Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

The movie “Frozen River” features exceptional acting by Melissa Leo worthy of her Oscar nomination. But it is not a great movie.  Its setting is on an unnamed Mohawk reservation located astride the St. Lawrence River. Perhaps the producers had difficulty with the name “Akwesasne” or they elected not to consult (hence obtain the approval of) the Mohawk Nation but it is odd to see a road sign marking Native territory cut in half as if anonymity is part of the film’s setting.    Smuggling, as the central activity of the film, is shown as not simply a Mohawk “problem”, but one in which our community has its own concerns. At one point one of the film’s characters is banished for smuggling-as if that would ever happen in a place where family ties are the basis for securing, and holding, political power.

Rather than tackle smuggling from a broad historical and sociological perspective the producer elected to tell it from the personal experiences of a working class woman from Massena. The plot is fairly simple: when confronted with an economic crisis in which a family is facing complete ruin the mother elects to secure their survival by willfully engaging in criminal activity.  The setting for this drama is northern New York and partially in Akwesasne  although only the opening shots of the US customs and the international bridges were actually filmed here. The reservation itself (in reality the Plattsburgh area) looks poor and shabby, the residents living in beat up trailers.  There is reference to the Mohawk ‘nation” but there is no explanation as to the political factions which have been exploited by the smugglers.  To the writer’s credit non-Natives are shown as key operatives in the trafficking of human beings.  The St. Lawrence River has been replaced with a large lake over which cars travel loaded with contraband but one wonders if  perhaps the producers were reluctant to work here since they failed to make use of our territory which is strikingly beautiful if seen from the river and is much wider, and grander, than any place  shown in the movie.

They pretend Akwesasne is dark, heavily forested and ominous; the Massena region is far less so.  The white family lives in a trailer and are hoping their new prefab home will be delivered before Christmas.  The mother works in a discount store called “Yankees Dollar” where she has no job security and dreams of one day being promoted to assistant manager. Her husband, never shown in the film, worked on the reservation before abandoning his family. The mother and her two sons, one a 15 year old teenager and a 5 year old kindergartner, are reduced to eating popcorn and a pale orange drink for breakfast. The reservation is perceived as a place to be feared, the Mohawks grim and dangerous. They live beyond the reach of New York State laws and do as they please including taking the cars of the bingo hall patrons if left in the parking lot for too long. The mother is not about to tolerate this and brings a small caliber revolver with her when she goes to get her husband’s car at the camper of the Mohawk woman smuggler. In a brief struggle the mother is disarmed and forced to cross the river to pick up two Asian men and deliver them to a handler somewhere off the reservation. Along the way they spot a state trooper who, according to the Mohawk woman, will not stop white women. Once the delivery is made they return to the reservation where the white woman is forced to leave without her share of the money.  After confronting the crisis at home she returns the next day, agrees to smuggle more people and takes back the revolver along with her share of the money. She has now found a way to pay for the prefab.

The gambling joint on the reservation is a very small bingo hall, which seems to be the cultural center for Akwesasne. There is nothing appealing about reservation life, no mention of our schools, ceremonies, health centers or arena. The “tribal council” office is in another small building curiously empty. Except for the word “du-da” Mohawk is not spoken at all. The white woman’s teenage son is so mad at the Indians he wants to “kick some Mohawk ass” to avenge his father. Not likely.

As the film progresses Ms. Leo’s acting gets stronger. She does not have a lot of competition; with the exception of the teenager none of the other cast is given more than a surface treatment. The Mohawk tribal officials and the Indian police are treated lightly.  Had the producer worked with anyone from Akwesasne she would have had a cast in which the Mohawks are more formidable, striking in appearance and in sharp contrast with the pasty skinned, dough shaped non-Natives. We come across as bland and far too passive especially when the Surete du Quebec and New York State Troopers come onto our land to arrest the women at the conclusion of the film.

There is a bridging of the racial gap in the movie. The white woman and her Native counterpart agree to go on one more run but they have to take across a southwest Asian couple who may, or may not, be of Arab descent. This may well cause government officials to take notice as it leads to the suspicion that terrorists may also be using Akwesasne to enter the US. In this instance, the couple has a gym bag which contains something unexpected by the smugglers and which they discard and are placed in great danger when they have to return to pick it up.  The film’s ending is ambiguous and imperfect but designed to be that way. It is appropriate for the story if slightly stretching its credibility.

I enjoyed Ms. Leo’s acting and hope she is given an Oscar. She captures the look and mannerisms of the region’s most vulnerable class, those chain smoking poorly dressed, badly paid working women who somehow manage to provide for their families during hard times. This is a film which is true to its time.  It has realistic dialogue spoken by credible actors. We can understand the characters for we see them every day, buying cheap cigarettes at one of our convenience stores or placing their last dollar into a slot machine. But this is not a film in which we come across very well.

Akwesasne provides the setting for a strong family drama but without any meaningful context. We remain a vague people, distrustful of the outside world even as we seek to use our status as an indigenous community for profit and without any consideration for those we exploit along the way.  Nonetheless, I recommend seeing “Frozen River”.  I do wish the producers would have given the Mohawk people a “thank you”. I hope this movie will result in a better one told from our perspective. Someday.