As NY preps pot market, sales grow on Native American land

By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press

ST. REGIS MOHAWK RESERVATION, N.Y. (AP) — As New York inches toward launching a retail marijuana market, sales are flourishing on some Native American territory in the state. Shops selling marijuana have opened on the U.S. side of Mohawk territory straddling the Canadian border. Others have opened on Seneca territory in western New York, and by the Cayuga Nation in the Finger Lakes. There’s an internal dispute over the legality of about a dozen businesses on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation operating without tribal licenses. But the sales show how Native Americans have been able to tap early into what’s expected to be a multibillion-dollar statewide market.