Seneca Mothers Against Drugs
By Lucille White
There was no grand plan that day on July 26, 2020. There had been complaints all over Facebook about drug houses on the Cattaraugus Territory, but our community was paralyzed by fear of retaliation from the non-Seneca drug dealers, Seneca dealers and their network of customers and lack of enforcement for Seneca law as well as NYS criminal law. A Seneca member was shot and killed by a non-Seneca drug dealer that was allowed to reside on Territory. There were numerous fatal overdoses from opiates. Nothing changes unless action is taken; action is the catalyst of change. Two grandmas, Gloria Gordon and Lucille White, decided that this would be the day that our communities start taking back our Territory through the power of our women. The grandmas pushed through their own fear, took handmade signs to identify a residence as a drug house, and started exposing the drug trade on and off Territory. They were determined to protest until this particular drug house was closed down. Two people can initiate change but the grandmas recognized it would take Seneca residents in numbers for effective action. A young woman and supporter used social media to put a call out to all her friends, relatives, and community folk to show up, to protect the grandmas and support efforts to remove the drug dealers that freely operate here. In no time, vehicles were strewn up and down the road in both directions with hundreds of people joining the protest. SMAD was born that Summer of 2020. Members were naïve about the drug trade and knew of only two or three houses where drug dealing was known to take place. The overdose deaths and shooting death were connected to these places. Like an onion, every layer of the drug trafficking that was exposed revealed more layers. Through our SMAD research, we identified more than 20 residences that were dealing drugs, allowing non-Seneca dealers to operate unfettered, allowing addicts (Seneca and non-Seneca) a safe zone to use then operate their vehicles on our roads. Paraphernalia was strewn on our roads, our fishing and swimming holes by the creek. Even our recreational areas like the beach at Lake Erie and our playgrounds had used needles and baggies on the ground. Not only was drug trafficking happening but also sex trafficking of our women and men. The more we learned, the more determined we became to protect our people.
SMAD doesn’t target those that are addicted nor do we have the notion that we can solve the entire opiate drug problem. Our mission is SAFETY and JUSTICE for our residents on Territory and to evict the criminals involved in the drug trade. Senecas that aid and abet in the sale of illegal drugs by allowing the dealers to take up residence here and sell drugs to our most vulnerable, need to be held responsible. Our intent is to take back our Territories from those that run illegal drug activities.
Safety is a mission for all Senecas. Women are regaining their voices and strength in guiding our government and Territories in ways that reflect our concern for seven generations and that is why SMAD serves to empower women to activism. Although SMAD was started by women and men of all ages, with or without children, our youth are at the core of this grassroots movement.
What SMAD Does:
- Surveillance of residences of those that are suspected of selling drugs. Each community keeps SMAD informed of activities, people and vehicles used and days/hours of increased drug activity.
- Patrol our paved and unpaved roads and wooded trails.
- Protest in front of drug houses to expose their existence and alert our residents of potential dangers.
- Coordinate with Seneca Nation elected officials, SNI Marshalls, Drug Task Force organizations in Western New York and the Seneca Nation.
What SMAD Accomplished:
- As SMAD started public meetings and public actions, fear has been replaced by open communication about the Opiate crisis and those involved. Community members are stepping up to take responsibility for safety in their own neighborhoods.
- SMAD was instrumental in utilizing billboards to publicly identify the faces of dealers that have been excluded from our Territories.
- Data has been collected on vehicles, license plates, customers and dealers, and their movements. Community people reach out to us on an on-going basis. SMAD has been instrumental in some criminal arrests.
- The dealers are kept on the move by exposing the locations where drugs are sold. Drug houses have been closed or moved on.
- Information collected has been shared with law enforcement on and off Territory to be used in criminal and civil law cases.
- SMAD has partnered with the SNI Marshalls to utilize information that leads to vehicles being confiscated. Previously, our Chief Marshall had been making great strides in finding ways for those involved in the drug trade to realize there are consequences for their behavior.
- Two Senecas have been charged with aiding and abetting drug dealers as evidenced by surveillance. The Peacemakers Court found them guilty, and they lost their SNI Annuities for one year. On June 11, 2022, the SNI Council passed a resolution that expanded their financial consequences for those Senecas found aiding and abetting drug dealers by our Peacemakers Court. Members of the Seneca Nation found guilty of supporting the drug dealers may not only lose all SNI benefits, but they may also lose their SNI Mortgage homes.
As Mothers of the Seneca Nation, we have grave concern for the future of our Nation. We have been active for four years and the problem has grown to what is now at an epidemic proportion.
The drug dealers have grown increasingly visible and active within our communities, challenging Law enforcement as they have operated with little to no consequence.
We appeal to the members of the Seneca Nation to step up, we must stop this criminal element within our communities as it is now at epidemic proportion. Our Nation is flooded with addictive, destructive, and deadly drugs such as Fentanyl, methamphetamine, Cocaine, and Heroin and many families are grieving. We cannot allow our peaceful way of life and our Nation to be destroyed.
