle decided to hold fight matches in local bars around Akwesasne, called St. Regis Indian Reserve by the Great White Papa. The supporters of the traditional cause were attacked allegedly by members of the Akwesasne Indian Police Force in a bar known as Tootsies. A free for all erupted at Tatlock's bar in Hogansburg, a white man's town situated on the Indian Reserve. In 1824, the St. Regis Trustees leased a piece of land to a sharpie named Hogan so he could use the water falls to run a saw mill. The Indians never could get the land back. Now, there's a tavern in the town and the Indians get patronized in the place. On this particular second night of Christmas, the anti-traditional Mohawks, besides beating up on the traditionals or trying to, also put the tavern to the torch. The owner in a TV interview said he got a phone call from the group called "vigilantes" and was told he was next. So, his dispensary of the brimming cup that cheers was burned down to the ground.

About 2:30-3:00 a.m. on that same night, some fifty shots were fired at the Thompson residence at Racquette Point which was a fortified place for a year and a half. After firing this cannonade with an automatic rifle, the assailant or assailants vanished in to the darkness. Next morning, two tipsy gunmen arrived at the fortifications brandishing guns and threatening the traditional people in full view of the police. They were quickly disarmed and beaten up by the traditionals. Their guns were taken away by the police who were conveniently handy for ballistics tests. Two days later, both were arrested. They were identified as Bill Sears, who is the leader of the vigilante group and Mike Garrow, a member of the Akwesasne Indian Police Force.

They were released on their own recognizance without having to post a bond (after shooting at people). There is also a hand gun charge for which a mandatory one year jail sentence is imposed. That is being set aside and the two gunmen are free to prowl the nights. According to witnesses, the vigilante group was allegedly organized by Major Schneeman, Commander of the Franklin County State Troopers. Bill Sears is the alleged leader of the vigilantes. Mike Garrow is a member of the Akwesasne Indian Police Force, funded by the government and the said Police Force has been proven to be illegal according to New York State law. They are, however, helping the government's policy of assimilation for Indians. And that makes a difference. The law can be ignored to help the Indian along the road to extinction.

The equipment given to the illegal Indian Police Force is not ordinarily given to municipal police forces, but to riot squads. It is the same as a regiment of soldiers preparing for battle. Who is the enemy? Standing in the way of assimilating the Indians into the mainstream of white society and fighting and resisting this genocide are the Indians known as traditionals. They are not restricted to the Mohawk Nation. Indian traditionalism is growing all over the continent. Their aim and goal is to regain lost human rights, land, governments and their own society. Every one in the world has these rights. The sophisticated arms and equipment being given the illegal Indian along the road to extinction.

The situation also provides an exercise in statistics. The usual ratio of police to the population is one officer to 1,500 people. The American sector of the Akwesasne reserve is estimated to have a population of two thousand five hundred people. So far, a total of twenty-two police officers have been appointed to equal the ratio of one for every 124 people. Officials being questioned about this lopsided ratio admit that no other community anywhere has so many policemen for the population. It's making a lot of people think. Why the disproportionate ratio? Add to that the "Concerned Citizens" who are also called "vigilantes" but in other places would be called a goon squad as a back up force for the illegal Indian Police Force. They have been said to number 80. This further increases the ratio to one law enforcer for every 241/2 persons. It logically indicates a police state.

How were the self called Indian citizens induced to join such an illegal group as a band of vigilantes? A member of the vigilantes was quoted in a news interview as saying "we are fighting against paganism." We thought the Crusades went out of style with the Inquisition. The vigilantes at Akwesasne are way behind the times. Now, boys, there is supposed to be freedom of religion in the U.S.A. It's against the law to use a gun on a feller because of his religion. He may even worship the devil if he wants to. The United States Constitution protects him. There is no longer "Death to infidels!" This is democracy. Freedom of speech, religion, etc.

There is also no discrimination for Caughnawaga has its own disproportionate ratio of policemen to its population. They have 12 officers to police 5,000 people. And more in training, they proudly say. Only difference in Akwesasne is that officialdom is more subtle. Police brutality is more restrained. One might even say refined. In Akwesasne, the police run roughshod over the people. In Caughnawaga, the finest walk more softly so as not to awaken the sleeping lion until the last moment when it's a "fait accompli) (accomplished fact). They, too, are armed with the latest and best. What Uncle Sam does, kid brother Canada follows.

Word has come down the line that the new United States Great White Father Ronald Reagan is bad news for Indians. He has a new man for Interior by the name of Watts. He was asked if he intended to follow Reagan's policy on American Indians. He said: "Positively - without reservation." He means Indians will be without reservations after. Is there any connection between this ominous threat and the build up of Indian police forces on reservations? Are Indians going to be used to finished off their own people? We haven't heard of other beefed up Indian police forces on other reservations being armed with the latest and the best. It would be interesting to compare notes with other reservations. Maybe, only Mohawks are being singled out for loving attention because they're expected to provide the hardest resistance so they are in the process of being softened up already. Let's hope all the Indians turn lions and surprise the destroyers of races.

Last summer, the combatants, traditional and anti-traditional Mohawks were advised by the State, a judge and carious sundry scholars of Indian affairs, to sit down and talk it over and come to a peaceful settlement. The dispute is ideological and the Indians are expected to succeed where Ireland, Korea, Vietnam, India and other places, plagued with ideological disputes, failed to settle the said ideological disputes which were ripping their countries apart. The dispute in Ireland is over 800 years old. There were many attempts to settle. The schism in the Christian church is even longer. The Eastern Orthodox Church cannot come to an agreement with the western Roman Catholic Church. The two sides believe differently. India had to be partitioned. North Korea for the communists and South Korea for the Capitalists. Vietnam, after a thousand months of warfare (more than 80 years) had to be divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. According to this formula to settle ideological differences, Akwesasne shall have to be divided into East Akwesasne and West Akwesasne in order to have peace. Two sets of opposing beliefs, like oil and water, cannot mix. The ideological difference in Akwesasne is deeper. In Ireland, the Protestants and Catholics are agreed on one belief, to get together and fight the traditional Mohawks because they are "pagans".

That is "belief"? Belief is an acceptance of anything as trustworthy or real. Belief is an opinion. To believe is to take anything as real or true. To believe is to assume, to support, to have faith in. Faith is to believe in something that has no proof. In the long history of these kinds of disputes, people in Ireland, India, Korea, Vietnam and Akwesasne, have been slaughtered, shot at and more shall be slaughtered and shot at in the future because of supposes, assumptions, opinions, guesswork, doctrines which have no evidence to support them. When they acquire evidence, they shall no longer be beliefs for them they shall become knowledge. Belief can cause trouble. Judges and juries have condemned people to death because they believed them guilty of murder. It later transpired when knowledge was acquired that other people were guilty of the crime. Judge and jury hanged the wrong person because the believed him guilty and did not know he was not. Belief is not knowledge. The vigilantes at Akwesasne are moving against their own people because of beliefs and they include hell, devils, purgatory, etc. People will tell you in no uncertain terms that you gotta prove what you're saying before they accept it, yet the same people will believe in hell, devils, purgatory, without demanding that proof be produced for such things and beings. No one has ever come back from such places to tell us about it. People are being used and exploited because of their beliefs. Not only in Akwesasne but everywhere there are unscrupulous people ever on the lookout for victims who will believe in anything. Before going any further, the crusading vigilantes at Akwesasne should demand that their masters produce evidence to prove that what they are making them believe are real and true. Because of it they are being used to help the oppressors who are engaged in the genocide of the Indian race. To help their own people become extinct as well as themselves.