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9. Grandparents, Horses, and Masks
- State University of New York Press
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9 Grandparents, Horses, and Masks In that early morning gloom I felt very uneasy surrounded by yellow masks concealing the silent urgent faces I’ve gotten to know so well over the year. I can’t quite explain it, but the feeling haunted me all day, whenever I looked at those expressionless, passionless, yellow orbs.” —Kathryn Ross, of the Wellsville Daily Reporter in column “My HomeTown” on April 9, 1990 A P R I L 5 , 1 9 9 0 — SALLY CAMPBELL WAS CLEARLY WORRIED as she walked toward the Old German Church, which was the protesters’ main staging area for the looming confrontation. She heard the drumming of a police helicopter and watched it circle the area for two or three minutes before it flew off to investigate another part of the site. A half-hour earlier she had driven by a huge mobile command center, filled with sophisticated communication equipment that the state police had last used during their fierce confrontation with the Mohawks at Akwesasne. A half-foot of wet snow had fallen during the night and gusts of wind were blowing snow in Sally’s face as she confronted a bleak world devoid of streetlights. Car lights pierced the inky darkness as protesters arrived at the tiny white church that was a monument to the religious faith of the farmers who had settled the area. Monitors were handing out yellow-orbed mushroom masks to everyone who entered the area, explaining again how the injunction had changed the rules of the game and why they should wear masks to keep from being identified. 193 SUNY_Pet_ch09.qxd 9/13/01 2:10 PM Page 193 The night before, ACNAG leaders had preassigned a couple of hundred of their best-trained people to go to specific places around the site. One hundred of them were already at the narrow bridge that spanned the Genesee River at theVillage of Caneadea. The sheriff had told the protesters that the siting commission would not fool around going from roadblock to roadblock this time, but would make a direct assault on the site across the bridge, arresting any protesters who were in the way. Sally thought that Spike’s plan of barricading the road with heavy farm equipment would work if the police stopped to remove each barricade before going on to the next. But she doubted this would happen. Ever since Timberlake had suggested that the troopers would “march onto the site,” Sally feared that ACNAG’s strategy wouldn’t work. But she couldn’t counter Spike’s logic that it would be insane for the police to abandon their vehicles and support units three miles away from the site.Videotapes of past actions clearly showed that the state police hated being flanked in the rear by protesters. Grudgingly agreeing that Spike was probably right, Sally then decided the troopers would attack the eastern side of the site where roadblocks were only a half-mile away. She hoped, without much confidence, that the two dozen horses would convince the state police to stick with their original plans. The poor roads and freak spring snowstorm might further encourage them to use the direct route across the Caneadea bridge. As logical as these arguments seemed, Sally feared there would be violence ; something unpredictable was going to happen. Reliable sources, she’d been told, reported that there were nearly a hundred state troopers from all around the state.The troopers were clearly making an intense effort to get the siting commission on the land this time. Sally watched the crowd at the church grow from one hundred to several hundred people in less than half an hour as the gray light of dawn slowly dispelled the night.ACNAG’s success in attracting crowds was also itsAchilles heel. Sally wondered how many of these people had been to an ACNAG training session. She hoped ACNAG’s strategy of keeping most of the folks up by the site at the old church would work. Drew Robinson, one of ACNAG’s most burly guys, was monitor there. He was initially joined by Stuart Campbell whose power of persuasion was indirectly proportional to his diminutive size. Sally walked up to Drew who was standing beside his truck.“Keep everyone here informed about what’s going on,”she said.“Then people won’t be as tempted to drive all over the site or decide to go down to the bridge.” Sally then got into her truck and drove to check...