Mohawk- Kanien’kehá:ka

People of the Flint

The Mohawk people - Kanienʼkehá꞉ka, are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east.

Historically, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka people were originally based in the valley of the Mohawk River in present-day upstate New York, west of the Hudson River. Their territory ranged north to the St. Lawrence River, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario; south to greater New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to the Green Mountains of Vermont; and westward to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation's traditional homeland territory. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_people

Communities and Territories

Members of the Kanienʼkehá:ka people now live in settlements in northern New York State and southeastern Canada.

Many Kanienʼkehá:ka communities have two sets of chiefs, who are in some sense competing governmental rivals. One group are the hereditary chiefs nominated by Clan Mother matriarchs in the traditional Kanienʼkehá꞉ka fashion. Kanienʼkehá꞉ka of most of the reserves have established constitutions with elected chiefs and councilors, with whom the Canadian and U.S. governments usually prefer to deal exclusively. The self-governing communities are listed below, grouped by broad geographical cluster, with notes on the character of community governance found in each.

Northern New York:

• Kanièn:ke (Ganienkeh) "Place of the flint". Traditional governance.
• Kanaʼtsioharè:ke "Place of the washed pail". Traditional governance.

Along the St Lawrence in Quebec:

• Ahkwesáhsne (St. Regis, New York and Quebec/Ontario, Canada) "Where the partridge drums".

Traditional governance, band/tribal elections.

• Kahnawà:ke (south of Montréal) "On the rapids". Canada, traditional governance, band/tribal elections.
• Kaʼnehsatà:ke (Oka) "Where the snow crust is". Canada, traditional governance, band/tribal elections.
• Tioweró:ton (Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Quebec). Canada, shared governance between Kahnawà꞉ke and Kaʼnehsatà꞉ke.

Southern Ontario:

• Kenhtè꞉ke (Tyendinaga) "On the bay". Traditional governance, band/tribal elections.
• Wáhta (Gibson) "Maple tree". Traditional governance, band/tribal elections.
• Ohswé:ken "Six Nations of the Grand River". Traditional governance, band/tribal elections. The Kanienʼkehá꞉ka form the majority of the population of this Iroquois Six Nations reserve. There are also Kanienʼkehá꞉ka Orange Lodges in Canada.

Given increased activism for land claims, a rise in tribal revenues due to establishment of gaming on certain reserves or reservations, competing leadership, traditional government jurisdiction, issues of taxation, and the Indian Act, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka communities have been dealing with considerable internal conflict since the late 20th century. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_people

History

Like the other Iroquois tribes, the Mohawk were semisedentary. Women engaged in corn (maize) agriculture; men hunted during the fall and winter and fished during the summer. Related families lived together in longhouses, a symbol of Iroquois society. Each Mohawk community also had a local council that guided the village chief or chiefs.

According to some traditional accounts, the Mohawk visionary chief Dekanawida, who preached principles of peace, was instrumental in founding the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mohawk had nine representatives in the confederacy, three each from their Turtle, Wolf, and Bear clans. As with other Iroquois-speaking tribes, the Mohawk warred frequently against neighbouring Algonquian-speakers; the Dutch introduction of firearms during the fur trade increased the number of Mohawk victories. After contact with Europeans, however, the tribe diminished rapidly because of introduced diseases such as smallpox. Most Mohawk allied with the British in the French and Indian War, but some Catholic converts at mission settlements in Canada espoused the French cause and guided expeditions against their former alliance brothers. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mohawk

In the upper Hudson and Mohawk Valley regions, the Mohawks long had contact with the Algonquian-speaking Mohican people, who occupied territory along the Hudson River, as well as other Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples to the north around the Great Lakes. The Mohawks had extended their own influence into the St. Lawrence River Valley, which they maintained for hunting grounds. They are believed to have defeated the St. Lawrence Iroquoians in the 16th century, and kept control of their territory. In addition to hunting and fishing for centuries the Mohawks cultivated productive maize fields on the fertile floodplains along the Mohawk River, west of the Pine Bush.

Dutch Influence

In the seventeenth century, the Mohawk encountered both the Dutch, who went up the Hudson River and established a trading post in 1614 at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, and the French, who came south into their territory from New France (present-day Quebec). The Dutch were primarily merchants and the French also conducted fur trading. During this time the Mohawk fought with the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade with the Europeans. Their Jesuit missionaries were active among First Nations and Native Americans, seeking converts to Catholicism.

The trading relations between the Mohawk and Dutch helped them maintain peace even during the periods of Kieft's War and the Esopus Wars, when the Dutch fought localized battles with other native peoples. In addition, Dutch trade partners equipped the Mohawk with guns to fight against other First Nations who were allied with the French, including the Ojibwe, Huron-Wendat, and Algonquin. In 1645, the Mohawk made peace for a time with the French, who were trying to keep a piece of the fur trade.

War

During the second and third quarters of the 18th century, most of the Mohawks in the Province of New York lived along the Mohawk River at Canajoharie. A few lived at Schoharie, and the rest lived about 30 miles downstream at the Tionondorage Castle, also called Fort Hunter. These two major settlements were traditionally called the Upper Castle and the Lower Castle. The Lower Castle was almost contiguous with Sir Peter Warren's Warrensbush. Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, built his first house on the north bank of the Mohawk River almost opposite Warrensbush and established the settlement of Johnstown.

The Mohawk were among the four Iroquois people that allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War. They had a long trading relationship with the British and hoped to gain support to prohibit colonists from encroaching into their territory in the Mohawk Valley. Joseph Brant acted as a war chief and successfully led raids against British and ethnic German colonists in the Mohawk Valley, who had been given land by the British administration near the rapids at present-day Little Falls, New York.

A few prominent Mohawk, such as the sachem Little Abraham (Tyorhansera) at Fort Hunter, remained neutral throughout the war. Joseph Louis Cook (Akiatonharónkwen), a veteran of the French and Indian War and ally of the rebels, offered his services to the Americans, receiving an officer's commission from the Continental Congress. He led Oneida warriors against the British. During this war, Johannes Tekarihoga was the civil leader of the Mohawk. He died around 1780. Catherine Crogan, a clan mother and wife of Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant, named her brother Henry Crogan as the new Tekarihoga.

In retaliation for Brant's raids in the valley, the rebel colonists organized Sullivan's Expedition. It conducted extensive raids against other Iroquois settlements in central and western New York, destroying 40 villages, crops, and winter stores. Many Mohawk and other Iroquois migrated to Canada for refuge near Fort Niagara, struggling to survive the winter.

After the American victory, the British ceded their claim to land in the colonies, and the Americans forced their allies, the Mohawks and others, to give up their territories in New York. Most of the Mohawks migrated to Canada, where the Crown gave them some land in compensation. The Mohawks at the Upper Castle fled to Fort Niagara, while most of those at the Lower Castle went to villages near Montreal.

Joseph Brant led a large group of Iroquois out of New York to what became the reserve of the Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario. Brant continued as a political leader of the Mohawks for the rest of his life. This land extended 100 miles from the head of the Grand River to the head of Lake Erie where it discharges. Another Mohawk war chief, John Deseronto, led a group of Mohawk to the Bay of Quinte. Other Mohawks settled in the vicinity of Montreal and upriver, joining the established communities (now reserves) at Kahnawake, Kanesatake, and Akwesasne. On November 11, 1794, representatives of the Mohawk (along with the other Iroquois nations) signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States, which allowed them to own land there.

The Mohawks fought as allies of the British against the United States in the War of 1812.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_people

Modernity

Members of the Mohawk tribe now live in settlements in northern New York State and southeastern Canada.

Although they are involved in many professions, contemporary Mohawk people may be best known for their work on high steel construction projects, including the Empire State Building and the George Washington Bridge, both in New York City. For some individuals this dangerous work may represent a continuation of the Mohawk ideals of bravery and personal risk taking for the greater good. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mohawk

In 1971 the Mohawk Warrior Society, also Rotisken’rakéhte in the Mohawk language, was founded in Kahnawake. The duties of the Warrior Society are to use roadblocks, evictions, and occupations to gain rights for their people, and these tactics are also used among the warriors to protect the environment from pollution. The notable movements started by the Mohawk Warrior Society have been the Oka Crisis blockades in 1990 and the Caledonia occupation of a construction site in Summer 2020. As an act of solidarity, they renamed the street the construction site sits on to "1492 Land Back Lane".

Casinos

Both the elected chiefs and the Warrior Society have encouraged gambling as a means of ensuring tribal self-sufficiency on the various reserves or Indian reservations. Traditional chiefs have tended to oppose gaming on moral grounds and out of fear of corruption and organized crime. Such disputes have also been associated with religious divisions: the traditional chiefs are often associated with the Longhouse tradition, practicing consensus-democratic values, while the Warrior Society has attacked that religion and asserted independence. Meanwhile, the elected chiefs have tended to be associated (though in a much looser and general way) with democratic, legislative and Canadian governmental values.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_people

Notable People

• Tammy Beauvais, Mohawk fashion designer
• Beth Brant, Mohawk writer and poet
• Chief Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea of the Six Nations, Mohawk leader, British officer
• Konwatsiasiaienni, Mohawk leader, sister of Joseph Brant
• Joseph Tehawehron David, Mohawk artist
• Esther Louise Georgette Deer, Mohawk dancer and singer
• Tracey Deer, Mohawk filmmaker
• Captain John "Odeserundiye" Deserontyon, U.E.L., Mohawk chief
• Canaqueese, called Flemish Bastard, Mohawk chief
• Carla Hemlock, quilter, beadwork artist
• Donald "Babe" Hemlock, woodcarver, sculptor
• Hiawatha, Mohawk chief
• Captain David Karonghyontye Hill, Astawenserontha, Mohawk leader
• Kahn-Tineta Horn, activist
• Kaniehtiio Horn, film and television actress
• Waneek Horn-Miller, Olympic water polo player
• Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, actress
• Sid Jamieson, lacrosse player, coach
• Chief George Henry Johnson, Mohawk chief and interpreter
• Pauline Johnson, writer
• Stan Jonathan, former NHL hockey player
• Maurice Kenny, author
• Captain William John Simcoe Kerr - Mohawk/Turtle Clan, Tekarihogea, hereditary chief of the Mohawk [one of the last such chiefs of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)]
• Mary Leaf, basketmaker
• Dawn Martin-Hill, professor
• Derek Miller, singer-songwriter
• Patricia Monture-Angus, lawyer, activist, educator, and author
• Alwyn Morris, Olympic K–2 1000m.
• Shelley Niro (b. 1954), filmmaker, photographer, and installation artist
• John Norton, Scottish born, adopted into the Mohawk First Nation and made an honorary "Pine Tree Chief"
• Richard Oakes, Mohawk activist
• Ots-Toch Hartell, wife of Dutch colonist Cornelius A. Van Slyck
• Alex Rice, actress
• Robbie Robertson, singer-songwriter, The Band
• August Schellenberg, actor
• Jay Silverheels, actor
• Skawennati, multimedia artist and curator
• Taiaiake Alfred, professor and activist
• Kiawentiio Tarbell, actress, singer-songwriter, and visual artist
• Julian Taylor, rock singer (Staggered Crossing, Julian Taylor Band)
• Hendrick Tejonihokarawa Mohawk chief of the Wolf Clan. One of the four kings to visit England to see Queen Anne to ask for help fighting the French.
• Sainte Kateri Tekakwitha "Lily of the Mohawks", a Catholic saint
• Mary Two-Axe Earley, women's rights activist
• Billy Two Rivers, professional wrestler
• Oronhyatekha, Physician, Scholar
• Tom Wilson, rock singer (Junkhouse, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond)

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https://www.historic-albany.org/news/2021/3/29/the-mohawks-and-mahi...
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mohawk-indians/
https://web.archive.org/web/20070928193936/http://www.mbq-tmt.org/
https://archive.org/details/turtleswolvesbea00sive