8 KILLED CROSSING RIVER BY BOAT INTO US FROM CANADA, ILLEGALLY
-2 YEAR-OLD & INFANT AMONG DEAD
-KILLED WHILE CROSSING THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER IN BOAT FROM CANADA INTO THE US THROUGH THE AKWESASNE MOHAWK NATION IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
-TRAGEDY HIGHLIGHTS GROWING NUMBER OF PEOPLE ILLEGALLY ENTERING THE US FROM CANADA
Akwesasne Mohawk Nation volunteer fire/rescue searching for survivors in the St. Lawrence river, dividing Canada from the US. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
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AKWESASNE MOHAWK NATION:
Two families were killed attempting to illegally enter the US from Canada by crossing the freezing St. Lawrence River in a small boat Wednesday night. A two-year old child and an infant are among the dead, police said.
Police are hunting the suspected smuggler whose boat was found nearby.
"A total of eight bodies have now been recovered from the waters," Shawn Dulude, chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service, said at a news conference on Friday. "All are believed to have been attempting illegal entry into the United States from Canada. The circumstances surrounding their deaths continue to be investigated.”
The bodies belonged to two families, one Indian, the other Romanian. The children had Canadian citizenship. Police are waiting for test results to confirm cause of death. Hypothermia and drowning are likely causes. There’s still snow on the ground here. Most lakes and ponds remain iced over. Temperatures at night dip into the 20s and lower.
The 36-square mile Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne is an autonomous, sovereign state straddling the Canadian and American border on both sides of the St. Lawrence River in northern New York. The tribe had an armed confrontation with police in 1980 that the Christian Science Monitor called "the most serious Native American confrontation with law enforcement authorities since Wounded Knee."
Because of its unique position connecting Canada and the US, and the islands it occupies in the very wide, very deep, very powerful St. Lawrence river, Akwesasne has long been a smuggling route.
“Unfortunately, these situations happen. It’s not something new,” Dulude, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Chief, said on Friday.
What's new is the swelling number of people illegally crossing the border through the tribe's territory.
Photo Credit: Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service via Facebook.
80 people so far this year alone attempted to cross the border, that they know about. Tribal police warned residents about a "recent increase in illegal entries to community" Feb. 17. Human "smuggling is a crime" that impacts "the entire community of Akwesasne." The "nature of human smuggling" and freezing North Country weather "resulted in our first responders being put at risk when completing lifesaving events."
An Indian family of four including an infant froze to death trying to cross illegally from Canada into Minnesota last winter.
Police are also searching for Casey Oakes. The 30 year-old Akwesasne citizen was reported missing Thursday. He was last seen Wednesday night, "at approximately 9:30 pm, boarding a small, light blue coloured vessel departing from the East end of Cornwall Island," tribal police said in a news release.
While tribal police said they could not confirm a connection between the deaths and Oakes, the boat he was last seen in was recovered by police near where the bodies were found.
“It was a very small vessel, nothing fancy," Deputy Chief of Police Lee Ann O'Brien said. It "was placed in secure storage for further testing."
Oakes was charged in Canada in 2022 with operating “a conveyance in a manner that, having regard to all of the circumstances, is dangerous to the public." He was also out on bail for assault with a weapon.
Dulude, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service chief, could not say what killed the families but said no threat to the public existed. He also said police did not expect to recover additional bodies, but that the search for Oakes and an explanation continued.
"It could be anything that could have caused this tragedy," he said. "It could be a faulty boat, it could be human error, and the investigation will determine that."
America's northern border with Canada has received close attention lately after New York City Mayor Eric Adams bussed asylum seekers from the City close to an unofficial Canadian border crossing at Roxham Road in Quebec.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to stop asylum seekers from using unofficial border crossings last week. Those that do will be turned back. The agreement was enforced immediately.
Tribal police said the agreement had nothing to do with the deaths because they were trying to enter the US from Canada, not vice-versa.
"Right now what I can tell you is this has nothing to do with that closure," Deputy Chief O'Brien said.
What was a factor, she said, was the weather. Wednesday night “was very windy." That “was not a good time to be out in the water."
Mae Lazore lives along the St. Lawrence river where the bodies were found. The 58-year-old told the Montreal Gazette the smuggling had “been happening forever.” People get dropped off by boat along the river near her home all the time. A photograph of five people in a sinking boat circulating among the Akwesasne last year. They made it to shore, alive.
“It needs to stop, or calm down or something,” Lazore said. “It’s pretty upsetting to know a baby passed, and a little child."
The deaths in themselves were bad enough but what made them truly tragic was where the bodies were found: on the south side of the river.
They made it across from Canada. They died on America’s doorstep.
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