The Bush Administration is planning to build a huge Highway from Mexico to Canada. Kahentinetha Horn tells the Mohawk viewpoint.
The NAFTA autobahn is mainly going to transport our resources from one million square miles of unsurrendered Indigenous land in the northern part of Turtle Island, through the U.S and Mexico to the countries of the Pacific rim.
Then the road will bring containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, straight into the heart of Turtle Island.
The northeastern route will go along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, right through Haudenosaunee territory. Mega bridges to the northern reaches are already planned, one from Kahnawake to Montreal, one over the Ottawa River at Kanehsatake and another from Cornwall over to Akwesasne. Once again we Mohawks are in the way.
The Mexican trucks will cross the border in fast lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, known as a “Smart Port”, built for Mexico by U.S. tax payers. Containers from the Far East can be transferred there to trucks going east and west.
Super roads are not a new idea. In 1933 Hitler and the Nazis finished the German “autobahn” during the Third Reich. It linked north and south Germany. It was promoted as creating jobs. It was actually built mostly by Russian prisoners of war. The military was involved in the planning to provide mobility for the movement of their troops and weaponry. They were designed with auxiliary airports with aircraft hidden in tunnels or camouflaged in nearby woods. [We don’t know what military auxiliary will be built alongside the NAFTA autobahn].
This autobahn will not benefit Turtle Island. It is a corridor to carry resources that are being stolen from us. It is transported through the U.S. to Mexico and then put it on ships to China and elsewhere. It appears like the U.S. public will not get anything out of it either. The investors and profiteers use U.S., Mexican and Canadian fronts on their various boards.
When Europeans arrived on our shores they were huddled masses yearning to be free. They were dirty, malnourished and abused. Now they abuse us. It’s time for everyone to throw off the shackles of abuse. We have to assert our rights, participate, share and laugh. We were not born to be slaves to corporate greed.
Kahentinetha Horn, MNN Mohawk Nation News; kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
