"Barry Snyder"

He was so determined to present his view to reporters that he agreed to a breakfast meeting on a Friday morning, and drove all night from a conference in Toronto to be there.

Some children may go to school in limousines, but Mr. Mitchell says they're few and far between.

"What happens to the other 99 per cent of those kids?" he asks. "Man, they're dull. They're talking about a good way of life. They're talking about our future. And to the reporters that come down here, they ain't gonna write about them."

Akwesasne is far ahead of most First Nations in the country, says the energetic man dressed in a white T-shirt, jeans and snake skin cowboy boots, looking much younger than his 46 years.

The community has taken control of every program offered by the Department of Indian Affairs. It has a conservation code for the St. Lawrence, its own police force, a justice of the peace and many unique social programs.

If any government is to profit from cigarette sales on reserves, native businessmen say it will be their own.

That's already happening at the Seneca reservation in southwestern New York State.

Profits from several cigarette stores owned by the tribal council generate about one-fifth of the community's $20 million budget. That money helps fund post-secondary education programs.

"When we win, everybody wins," says Barry Snyder, president of the Seneca Nation, who also operates one of the largest private cigarette stores in the community of 2,000. "We rely on this type of revenue."

At the Onondaga reservation to the east, the tribe has left the business to entrepreneurs. But the community benefits when cigarette shops donate a portion of sales to the traditional chiefs.

In Canada, at Six Nations, similar options are being discussed.