Some Mi'kmaq people from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick say they're concerned about the treatment they received from U.S. customs officers while crossing into Maine this summer.

Grace Milliea said that in 40 years of crossing the Canada-U.S. border, she's never had an issue with border control the way she did when she was pulled over earlier this month at the crossing between St. Stephen, N.B., and Calais, Me.

Millea was part of a group of more than 100 First Nations people who travelled to a camp in the U.S. to harvest blueberries for two weeks.

"When I passed the border control … as soon as he saw the [First Nation] status cards, he stepped out and he nodded his head to the other guys," Milliea said.

"And I even said it in Mi'kmaq, I told my children that they're going to pull us over."

'Had to be strong'

Milliea was travelling with her four children, and she said she could tell they were scared as they all waited in the border-control office.

"I was really scared, but I had to be strong for them, because I didn't want them to break down and start crying," she said.

Milliea said she only had First Nations status cards for herself and her children when she arrived at the border. That identification, she said, had been sufficient in the past when crossing into the United States.

Kevin Corsaro, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Control, said a status card with a photo affixed to it is sufficient to cross the border on land.

Another Elsipogtog member, Kevin Augustine, was also stopped and searched at the border. After he left the border crossing, he began talking to other First Nations people, and he found that many of them had been pulled over as well.

Augustine said he believes he was stopped at the border because of his ethnic background.

"They said, 'These [status] cards are really not worth the paper they're written on — [that] they could easily make copies of'," he said.

"They were saying I'd have to prove my blood count the next time I go across. … They said I'd have to prove that I'm at least 50 per cent Indian."

Corsaro said that everyone who crosses the border is subject to inspection, regardless of race or religious beliefs.

"If an individual feels they are being selected for any one of those reasons, I would recommend that they immediately speak to the shift supervisor at that port of entry and express their concerns," Corsaro said.