Eastern Door Volume 7 Number 3

Volume 7 Number 3

February 13, 1998

Dinner Theatre Gearing Up
KJETA training program offers job opportunities
By: Kenneth Deer

Kahnawake Tourism is taking a big step towards opening a dinner theatre at the Kateri Hall.

The dinner theatre is a pilot project to prepare and train staff for the planned Mohawk Cultural Dinner Theatre at the new hotel/lodge.

"We are gearing up for a full scale cultural dinner theatre and this project will show us where our strengths are; if there are any weaknesses we can work on them now instead of after the big theatre opens," said Joel Jacobs, Tourism Manager.

There are job postings for waiters/waitresses, cooks/kitchen helpers, a reservation clerk and a sales/promotion position by KJETA. Deadline for applications is February 20. Training will begin in March and continue until May when the dinner theater is expected to open.

There will be another posting later for a six member dance troupe to provide entertainment.

The Mohawk Dinner Attraction, as it is called, will seat 220 people who will be served three courses of authentic Mohawk recipes and accompanied by authentic Mohawk songs and dances.

A typical agenda will begin with an introduction and opening prayer, demonstration of a Smoke Dance, the serving of the first of the first course of a Three Sisters Salad, a demonstration Stick Dance, the serving of a main course of breast of chicken, wild rice, and succotash, a demonstration of the Raccoon Dance, the serving of a Pumpkin Mousse dessert with coffee, a Challenge Dance when guests will be asked to dance and a Dream Catcher presentation to a selected guest.

The show should last from one and a half to two hours.

Marketing

The target groups for these shows are the large tours from Montreal. Jacobs says that marketing the show will be a little difficult since many tours for this summer were sold last year. The sales people will have to have their work cut out for them to attract tours this summer.

The dinner theatre will only operate when there are enough customers to make a show profitable. It is not designed to operate like a restaurant, it will only accept large pre-bookings. It is estimated that it will take at least two bus loads of tourists, possibly more, to make it worthwhile to prepare the food and pay the employees.

"We don't expect to be open every evening. It will take a while for our dinner theatre to become well known. We have already had some inquiries from tour operators and we have some bookings. We have also been asked if we can take the show on the road and that's something we will have to look into," said Jacobs.

Garry Barone has been hired as the General Manager/Chef and will be responsible for the day to day operations of the dinner theatre. He will also be heavily involved in the training of the staff.

Barone reports to Jacobs who is responsible to the Plans Approval Group (PAG) made up of Grand Chief Joe Norton, MCK Chief Myrtle Bush, MCK Executive Director Alana Goodleaf-Rice, and KEDA Manager Jessica Hill. PAG is an interim group created to supervise the tourism project.

The budget for the dinner theatre is $38,000 to cover the costs of decorations, changes to the Kateri Hall and other start-up costs. Training expenses are absorbed by KJETA.

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ARI meets another deadline
By: Kenneth Deer

An article from a Rome, N.Y., newspaper reports that Aviation Resources Inc. (ARI) has met a financial deadline.

The article goes on to say that the fledgling aircraft maintenance firm appears to be on its way to getting clearance to land at Griffiss Business & Technology Park.

ARI met a deadline on Thursday, February 5, 1998 for providing Economic Development Growth Enterprises (EDGE), the local business development agency, with proof that it has $4 million in equity, and with a business plan.

Mark J. Mojave, EDGE Director of Economic Development, said ARI came through with the required information Thursday. ARI hopes to employ 300 people within two years at an aircraft maintenance business at Griffiss, and up to 1,000 people in three to five years.

"They have provided a letter of confirmation of funds availability from a bank, on their behalf." Mojave said the bank was in Canada, but he declined to say where.

"I would defer to the discretion of Aviation Resources," he said. "I will state, however, that we can speak to the legitimacy of the availability," of the $4 million, because the bank verified to local officials that the firm has the equity.

Mojave was asked if the Kahnawake Mohawk Indians, who reside on a reservation south of Montreal, had provided the equity, or whether the Canadian government had provided it?

"The letter to the Griffiss Local Development Corp. (GLDC), in charge of development at the base, is on behalf of ARI. It would appear that the Mohawks of Kahnawake have substantial investment in the project."

As to the Canadian government's financial involvement, "I'm uncertain," Mojave said. "The document we have been provided does not reference the Canadian government. I am uncertain what their role may or may not be."

Are the Mohawks putting up all of the $4 million in equity, or are the other ARI partners putting up some? "I do not know the final disposition amongst the partners," Mojave said.

ARI has also provided a 'substantial' business plan to EDGE. "They have submitted a business plan that is being reviewed," Mojave said.

"They address facilities issues, project development schedule, market conditions, and they outline some of the operational assumptions."

So the groups has done its homework? "They have been very thorough, up to this point, in their efforts to move the project forward," Mojave said, "the business plan includes 'numerous' exhibits and attachments."

ARI had been expected to provide proof of equity and a business plan last month. But the devastating ice storm in the northeast led to a mutual agreement between EDGE and ARI to move the deadline to today.

The agreement also allowed EDGE to move back the deadline for itself. EDGE was "to provide evidence of capacity for $4 million in financial assistance, in loans and grants." The new deadline for that is Monday, March 16.

MCK acknowledges letter

Tom Morris of the MCK confirmed that a letter from the Caisse Populaire Kahnawake was sent to GLDC with general information on the financial resources of the MCK. The letter did not state any guarantees to GLDC.

Morris said that the MCK is still pursuing financing through negotiations with the Canadian and Quebec governments and the Caisse Populaire Kahnawake to meet their obligations to ARI. No funds have yet changed hands.

Morris also said that a draft business plan was submitted to GLDC but it is still subject to change. The final business plan should be ready by the end of February.

"ARI's next deadline is in April," Mojave said. That deadline relates to finalizing the business plan and putting key personnel in place operationally, and dealing with permitting issues and the like.

After April, there are 'plenty more' deadlines "in terms of the next steps."

Working on the project so far, since a September agreement between the company and GLDC, has involved "several meetings, phone conferences and mail correspondence," with "representatives of ARI".

A planned meeting with Mohawk officials in Canada was cancelled due to the ice storm, he said. "Subject to the availability of the individuals involved." It will be rescheduled, he said.

Lynn Boyer, a spokesperson for Canada's Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, in Hull, Quebec, said in October that her agency was looking at what funds the Mohawks might be able to obtain from her agency and other Canadian federal government agencies.

ARI paid #36,086 in November for a six-month operation on Building 101, a 470,000-square-foot hangar facility at the business park. The building is to be used to overhaul large commercial aircraft such as Boeing 747s.

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Editorial

Car tax fraud: selling tax our rights
By: Kenneth Deer, The Eastern Door

Letting a few non-Natives save a few thousand dollars under your band number while you make a few bucks is like selling Manhattan Island for a keg of rum.

There isn't a soul in Kahnawake who would give up our tax free status in Canada. Yet some of these same people are willing to risk that right for a few bucks. There is no doubt that occasionally some Mohawks will buy an item for a friend tax free and save their friend a few bucks. But the occasional misuse of our tax rights is getting seriously out of hand.

The abuse of our tax rights by buying high priced vehicles tax free and then reselling them to non-Natives is reaching epidemic levels. We are no longer talking about a handful of individuals. The Kahnawake Peacekeepers are now talking of well over one hundred individuals in Kahnawake involved in this tax fraud.

This is a high number. And some of these people commit this fraud many times, leading to millions of dollars in savings to non-Natives and millions of dollars of taxes lost to the governments. Sooner or later those governments are going to react to those losses.

While many of us believe that our tax status has its basis in our right to self-determination and sovereignty, the governments believe that this right comes from the Indian Act which they created. They control the Act and all the policies and regulations that flow from that Act.

The continued abuse of our tax rights under that Act will eventually lead to a reaction that could jeopardize those rights. Cigarettes have been a source of irritation to the governments, and this irritation will only grow again if they raise the tax on cigarettes as predicted in the Federal Budget to be announced in the coming weeks.

While the sale of cigarettes has been declared a political act, the sale of tax free cars to non-Natives does not have that community support. The sale of used cars by our people has already been regulated to the large license bureaus in Montreal. Are there other steps being planned to make it more difficult for our people to buy our new cars tax free in the future?

Making a few hundred dollars per car while non-Natives make thousands is like selling Manhattan. A quick monetary fix for today but selling the future of our children.

The community should stop anyone who jeopardizes our collective rights, and the Peacekeepers should do everything in their power to stop tax fraud.

Land claim fallout acknowledge
From: The Vancouver Sun

The B.C. government has acknowledged for the first time that the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling on the Delgamuukw land claim could have "significant impacts" on the province.

A leaked government document says the attorney-general's ministry has suggested the ruling may have given BC Indian bands the power to stop development on their tribal lands. The document, marked "strictly confidential," also says the government may have to pay "compensation damages" to Indian bands as a result of the controversial December 11 ruling.

According to a Marktrend poll 72 percent of British Columbians feel they have not been adequately consulted about the tentative Nisga'a treaty and 68 percent want a province-wide referendum on land claims.

The Liberals claim the poll suggests that while the province is talking about changing the treaty process to accommodate the high court decision and growing Indian expectations, public opinion is moving the other way.

"The poll...points to a serious gap between what the public wants from treaties and what the government plans to negotiate on their behalf," Liberal leader Gordon Campbell wrote in the letter.

Campbell said the province must insist that Indian tribes surrender their Aboriginal rights as a precondition for setting treaties. He also challenged Clark to put B.C.'s treaty mandate to a province-wide vote.

But that is sure to be controversial among First Nations, who insist they will never give up their Aboriginal land rights. The concept of referendums has also been dismissed as impractical by both government and Tribal officials.

In its ruling on the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en land claims, the Supreme Court redefined Aboriginal land rights as being more far-reaching than had been previously recognized.

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