Kahnawake 14, Quebec
Encyclopedia
The Kahnawake Mohawk
Territory (ɡahnaˈwaːɡe in Mohawk
, Kahnawáˀkye in Tuscarora
) is a reserve
of the traditionally Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk nation
on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec
, Canada
, across from Montreal
. Recorded by French Canadians in 1719 as a Jesuit mission
, it has also been known as Seigneury Sault du St. Louis, Caughnawaga and 17 Europe
an spelling variations of the Mohawk Kahnawake.
Kahnawake's territory totals an area of 48.05 square kilometres. Its resident population numbers about 8,000, with a significant number living off the territory. Its land base today is unevenly distributed due to federal Indian Act
law that oversees individual land possession, unlike the Canadian norms that apply to the land around it. Kahnawake residents originally spoke their Mohawk language
, and some learned French
when under French rule. Allied with the British government during the American Revolutionary War
and the Lower Canada Rebellion
, they have since become mostly English speaking.
Although people of European descent traditionally call the residents of Kahnawake Mohawk, their autonym is Kanien’kehá:ka (the "People of the Flint"). The Kanien’kehá:ka were historically the most easterly nation of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois
Confederacy) and are also known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door". Based west of the Hudson River with the other Iroquois nations in present-day New York, they protected the confederacy against invasion by tribes from present-day New England
and the coastal areas.
Kahnawake is one of several Kanien’kehá:ka territories of the Mohawk Nation within the borders of Canada, including Kanesatake on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River southwest of Montreal; Akwesasne
, which crosses the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York; and the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation north of Lake Erie
. It was historically one of the Seven Nations of Canada
.
The name is derived from the Mohawk
word kahnawà:ke, meaning "place of the rapids", referring to their village Caughnawaga
near the rapids of the Mohawk River
in New York
. When converted Catholic Mohawk moved to the Montreal area, they named the new settlement after their former one.
) (in French, it was originally called Sault du St. Louis, also related to the rapids). This term refers to the people's village that was along the natural rapids of the old river, before the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway canal.
The French
colony in North America
used Kahnawake to form a southwestern defence for Ville-Marie
(later Montreal) and placed a military garrison
there. The Jesuits
founded a mission
to administer to local Kahnawake, and provide a base from which to send missionary priests west. Jesuit records give a settlement date of 1719. Kahnawake oral tradition has accounts of an ancestral claim dating back some 10,000 years.
Since the 1950s, however, archeological and linguistic
studies have demonstrated that the St. Lawrence Valley was not the original homeland of the Kanien’kehá:ka, who developed south of there in present-day New York
. Nor was it the homeland of the Onondaga or Oneida
Iroquois
nations, as had been theorized by some earlier historians. Instead, it was inhabited for centuries by a discrete Iroquoian-speaking people, now called the St. Lawrence Iroquoians
. They started settling in the area about 1000 CE
with the cultivation of maize. The river and forests also provided fish and game. They lived in the valley as an identifiable people from at least the 14th century to the late 16th century, creating the fortified villages of Stadacona
, Hochelaga
and others visited by explorer Jacques Cartier
in the 1530s. Evidence suggests they were driven from the valley or destroyed by attacks by the Kanien’kehá:ka, who wanted to control the fur trade
and hunting in that area.
ed to Catholicism
. At the time of granting the seigneury, the government intended the territory to be closed to European settlement. Because the Jesuits assumed rights as seigneurs of the Sault, they permitted whites to settle there and collected their rents. The Jesuits managed the seigneury until April 1762, after the Seven Years War and the British assumption of rule in New France. The new governor Thomas Gage
ordered the reserve to be entirely and exclusively vested in the Mohawks, under the Supervision of the Indian Department.
Despite repeated complaints by the Mohawk, many government agents continued land and rent mismanagement and allowed non-Native encroachment. Surveyors were found to have modified some old maps at the expense of the Kahnawake people. Moreover, the Mohawk were required to make numerous land cessions to railway, hydro-electric, and telephone companies for major industrial projects along the river from the late 1880s until the 1950s.
As a result, Kahnawake today has only 13000 acres (52.6 km²). The Mohawk Nation is pursuing land claims to regain lost land. The modern claim touches the municipalities of Saint-Constant
, Sainte-Catherine
, Saint-Mathieu
, Delson, Candiac and Saint-Philippe
. Led by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and Kahnawake's Inter-governmental Relations Team, the community has filed claims with the government of Canada
. It is seeking monetary compensation and symbolic recognition of its claim.
in the mid-17th century. Through the First Nations' adoption
of European captives, the French government's stationing of French colonial troops (who formed liaisons with local women and had children by them), shopkeepers who formed families, and many marriages between European men and Indian women through the 18th century, many Kahnawake people are of mixed ethnicity, of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, French, English, Anglo-American, Scots and Irish descent. As their culture was matrilineal, mixed-race children were assimilated within the mother's family and the nation. In other areas of Canada, Métis
, descendants of European trappers and indigenous women, have formed what has become a separate, recognized ethnic group, as in some regions they established a distinct hunting and trading culture. By the 1790s and early 19th century, visitors often described the "great mixture of blood" at Kahnawake. They noted that many children who appeared to be of European ancestry were being brought up as Mohawk culturally.
Surnames such as Beauvais, D'Ailleboust, de La Ronde Thibaudière, Delisle, de Lorimier, Giasson, Johnson, Mailloux, McComber, McGregor, Montour, Phillips, Rice, Stacey, Tarbell, and Williams among Kahnawake families suggest the historic mixture of ancestries through tribal members' adoption of and intermarriage with non-Natives. The Tarbell ancestors, for instance, were John and Zachary, brothers captured as young children from Groton, Massachusetts
in 1707 during Queen Anne's War
and taken to Canada. Adopted by Mohawk families in Kahnawake, the boys became assimilated: they were baptized as Catholic
, learned the Mohawk ways and were given Mohawk names, married women who were daughters of chiefs, reared children with them, and became chiefs themselves. (For more information on the origins of many last names in Kahnawake, please consult the following page: Origins of Kahnawake Last Names).
Historic sources document the sometimes strained relations between Mohawk and ethnic Europeans on the reserve, usually over property and the competition for limited`resources. In 1722, community residents objected to the garrison of French soldiers because they feared it would cause "horrible discord" and showed the French did not trust the locals. In the mid-1720s, the community evicted the Desaulnier sisters, traders
who were garnering profits formerly earned by members of Kahnawake. In 1771, twenty-two Mohawk pressed British officials to help them prevent two local families from bringing French families to settle "on lands reserved for their common use". In 1812, many were opposed to specific types of "mixed" marriages. In 1822, agent Nicolas Doucet reported that the community was growing frustrated by marriages in which white husbands acquired rights over the lives and properties of their Iroquois wives according to British Canadian laws, especially as the Iroquois culture was matrilineal, with descent and property invested in the maternal line.
Abuse of alcohol was a continuing problem. In 1828, the village expelled white traders
who were "poisoning" the Iroquois "with rum and spirituous liquors". Tensions rose at the time of the 1837-38 Lower Canada Rebellion
. The Mohawk had suffered incursions on their land, including non-Natives' taking valuable firewood. The Kahnawake cooperated with the British Crown against the Patriotes, largely over the issue of preserving their land and expressing their collective identity. Before and after the Rebellions, the community was fiercely divided regarding the rights of mixed-race residents, such as Antoine-George de Lorimier (the son of Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier
), and whether he should be evicted. Although his mother was Mohawk and native to Kahnawake, because of his father's and his own connections to the European community, George de Lorimier became a controversial figure in Kahnawake, even after his death in 1863.
In the 1870s and 1880s, land and resource pressures renewed local concern about ethnic Europeans living at Kahnawake. In addition, the national government's passage of legislation, from enfranchisement to the Indian Advancement Act of 1884, which prohibited traditional chiefs and required Canadian-style elections, split the community and added to tensions. Some young Mohawk men wanted a chance to advance independently to being chiefs; other people wanted to keep the traditional seven life chiefs of the seven clans.
The inequalities in landownership among Kahnawake residents led to resentment of the wealthy. For instance, in 1884, the mixed-race sons of the late George de Lorimier were the largest and wealthiest landowners in the community. Some Kahnawake residents questioned whether people who were not full-blood Mohawk should be allowed to own so much land. The Mohawk Council asked members of the Giasson, Deblois, Meloche, Lafleur, Plante and de Lorimier families to leave, as all were of partial European ancestry. Some, like the de Lorimier brothers, gradually sold their properties and pursued their lives elsewhere. Others, such as Charles Gédéon Giasson, were finally given permanent status at the reserve.
Because the Indian Department did not provide adequate support to the reserve, the community continued to struggle financially. At one point, the Kahnawake chiefs suggested selling the reserve to raise money for annuities
for the tribe. Social unrest increased, with young men attacking houses, barns and farm animals of people they resented. In May 1878 an arson fire killed Osias Meloche, the husband of Charlotte-Louise Giasson (daughter of Charles Gédéon Giasson, noted above), and their home and barn were destroyed. Under the Walbank Survey, the national government surveyed and subdivided the land of the reserve, allotting some plots individually to each head of household eligible to live in Kahnawake. The violence stopped as the new form of privatisation of land was instituted, but antagonism toward some community members did not.
The election of council chiefs began in 1889, but the influence of Kahnawake's shadow government of traditional clan chiefs persisted. This lasted into the 1920s, when the traditional seven-clan system became absorbed in the Longhouse Movement, which was based on three clans. This was strong through the 1940s.
With continuing late 20th-century conflicts over who could reside at the reserve, the elected chiefs of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) passed laws regulating membership or eligibility for residence at Kahnawake. In 1981 they ruled that non-natives could not reside in the community and that Mohawk who marry outside of the nation lose the right to live in the homelands. The MCK said that its policy of ethnically exclusive membership was for the preservation of the people's cultural identity. Unlike the earlier years of assimilation, they did not accept those who adopted the Mohawk language or culture. The policy is based on a 1981 moratorium on non-Native residency, which was made law in 1984. All interracial couples were sent eviction notices regardless of how long they had lived on the reserve. The only exemption was for interracial couples married before the 1981 moratorium. Although some concerned Mohawk citizens contested the racially exclusive membership policy, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
ruled that the Mohawk government may adopt policies it deems necessary to ensure the survival of its people.
In February 2010, the issue was renewed when the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake elected to evict 26 non-Natives from the reserve. While the action was legal according to the membership laws, critics believed the council was acting against some people who had lived on the reserve for 10 years or more and made contributions to the community. The council said they were responding to complaints from residents about limited housing and land being occupied by non-Natives. The move, endorsed by all 12 chiefs of the MCK, caused an uproar within and beyond the community, attracting national press attention.
Steve Bonspiel, the editor of the Kahnawake newspaper Eastern Door, said that the issue dated back to 1973, when non-Native people with no ties in the community were asked to leave. Harassment against them became public, even violent. Bonspiel thought the council's threat in 2010 to publish the names of people not eligible to live on the reserve was an inappropriate way to use public pressure against them.
The Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said there is nothing illegal about the band's eviction actions:
Ellen Gabriel, The head of Quebec Native Women and a Mohawk resident at Kanesatake, criticized the MCK. She said their actions did not represent the traditional inclusiveness of Mohawk communities, which acculturated adoptees and marriage partners. She criticized the council for interfering in the private lives of persons who had chosen non-Native partners. She noted the Mohawk had long been successful at integrating people within their communities, and have preserved their language and culture over the centuries.
Some residents who received eviction notices agreed to leave; others proved they spend only limited time in the community, so were permitted as visitors. The council said it would send second notices to people who did not respond, and then would publish their names. The governing band council defended its right to ask non-Natives to leave the small community:
Before European contact, the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) had a long tradition of justice administered within the clan and council system. The clan would govern the behavior of clan members, and conflict between members of clans would be settled by consensus of the council. Clan mothers as well as chiefs had roles in this system. The goal was to quickly restore peace to the community and control behavior that threatened it. The system was based on the four principles of reason, persuasion, satisfaction and compensation, with both wrongdoer and victim as part of the process, which was to result in "[d]ue compensation and condolence, and a promise of agreement" between the parties.
Many at Kahnawake and other First Nations communities believe their people are not being well served by the Canadian justice system, as First Nations people are over-represented in it and in prisons. They believe this is in part due to the imposition of the Canadian justice system on traditional ways, which the government used to try to assimilate the First Nations into European-based culture. The Canadian government has gradually favored "indigenization" of the system. Kahnawake used section 107 of the Indian Act to nominate community members as justices of the peace, and in 1974 Justice Sharron was appointed as the first justice of the peace at the reserve. Many of the cases have to do with traffic and parking violations, but the scope of the justice has been wider than it appears, as it has jurisdiction over Criminal Code offences related to the following four areas: cruelty to animals, common assault, breaking and entering, and vagrancy. The Kanien’kehá:ka still believed that the system was not satisfactory in terms of incorporating their traditional values.
Since 2000, Kahnawake has started to reintroduce Skenn:en A'onsonton (to become peaceful again), the traditional justice system of the Iroquois. It wanted to create an alternative dispute resolution
process, as developed by the First Nation, or "reintroduced" according to its principles. The initiative was presented to the community jointly by the Justice Committee of the MCK and representatives of the Longhouse. Requiring that the wrongdoing had taken place within the geographic area of Kahnawke, the system is intended for use before any arrest of an affected party under the Canadian system. It has procedures to be used by the victim and offender, and their supporters. With assistance by trained facilitators to resolve issues, the process is intended to restore peace and harmony, rather than to be an adversarial process. In contrast to the Canadian system of adversarial justice,
The initiative has challenges, for instance, gaining the support of Peacekeepers and community members who may be increasingly unfamiliar with these traditional cultural principles. But, it is an important means of re-education into principles that offer an alternative to the current Canadian system, and helps build a future especially for the young people of the community.
projects benefiting the southern Quebec economy through Kahnawake land because of its proximity to the St. Lawrence River. The reserve is criss-crossed by power line
s from hydroelectric plants, rail
and vehicle highway
s and bridge
s. One of the first of such projects was the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway
's Saint Lawrence Bridge. The masonry work was done by Reid & Fleming, and the steel superstructure was built by the Dominion Bridge Company
. In 1886 and 1887, the new bridge was built across the broad river from Kahnawake to Montreal Island. Kahnawake men worked as bridgemen and ironworker
s hundreds of feet above the water and ground.
Their success started the legend that Native American
men have no fear of heights. Numerous Kahnawake men continued as ironworkers in Canada, with many also going to New York City
to work during the first half of the 20th century, as a building boom produced notable skyscrapers. Thirty-three Kahnawake (Mohawk) died in the collapse of the Quebec Bridge
in 1907, one of the worst construction failures of all time. The small community was devastated by the loss of so many men. Crosses of steel girders were erected at both ends of the reserve in honor of the men.
For more than a generation, many Kahnawake men participated in building the Empire State Building
, and other major skyscrapers in New York City, as well as many bridges. They brought their families with them, and most Mohawk from Kahnawake lived in Brooklyn
. They called their neighborhood "Little Caughnawaga". While the men worked on skyscrapers, the women created a strong community for their families. Many also worked outside the home. In the summers, the families would return to Kahnawake to stay with relatives and renew connections. Some of the people who lived in Brooklyn as children still have the New York accent, although they have long lived in Kahnawake.
When the national government decided to pass the Saint Lawrence Seaway
canal
cut through the village, the people and buildings of Kahnawake were permanently separated from the natural river shore. The loss of land and access to the river, the demolition of houses, and the change in the community's relationship to the river have had profound effects on Kahnawake. The people had been sited there for hundreds of years, and their identities were related to a profound knowledge of the river, from the time they were children through adulthood. One effect of the losses was to make the community determined not to suffer more encroachment. They drew together and became stronger.
offers gambling
licenses to Internet-based poker
, casino
, and sportsbook
sites. It has established Kahnawake as a substantial player in that business.
Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT), a local data center
located within the territory, hosts and manages many Internet gambling websites, also providing high-tech employment to its people. MIT is the closest and fastest source for "legally hosted" gambling websites for North America
n players. Established in 1998, MIT has become a "remarkably profitable" enterprise.
armed forces during the Vietnam War
.
While working to strengthen their culture and language, the people of Kahnawake have generally not had the political turmoil that has affected the nearby, smaller Kanesatake
Mohawk reserve. In support of Kanesatake during the Oka Crisis
in 1990, people from Kahnawake blocked the Honoré Mercier Bridge
to Montreal. This was in response to Kanesatake's having been blockaded by the Sûreté du Québec
. After some time, Kahnawake negotiated separately with the armed forces to remove the blockade.
Both the Canadian and Quebec governments dispute the legality of Kahnawake's gambling operations, but have not taken further action. They were strongly criticized for inappropriate responses and actions during the Oka Crisis.
flew the Kahnawake Mohawk flag. The Kahnawake Mohawk nation is the only indigenous American sovereign nation to have deep-sea foreign-going vessels flying its flag. Since December 2007 the Sea Shepherd vessels have been registered in the Netherlands
.
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
Territory (ɡahnaˈwaːɡe in Mohawk
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
, Kahnawáˀkye in Tuscarora
Tuscarora language
Tuscarora, sometimes called Ska:rù:rę, is an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people, spoken in southern Ontario, Canada, and northwestern New York around Niagara Falls, in the United States. The historic homeland of the Tuscarora was in eastern North Carolina, in and around the Goldsboro,...
) is a reserve
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve is specified by the Indian Act as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." The Act also specifies that land reserved for the use and benefit of a band which is not...
of the traditionally Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk nation
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, across from Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Recorded by French Canadians in 1719 as a Jesuit mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
, it has also been known as Seigneury Sault du St. Louis, Caughnawaga and 17 Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an spelling variations of the Mohawk Kahnawake.
Kahnawake's territory totals an area of 48.05 square kilometres. Its resident population numbers about 8,000, with a significant number living off the territory. Its land base today is unevenly distributed due to federal Indian Act
Indian Act
The Indian Act , R.S., 1951, c. I-5, is a Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves...
law that oversees individual land possession, unlike the Canadian norms that apply to the land around it. Kahnawake residents originally spoke their Mohawk language
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
, and some learned French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
when under French rule. Allied with the British government during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and the Lower Canada Rebellion
Lower Canada Rebellion
The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...
, they have since become mostly English speaking.
Although people of European descent traditionally call the residents of Kahnawake Mohawk, their autonym is Kanien’kehá:ka (the "People of the Flint"). The Kanien’kehá:ka were historically the most easterly nation of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
Confederacy) and are also known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door". Based west of the Hudson River with the other Iroquois nations in present-day New York, they protected the confederacy against invasion by tribes from present-day New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and the coastal areas.
Kahnawake is one of several Kanien’kehá:ka territories of the Mohawk Nation within the borders of Canada, including Kanesatake on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River southwest of Montreal; Akwesasne
Akwesasne
The Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne is a Mohawk Nation territory that straddles the intersection of international and provincial borders on both banks of the Saint Lawrence River. Most of the land is in what is otherwise the United States...
, which crosses the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York; and the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation north of Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
. It was historically one of the Seven Nations of Canada
Seven Nations of Canada
The Seven Nations of Canada were a historic confederation of Canadian First Nations living in and around the Saint Lawrence River valley beginning in the eighteenth century. They were allied to New France and often included substantial numbers of Roman Catholic converts. During the Seven Years War...
.
The name is derived from the Mohawk
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...
word kahnawà:ke, meaning "place of the rapids", referring to their village Caughnawaga
Caughnawaga Indian Village Site
Caughnawaga Indian Village Site is an archaeological site located just west of Fonda in Montgomery County, New York. The site was discovered in 1950 by Rev. Thomas Grassmann and today is the only completely excavated Iroquois Indian village in the country. The Mohawk village site includes the...
near the rapids of the Mohawk River
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. When converted Catholic Mohawk moved to the Montreal area, they named the new settlement after their former one.
Location
Kahnawake is located at the southwest shore where the St. Lawrence River narrows. The territory is described in the native language as "on, or by the rapids" (of the Saint Lawrence RiverSaint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
) (in French, it was originally called Sault du St. Louis, also related to the rapids). This term refers to the people's village that was along the natural rapids of the old river, before the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway canal.
The French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
colony in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
used Kahnawake to form a southwestern defence for Ville-Marie
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(later Montreal) and placed a military garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
there. The Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
founded a mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
to administer to local Kahnawake, and provide a base from which to send missionary priests west. Jesuit records give a settlement date of 1719. Kahnawake oral tradition has accounts of an ancestral claim dating back some 10,000 years.
Since the 1950s, however, archeological and linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
studies have demonstrated that the St. Lawrence Valley was not the original homeland of the Kanien’kehá:ka, who developed south of there in present-day New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Nor was it the homeland of the Onondaga or Oneida
Oneida tribe
The Oneida are a Native American/First Nations people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area of upstate New York...
Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
nations, as had been theorized by some earlier historians. Instead, it was inhabited for centuries by a discrete Iroquoian-speaking people, now called the St. Lawrence Iroquoians
St. Lawrence Iroquoians
The St. Lawrence Iroquoians were a prehistoric First Nations/Native American indigenous people who lived from the 14th century until about 1580 CE along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and New York State, United States. They spoke Laurentian...
. They started settling in the area about 1000 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
with the cultivation of maize. The river and forests also provided fish and game. They lived in the valley as an identifiable people from at least the 14th century to the late 16th century, creating the fortified villages of Stadacona
Stadacona
Stadacona was a 16th century St. Lawrence Iroquoian village near present-day Quebec City.French explorer and navigator Jacques Cartier, travelling and charting the Saint Lawrence River, reached it on 7 September 1535. He returned to Stadacona to spend the winter there with his group of 110 men...
, Hochelaga
Hochelaga (village)
Hochelaga meaning "beaver dam" or "beaver lake" was a St. Lawrence Iroquoian 16th century fortified village at the heart of, or in the immediate vicinity of Mount Royal in present-day Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Jacques Cartier arrived by boat on October 2, 1535; he visited the village on the...
and others visited by explorer Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...
in the 1530s. Evidence suggests they were driven from the valley or destroyed by attacks by the Kanien’kehá:ka, who wanted to control the fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
and hunting in that area.
Historical land claim
Kahnawake was located in what was known as the Seigneurie du Sault-Saint-Louis, a 40320 acres (163.2 km²) territory which the French Crown granted in 1680 to the Jesuits to "protect" and "nurture" Mohawks newly convertConvert
The convert or try, in American football known as "point after", and Canadian football "Point after touchdown", is a one-scrimmage down played immediately after a touchdown during which the scoring team is allowed to attempt to score an extra one point by kicking the ball through the uprights , or...
ed to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
. At the time of granting the seigneury, the government intended the territory to be closed to European settlement. Because the Jesuits assumed rights as seigneurs of the Sault, they permitted whites to settle there and collected their rents. The Jesuits managed the seigneury until April 1762, after the Seven Years War and the British assumption of rule in New France. The new governor Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....
ordered the reserve to be entirely and exclusively vested in the Mohawks, under the Supervision of the Indian Department.
Despite repeated complaints by the Mohawk, many government agents continued land and rent mismanagement and allowed non-Native encroachment. Surveyors were found to have modified some old maps at the expense of the Kahnawake people. Moreover, the Mohawk were required to make numerous land cessions to railway, hydro-electric, and telephone companies for major industrial projects along the river from the late 1880s until the 1950s.
As a result, Kahnawake today has only 13000 acres (52.6 km²). The Mohawk Nation is pursuing land claims to regain lost land. The modern claim touches the municipalities of Saint-Constant
Saint-Constant, Quebec
Saint-Constant is an off-island suburb of Montreal in the Roussillon Regional County Municipality of southwestern Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 23,957.-Population:Population trend-Language:...
, Sainte-Catherine
Sainte-Catherine, Quebec
Sainte-Catherine is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the St. Lawrence River in the Regional County Municipality of Roussillon...
, Saint-Mathieu
Saint-Mathieu
Saint-Mathieu is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France.Inhabitants are known as Mathuséens.-References:*...
, Delson, Candiac and Saint-Philippe
Saint-Philippe
Saint-Philippe is a commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located in south-eastern Reunion.-Geography:Saint-Philippe is on the highest point on the island. It borders the municipalities of Saint-Joseph and Sainte-Rose, to the west and north respectively. Although it is a...
. Led by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and Kahnawake's Inter-governmental Relations Team, the community has filed claims with the government of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is seeking monetary compensation and symbolic recognition of its claim.
Historic membership issues
The complex history of Kahnawake has included some European settlement since the reserve land was "donated" by the French CrownCrown (heraldry)
A Crown is often an emblem of the monarchy, a monarch's government, or items endorsed by it; see The Crown. A specific type of crown is employed in heraldry under strict rules....
in the mid-17th century. Through the First Nations' adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
of European captives, the French government's stationing of French colonial troops (who formed liaisons with local women and had children by them), shopkeepers who formed families, and many marriages between European men and Indian women through the 18th century, many Kahnawake people are of mixed ethnicity, of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, French, English, Anglo-American, Scots and Irish descent. As their culture was matrilineal, mixed-race children were assimilated within the mother's family and the nation. In other areas of Canada, Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
, descendants of European trappers and indigenous women, have formed what has become a separate, recognized ethnic group, as in some regions they established a distinct hunting and trading culture. By the 1790s and early 19th century, visitors often described the "great mixture of blood" at Kahnawake. They noted that many children who appeared to be of European ancestry were being brought up as Mohawk culturally.
Surnames such as Beauvais, D'Ailleboust, de La Ronde Thibaudière, Delisle, de Lorimier, Giasson, Johnson, Mailloux, McComber, McGregor, Montour, Phillips, Rice, Stacey, Tarbell, and Williams among Kahnawake families suggest the historic mixture of ancestries through tribal members' adoption of and intermarriage with non-Natives. The Tarbell ancestors, for instance, were John and Zachary, brothers captured as young children from Groton, Massachusetts
Groton, Massachusetts
Groton is a town located in northwestern Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 10,646 at the 2010 census. It is home to two noted prep schools: Groton School, founded in 1884, and Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 1793. The historic town hosts the National Shepley Hill Horse...
in 1707 during Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War , as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England, later Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. The War of the...
and taken to Canada. Adopted by Mohawk families in Kahnawake, the boys became assimilated: they were baptized as Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, learned the Mohawk ways and were given Mohawk names, married women who were daughters of chiefs, reared children with them, and became chiefs themselves. (For more information on the origins of many last names in Kahnawake, please consult the following page: Origins of Kahnawake Last Names).
Historic sources document the sometimes strained relations between Mohawk and ethnic Europeans on the reserve, usually over property and the competition for limited`resources. In 1722, community residents objected to the garrison of French soldiers because they feared it would cause "horrible discord" and showed the French did not trust the locals. In the mid-1720s, the community evicted the Desaulnier sisters, traders
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
who were garnering profits formerly earned by members of Kahnawake. In 1771, twenty-two Mohawk pressed British officials to help them prevent two local families from bringing French families to settle "on lands reserved for their common use". In 1812, many were opposed to specific types of "mixed" marriages. In 1822, agent Nicolas Doucet reported that the community was growing frustrated by marriages in which white husbands acquired rights over the lives and properties of their Iroquois wives according to British Canadian laws, especially as the Iroquois culture was matrilineal, with descent and property invested in the maternal line.
Abuse of alcohol was a continuing problem. In 1828, the village expelled white traders
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
who were "poisoning" the Iroquois "with rum and spirituous liquors". Tensions rose at the time of the 1837-38 Lower Canada Rebellion
Lower Canada Rebellion
The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...
. The Mohawk had suffered incursions on their land, including non-Natives' taking valuable firewood. The Kahnawake cooperated with the British Crown against the Patriotes, largely over the issue of preserving their land and expressing their collective identity. Before and after the Rebellions, the community was fiercely divided regarding the rights of mixed-race residents, such as Antoine-George de Lorimier (the son of Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier
Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier
Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier was a businessman, official and political figure in Lower Canada. He was also known as Guillaume, Chevalier de Lorimier, Major de Lorimier, and by the Iroquois name Teiohatekon....
), and whether he should be evicted. Although his mother was Mohawk and native to Kahnawake, because of his father's and his own connections to the European community, George de Lorimier became a controversial figure in Kahnawake, even after his death in 1863.
In the 1870s and 1880s, land and resource pressures renewed local concern about ethnic Europeans living at Kahnawake. In addition, the national government's passage of legislation, from enfranchisement to the Indian Advancement Act of 1884, which prohibited traditional chiefs and required Canadian-style elections, split the community and added to tensions. Some young Mohawk men wanted a chance to advance independently to being chiefs; other people wanted to keep the traditional seven life chiefs of the seven clans.
The inequalities in landownership among Kahnawake residents led to resentment of the wealthy. For instance, in 1884, the mixed-race sons of the late George de Lorimier were the largest and wealthiest landowners in the community. Some Kahnawake residents questioned whether people who were not full-blood Mohawk should be allowed to own so much land. The Mohawk Council asked members of the Giasson, Deblois, Meloche, Lafleur, Plante and de Lorimier families to leave, as all were of partial European ancestry. Some, like the de Lorimier brothers, gradually sold their properties and pursued their lives elsewhere. Others, such as Charles Gédéon Giasson, were finally given permanent status at the reserve.
Because the Indian Department did not provide adequate support to the reserve, the community continued to struggle financially. At one point, the Kahnawake chiefs suggested selling the reserve to raise money for annuities
Annuity (US financial products)
In the United States an annuity contract is created when an insured party, usually an individual, pays a life insurance company a single premium that will later be distributed back to the insured party over time...
for the tribe. Social unrest increased, with young men attacking houses, barns and farm animals of people they resented. In May 1878 an arson fire killed Osias Meloche, the husband of Charlotte-Louise Giasson (daughter of Charles Gédéon Giasson, noted above), and their home and barn were destroyed. Under the Walbank Survey, the national government surveyed and subdivided the land of the reserve, allotting some plots individually to each head of household eligible to live in Kahnawake. The violence stopped as the new form of privatisation of land was instituted, but antagonism toward some community members did not.
The election of council chiefs began in 1889, but the influence of Kahnawake's shadow government of traditional clan chiefs persisted. This lasted into the 1920s, when the traditional seven-clan system became absorbed in the Longhouse Movement, which was based on three clans. This was strong through the 1940s.
Contemporary issues
Governance on the reserve has become increasingly limited to the elected Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK). This has been the only body with which the Canadian government would deal.- Membership and residency on the reserve:
With continuing late 20th-century conflicts over who could reside at the reserve, the elected chiefs of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) passed laws regulating membership or eligibility for residence at Kahnawake. In 1981 they ruled that non-natives could not reside in the community and that Mohawk who marry outside of the nation lose the right to live in the homelands. The MCK said that its policy of ethnically exclusive membership was for the preservation of the people's cultural identity. Unlike the earlier years of assimilation, they did not accept those who adopted the Mohawk language or culture. The policy is based on a 1981 moratorium on non-Native residency, which was made law in 1984. All interracial couples were sent eviction notices regardless of how long they had lived on the reserve. The only exemption was for interracial couples married before the 1981 moratorium. Although some concerned Mohawk citizens contested the racially exclusive membership policy, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is an administrative tribunal established in 1977 by the Canadian Human Rights Act. It is directly funded by the Parliament of Canada and is independent of the Canadian Human Rights Commission which refers cases to it for adjudication under the Act.The Tribunal...
ruled that the Mohawk government may adopt policies it deems necessary to ensure the survival of its people.
In February 2010, the issue was renewed when the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake elected to evict 26 non-Natives from the reserve. While the action was legal according to the membership laws, critics believed the council was acting against some people who had lived on the reserve for 10 years or more and made contributions to the community. The council said they were responding to complaints from residents about limited housing and land being occupied by non-Natives. The move, endorsed by all 12 chiefs of the MCK, caused an uproar within and beyond the community, attracting national press attention.
Steve Bonspiel, the editor of the Kahnawake newspaper Eastern Door, said that the issue dated back to 1973, when non-Native people with no ties in the community were asked to leave. Harassment against them became public, even violent. Bonspiel thought the council's threat in 2010 to publish the names of people not eligible to live on the reserve was an inappropriate way to use public pressure against them.
The Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said there is nothing illegal about the band's eviction actions:
"It is important for people to realize that whether I like the decisions or not, these are decisions made by First Nations people on their own land (...) It is not for me to make those decisions, or the Government, and we are not going to be making those decisions."
Ellen Gabriel, The head of Quebec Native Women and a Mohawk resident at Kanesatake, criticized the MCK. She said their actions did not represent the traditional inclusiveness of Mohawk communities, which acculturated adoptees and marriage partners. She criticized the council for interfering in the private lives of persons who had chosen non-Native partners. She noted the Mohawk had long been successful at integrating people within their communities, and have preserved their language and culture over the centuries.
Some residents who received eviction notices agreed to leave; others proved they spend only limited time in the community, so were permitted as visitors. The council said it would send second notices to people who did not respond, and then would publish their names. The governing band council defended its right to ask non-Natives to leave the small community:
"While the media has had a field day with this story and some have used the word 'racist,' we will, once again, state the issue isn't about anyone's feelings towards non-natives, it is simply an issue of residency and our right to determine who can and cannot live on the 13,000 acres we call home," said Mohawk Chief Michael Delisle Jr.
- Restorative JusticeRestorative justiceRestorative justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims, offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender...
:
Before European contact, the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) had a long tradition of justice administered within the clan and council system. The clan would govern the behavior of clan members, and conflict between members of clans would be settled by consensus of the council. Clan mothers as well as chiefs had roles in this system. The goal was to quickly restore peace to the community and control behavior that threatened it. The system was based on the four principles of reason, persuasion, satisfaction and compensation, with both wrongdoer and victim as part of the process, which was to result in "[d]ue compensation and condolence, and a promise of agreement" between the parties.
Many at Kahnawake and other First Nations communities believe their people are not being well served by the Canadian justice system, as First Nations people are over-represented in it and in prisons. They believe this is in part due to the imposition of the Canadian justice system on traditional ways, which the government used to try to assimilate the First Nations into European-based culture. The Canadian government has gradually favored "indigenization" of the system. Kahnawake used section 107 of the Indian Act to nominate community members as justices of the peace, and in 1974 Justice Sharron was appointed as the first justice of the peace at the reserve. Many of the cases have to do with traffic and parking violations, but the scope of the justice has been wider than it appears, as it has jurisdiction over Criminal Code offences related to the following four areas: cruelty to animals, common assault, breaking and entering, and vagrancy. The Kanien’kehá:ka still believed that the system was not satisfactory in terms of incorporating their traditional values.
Since 2000, Kahnawake has started to reintroduce Skenn:en A'onsonton (to become peaceful again), the traditional justice system of the Iroquois. It wanted to create an alternative dispute resolution
Alternative dispute resolution
Alternative Dispute Resolution includes dispute resolution processes and techniques that act as a means for disagreeing parties to come to an agreement short of litigation. ADR basically is an alternative to a formal court hearing or litigation...
process, as developed by the First Nation, or "reintroduced" according to its principles. The initiative was presented to the community jointly by the Justice Committee of the MCK and representatives of the Longhouse. Requiring that the wrongdoing had taken place within the geographic area of Kahnawke, the system is intended for use before any arrest of an affected party under the Canadian system. It has procedures to be used by the victim and offender, and their supporters. With assistance by trained facilitators to resolve issues, the process is intended to restore peace and harmony, rather than to be an adversarial process. In contrast to the Canadian system of adversarial justice,
it "would allow the parties to personalize the process of addressing wrongdoing and in so doing provides the parties with a "new and different choice" to resolve disputes based on traditional principles that the parties can initiate on their own without the involvement of the criminal justice system."
The initiative has challenges, for instance, gaining the support of Peacekeepers and community members who may be increasingly unfamiliar with these traditional cultural principles. But, it is an important means of re-education into principles that offer an alternative to the current Canadian system, and helps build a future especially for the young people of the community.
Major construction projects
Historically, the federal and Quebec governments have often located large civil engineeringCivil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
projects benefiting the southern Quebec economy through Kahnawake land because of its proximity to the St. Lawrence River. The reserve is criss-crossed by power line
Electric power transmission
Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
s from hydroelectric plants, rail
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
and vehicle highway
Highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
s and bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s. One of the first of such projects was the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
's Saint Lawrence Bridge. The masonry work was done by Reid & Fleming, and the steel superstructure was built by the Dominion Bridge Company
Dominion Bridge Company
Dominion Bridge Company Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of holding tanks for pulp mills and skyscraper framing.Other...
. In 1886 and 1887, the new bridge was built across the broad river from Kahnawake to Montreal Island. Kahnawake men worked as bridgemen and ironworker
Ironworker
Ironworker is a class of machines that can shear, notch, and punch holes in steel plate. Ironworkers generate force using mechanical advantage or hydraulic systems. Modern systems use hydraulic rams powered by a heavy alternating current electric motor. High strength carbon steel blades and dies...
s hundreds of feet above the water and ground.
Their success started the legend that Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
men have no fear of heights. Numerous Kahnawake men continued as ironworkers in Canada, with many also going to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to work during the first half of the 20th century, as a building boom produced notable skyscrapers. Thirty-three Kahnawake (Mohawk) died in the collapse of the Quebec Bridge
Quebec Bridge
right|thumb|Lifting the centre span in place was considered to be a major engineering achievement. Photo caption from [[Popular Mechanics]] Magazine, December 1917...
in 1907, one of the worst construction failures of all time. The small community was devastated by the loss of so many men. Crosses of steel girders were erected at both ends of the reserve in honor of the men.
For more than a generation, many Kahnawake men participated in building the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
, and other major skyscrapers in New York City, as well as many bridges. They brought their families with them, and most Mohawk from Kahnawake lived in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. They called their neighborhood "Little Caughnawaga". While the men worked on skyscrapers, the women created a strong community for their families. Many also worked outside the home. In the summers, the families would return to Kahnawake to stay with relatives and renew connections. Some of the people who lived in Brooklyn as children still have the New York accent, although they have long lived in Kahnawake.
When the national government decided to pass the Saint Lawrence Seaway
Saint Lawrence Seaway
The Saint Lawrence Seaway , , is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal...
canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
cut through the village, the people and buildings of Kahnawake were permanently separated from the natural river shore. The loss of land and access to the river, the demolition of houses, and the change in the community's relationship to the river have had profound effects on Kahnawake. The people had been sited there for hundreds of years, and their identities were related to a profound knowledge of the river, from the time they were children through adulthood. One effect of the losses was to make the community determined not to suffer more encroachment. They drew together and became stronger.
Gambling/gaming
The Kahnawake Gaming CommissionKahnawake Gaming Commission
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is a gaming regulatory body that licenses and regulates a large number of online casinos, online poker rooms and online sportsbook sites, as well as three land-based poker rooms that are situated within the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake.The Commission was first...
offers gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
licenses to Internet-based poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
, casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
, and sportsbook
Sportsbook
In the United States a sportsbook or a race and sports book is a place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, including golf, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, horse racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies with the sport and the type of...
sites. It has established Kahnawake as a substantial player in that business.
Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT), a local data center
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
located within the territory, hosts and manages many Internet gambling websites, also providing high-tech employment to its people. MIT is the closest and fastest source for "legally hosted" gambling websites for North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n players. Established in 1998, MIT has become a "remarkably profitable" enterprise.
Politics
Fifty men from Kahnawake volunteered to fight with the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
armed forces during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
While working to strengthen their culture and language, the people of Kahnawake have generally not had the political turmoil that has affected the nearby, smaller Kanesatake
Kanesatake, Quebec
Kanehsatake is a Mohawk settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains at the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada, near Montreal. The Doncaster 17 Indian Reserve also belongs to the Mohawk of Kanesatake. The population of the community is 1700.The community was formally founded...
Mohawk reserve. In support of Kanesatake during the Oka Crisis
Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada which began on July 11, 1990 and lasted until September 26, 1990. At least one person died as a result...
in 1990, people from Kahnawake blocked the Honoré Mercier Bridge
Honoré Mercier Bridge
The Honoré Mercier Bridge in Quebec, Canada, connects the Montreal borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal with the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake and the suburb of Châteauguay on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It is the most direct southerly route from the island of Montreal toward...
to Montreal. This was in response to Kanesatake's having been blockaded by the Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...
. After some time, Kahnawake negotiated separately with the armed forces to remove the blockade.
Both the Canadian and Quebec governments dispute the legality of Kahnawake's gambling operations, but have not taken further action. They were strongly criticized for inappropriate responses and actions during the Oka Crisis.
International use of Kahnawake flag
In 2007, two vessels operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation SocietySea Shepherd
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a non-profit, marine conservation organization based in Friday Harbor, Washington in the United States. The group uses direct action tactics to protect sealife...
flew the Kahnawake Mohawk flag. The Kahnawake Mohawk nation is the only indigenous American sovereign nation to have deep-sea foreign-going vessels flying its flag. Since December 2007 the Sea Shepherd vessels have been registered in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Notable residents
- Alwyn MorrisAlwyn MorrisAlwyn Morris, CM is a Canadian sprint kayaker who competed in the 1980s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won two medals at Los Angeles in 1984 with a gold in the K-2 1000 m and a bronze in the K-2 500 m events....
- won a gold medal for Canada at the 1984 Olympics1984 Summer OlympicsThe 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
in Canoe/Kayak (K2) - Waneek Horn-Miller- Co-Captain of the Canadian National Women's Water Polo team at the 2000 Olympics
- Chief Don Eagle - former AWA World Wrestling champion, gaining the title in 1950
- Billy Two RiversBilly Two RiversBilly Two Rivers , born May 5, 1935, is a retired Canadian professional wrestler. He began wrestling professionally in 1953 and competed until 1977. During his career, he wrestled in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada. After retiring from wrestling, he became a leader of the...
- former pro wrestler and member of Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. - Mary Two Axe Early (1911–1996), champion of Native Women's rights, she played a major role in having Bill C-31 implemented in Canada, and received major honors.
- Kateri TekakwithaKateri TekakwithaKateri Tekakwitha or Catherine Tekakwitha was a Mohawk-Algonquian woman from New York and an early convert to Catholicism, who has been beatified in the Roman Catholic Church.-Her life:...
(1656–1680) - beatified on June 22, 1980 by Pope John Paul II. - Louis Jackson (1843-?) - author of Our Caughnawaga's in Egypt: A Narrative of what was seen and accomplished by the contingent of North American Indian voyageurs who led the British boat expedition for the relief of KhartoumKhartoumKhartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
up the cataracts of the Nile (1885). - Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate)- Noted Mohawk poet http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A18. American Book Award winner, 1981.
- Alex RiceAlex RiceAlexandrea Kawisenhawe Rice born in 1972 in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, is a First Nation actress.-Early life:Alex Rice is a Kanien'kehaka born in 1972 in Kahnawake, Quebec, and is proud of her Mohawk heritage. She is also a member of the Rice family of Kahnawake, having descended from Edmund...
- actress featured in numerous TV and film roles. - Joseph Tokwiro Norton - former Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Chief and owner of Tokwiro EnterprisesTokwiro EnterprisesCereus Poker Network is an online poker network comprising Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Cereus is owned by a private company, Blanca Games. Blanca Games purchased all Network assets in August 2010 from Tokwiro Enterprises. The Cereus network was one of the world's ten largest online poker...
, the parent company of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. - Mike Kanentakeron Phillips- actor featured is numerous TV and film roles, most notably in The Last of the MohicansThe Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)The Last of the Mohicans is a 1992 historical epic film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War and produced by Morgan Creek Pictures. It was directed by Michael Mann and based on James Fenimore Cooper's novel of the same name, although it owes more to George B. Seitz's 1936 film adaptation...
. - Tracey DeerTracey DeerTracey Deer is a Mohawk film director and newspaper publisher. Deer has written and directed several award-winning rojects for the Aboriginal-run film and television production company, Rezolution Pictures, as well as her own independent short work...
- two-time Gemini AwardGemini AwardThe Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
-winning filmmaker and co-publisher of The Eastern Door, a weekly online newspaper based on the reserve. - Greg Horn (journalist) - photojournalist and publisher/editor of Iorì:wase (www.kahnawakenews.com)
- John Kim Bell (1952 - ) - Conductor, first Aboriginal person to conduct a symphony orchestra
- Kaniehtiio HornKaniehtiio HornKaniehtiio Horn is a Mohawk actress. She was nominated for a Gemini Award for her role in the television film Moccasin Flats: Redemption...
- film and television actress - Derek White - Official Nascar Driver-Nascar Camping World Truck Series, Nascar Canadian Tire Series
Media
Kahnawake has several media outlets:- CKKI-FMCKKI-FMCKKI-FM is a Canadian radio station in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, near Montreal, Quebec. The station currently airs a country music format. Its studios are located on the reserve in a residential house on Route 207....
89.9 - CKRK-FMCKRK-FMCKRK-FM is an English-language Canadian radio station located in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, a First Nations reserve near Montreal, Quebec....
103.7 - Mohawk Radio, an Internet-based radio station
- Mohawk TV/Loud Spirit Productions
- CKER The Seeker
- Kwatokent TV,, a bi-weekly informational program produced by The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake
- Iorì:wase News, online newspaper of the Kanien’kéhá:ka Nation
- The Eastern Door, a weekly newspaper that publishes each Friday
Schools
- Kahnawake Survival School (aka K.S.S.); high school
- Kateri School; elementary school
- Karonhianonhnha School; elementary school
- Indian Way School; elementary school
- Karihwanoron Mohawk Immersion School; elementary school with Mohawk language immersion
- Step By Step Child and Family Centre; early learning/nursery
- Kahnawake Learning Centre. general education centre, high school
See also
- Kahnawake surnamesKahnawake surnamesThe Mohawk Nation reserve of Kahnawake, near Montreal, Quebec, Canada, includes residents with surnames of Mohawk, French, Scots and English ancestry, reflecting the adoption of European children into the community, as well as intermarriage with local colonial settlers over the life of the early...
- The Kahnawake Iroquois and the Rebellions of 1837-38
- Mohawk GirlsMohawk GirlsMohawk Girls is a 2005 documentary film by Tracey Deer about the experiences of adolescent girls growing up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal...
and Club NativeClub NativeClub Native is a 2008 documentary film by Tracey Deer, exploring Mohawk identity, community and tribal blood quantum laws. The film looks at women how women in Deer's home community of Kahnawake risk losing their right to live on the reserve, after marrying non-natives.The film received the Canada...
, documentaries about life in Kahnawake by Tracey Deer
External links
- Mohawk Council of Kahnawake
- Mohawk Internet Technologies
- "The Revival of the Mohawk Language in Kahnawake"
- The Kanawaki Golf Club - A private club which leases land from the Mohawk Council
- Reaghan Tarbell, To Brooklyn and Back: A Mohawk Journey, documentary aired 2 November 2009, PBS, produced by National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...