Mohawk

This article is about the people known as "Mohawk". For other uses, see Mohawk.

Mohawk
Total population
28,000
Regions with significant populations
Canada (Quebec, Ontario) 13,000  United States (New York) 15,000
Languages
English, Mohawk
Religions
Christianity, Longhouse
Related ethnic groups
other Iroquoian peoples

The Mohawk were one of the five core tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy founded between 1450 and 1600. The Mohawk leader, Hiawatha, and Huron prophet, Deganawida, worked together to bring the original tribes together under a peaceful constitution called "The Great Binding Law". It is reported that this document informed the founding fathers of the United States when drafting the constitution for a new nation. The American Revolutionary War divided the Iroquois between Canada and the United States with an exodus led by the Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant, to Canada following the victory of the Americans. In 1763, "council fires were extinguished for the first time in roughly 200 years."

Introduction

The Mohawk (Kanienkeh, Kanienkehaka or Kanien’Kahake, meaning "People of the Flint") are an indigenous people of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario. Their current settlements include areas around Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River in Canada. ("Canada" itself is a Mohawk word.) Their traditional homeland stretches from south of the Mohawk River, east to the Green Mountains of Vermont, west to its border with the Oneida Nation, and north to the St Lawrence River. As original members of the Iroquois League, or Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk were known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door" who guarded the Iroquois Confederation against invasion from that direction. (It was from the east that European settlers first appeared, sailing up the Hudson River to found Albany, New York, in the early 1600s.)

Joseph Brant, painted in London by leading court painter George Romney in 1776

History

A 1634 Dutch expedition from Fort Orange (present-day Albany, New York) to the Mohawk settlements to the west was led by a surgeon named Harmen van den Bogaert. At the time of the expedition there were only eight villages (from east to west): Onekahoncka, Canowarode, Schatsyerosy, Canagere, Schanidisse, Osquage, Cawaoge, and Tenotoge. All villages were on the south side of the river, between present-day Fonda and Fort Plain. The first (Onekahoncka) being situated on the south side of the Mohawk River where it meets the Cayadutta Creek, and the last being on the south side of the Mohawk River where it meets the Caroga Creek.

During the seventeenth century, the Mohawks were allied with the Dutch at Fort Orange, New Netherland. Their Dutch trade partners equipped the Mohawks to fight against other nations allied with the French, including the Ojibwes, Huron-Wendats, and Algonquins. After the fall of New Netherland to the English, the Mohawks became allies of the English Crown. From the 1690s, they underwent a period of Christianization, during which many were baptized with English first names.

During the era of the French and Indian War, Anglo-Mohawk relations were maintained by men such as Sir William Johnson (for the British Crown), Conrad Weiser (on behalf of the colony of Pennsylvania), and King Hendrick (for the Mohawks). The Albany Congress of 1754 was called in part to repair the damaged diplomatic relationship between the British and Mohawks.

Because of unsettled conflicts with Anglo-American settlers infiltrating into the Mohawk Valley and outstanding treaty obligations to the Crown, the Mohawks generally fought against the United States during the American Revolutionary War, the Northwest Indian War, and the War of 1812. After the American victory in the revolutionary war, one prominent Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant, led a large group of Iroquois out of New York to a new homeland at Six Nations of the Grand River, Ontario. On November 11, 1794, representatives of the Mohawks (along with the other Iroquois nations) signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States.

One large group of Mohawks settled in the vicinity of Montreal. From this group descend the Mohawks of Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanesatake. One of the most famous Catholic Mohawks was Kateri, who was later beatified.

The Mohawk Nation, as part of the Iroquois Confederacy, were recognised for some time by the British government, and the Confederacy was a participant in the Congress of Vienna, having been allied with the British during the War of 1812 which was viewed by the British as part of the Napoleonic Wars. However, in 1842 their legal existence was overlooked in Lord Durham's report on the reform and organization of the Canadas.

Members of the Mohawk tribe now live in settlements spread throughout New York State and southeastern Canada. Among these are Ganienkeh and Kanatsiohareke in northeast New York, Akwesasne (St. Regis) along the Ontario-New York State border, Kanesatake (Oka) and Kahnawake in southern Quebec, and Tyendinaga and Wahta (Gibson) in southern Ontario. Mohawks also form the majority on the mixed Iroquois reserve, Six Nations of the Grand River, in Ontario.

There are also Mohawk Orange Lodges in Canada.

Many Mohawk communities have two sets of chiefs that exist in parallel and are in some sense rivals. One group are the hereditary chiefs nominated by clan matriarchs in the traditional fashion; the other are elected chiefs with whom the Canadian and US governments usually deal exclusively. Since the 1980s, Mohawk politics have been driven by factional disputes over gambling. Both the elected chiefs and the controversial Warrior Society have encouraged gaming as a means of ensuring tribal self-sufficiency on the various reserves/reservations, while traditional chiefs have opposed 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 concensus-democratic values, while Warrior Society has attacked that religion in favor of their rebellious nature. Meanwhile, the elected chiefs have tended to be associated (though in a much looser and general way) with democratic values. The Government of Canada when ruling the Indians imposed English schooling and separated families to place children in English boarding schools. Like other tribes, Mohawks have mostly lost their native language and many have left the reserve to meld with the English Canadian culture.

On October 15, 1993, Governor Mario Cuomo entered into the "Tribal-State Compact Between the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and the State of New York." The compact purported to allow the Tribe to conduct gambling, including games such as baccarat, blackjack, craps and roulette, on the Akwesasne Reservation in Franklin County under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

According to the terms of the 1993 compact, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, the New York State Police and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Gaming Commission were vested with gaming oversight. Law enforcement responsibilities fell under the cognizance of the State Police, with some law enforcement matters left to the Tribe. As required by IGRA, the compact was approved by the United States Department of the Interior before it took effect. There were a number of extensions and amendments to this compact, but not all of them were approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

On June 12, 2003, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the lower courts' rulings that then Governor Cuomo exceeded his authority by entering into the compact absent legislative authorization and declared the compact void [1]. On October 19, 2004, Governor George Pataki signed a bill passed by the State Legislature that ratified the compact 'nunc pro tunc' (Latin for "now for then," or, with a retroactive effect) with some minor changes (see C. 590 of the Laws of 2004).

The tribe is currently pursuing obtaining approval to own and operate a casino in Sullivan County, NY at Monticello Raceway. The U.S. Department of the Interior has so far approved of this action and is awaiting Governor Eliot Spitzer's concurrance subject to the negotiation and approval of either an amendment to the current compact or a new compact and for the land to be taken into trust.

There are currently pending two lawsuits which may affect the plans for a new casino in Sullivan County. The first is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York which claims that the Department of the Interior cannot take land into trust for any Indian nation or Tribe in New York under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 [2]. The State of New York has expressed similar objections in its responses to take land into trust for other Indian nations and tribes [3]. The other contends that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act violates the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as it is applied in the State of New York and is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York [4].

Origins of name

The name of the Mohawk people in the Mohawk language is Kanien'kehá:ka, alternately attributed various spellings by early French-settler ethnographers including one such spelling as, Canyenkehaka. There are various theories as to why the Mohawk were called the "Mohawk" by Europeans. One theory holds that the name "Mohawk" was bestowed upon the tribe by German mercenaries and immigants settled near Fort Orange in Mohawk Valley that were fighting with the British troops, who, mistaking by a personal pidgin in relation with others they had intertwined, derived the well known pronunciation for the Kanien'kehá:ka tribe as "Moackh." An English language corruption of pronunciation turned the original Mohawk Valley German-Dutch pidgin of the Kanien' kehá:ka name into the current pronunciation of "Mohawk." A widely-accepted theory is that the name is a combination of the Narraganset word for "man-eaters" (Mohowawog), the Unami term for "cannibal-monsters" (Mhuweyek), an Algonquin term for "ate living creatures" (Mohowaugs), and the Ojibwe term for "bears" (Mawkwas) .

The Dutch referred to the Mohawk as Maquasen, or Maquas. To the French they were Agniers, Maquis, or simply Iroquois.

Statue of Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha (based on Longfellow's story)

People of the Flint

To the Mohawk themselves, they are Kanien'kehá:ka and "People of the Flint." The use of People of the Flint is associated with their origins in the Mohawk Valley , and their original homeland in the United States, New York. There, flint deposits were traditionally used in Mohawk bow arrows, and as Toolmaking Flint.

Culture

Religion

According to tradition, a supreme creator, Orenda, was recognized in the festivals held for harvest, maple sap, strawberries, and corn. An eight day event in midwinter was held to forgive past wrongs.

In the early nineteenth century the teachings of Handsome Lake became popular. Handsome Lake was a Seneca who taught about Jesus and also blended the traditional celebrations with Christian-style confessions of sin and urged Native Americans to stay away from alcohol. His teachings eventually were incorporated into the Longhouse religion, which continues to have followers today.

Government

There were 50 chiefs (Sachems) of the Iroquois League. All the chiefs were men. The Cayuga sent ten men to the great council each fall. The Great Pipe was the symbol of their gathering. The Cayuga belonged to the "younger brother" division. There was a chief or headman in each village. The decision at all levels was based on consensus which included women, who could act as regents.

"The creators of the U.S. government used the Iroquois League as a model of democracy." The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation was titled, The Great Binding Law, Gayanashagowa. It opens with this line: " I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodarhoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are Firekeepers.'

Customs

There were nine known clans of Cayuga composed of matrilineal, animal named family groups. Women enjoyed a high level of prestige and were in charge of village events including marriage. Sports included gambling.

Shamans cured with a variety of medicinal plants including tobacco. The dead were placed in sitting position with tools and food for the afterlife. Suicide was a method of addressing loss of status or honor.

History

Iroquois Six-Nations map c.1720

The original five Iroquois tribes were united between 1450 and 1600 by a Mohawk statesman, Hiawatha, and religious leader, Deganawida. Hiawatha went from tribe to tribe speaking for Deganawida who had a speech impediment. Scholars write that a "Clan Mother," Jigonsaseh, was also a co-founder of the Confederacy. The tribes that united were Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca. The purpose for the uniting was to end the inter-tribal wars and bring peace and well-being to all of the tribes. A sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined later after the confederacy was formed.

The Cayuga, as well as other Iroquois tribes, met white explorers in the sixteenth century. In 1656, Jesuit missionaries Joseph Chaumanot and René Menard came to the area from Onondaga territory, said to be invited by the Cayuga chief Saonchiogwa. They were followed later by Étienne de Carheil and Pierre Raffeix. The Jesuits built the first Christian church west of Onondaga territory in Goiogouen, which they called St. Joseph.

Goiogouen, also known as Cayuga Castle, was a major village of the Cayuga. It was located on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake on the north side of the Great Gully Brook, about ten miles south of the large seventeenth-century Cayuga town of Tiohero; and approximately along the southern line of the modern-day township of Springport, New York. It was located about four miles north from Chonodote, the present-day location of the village of Aurora, New York and about two miles south of the village of Union Springs, New York.

At the first visit of the Jesuits, Goiogouen was described as "a village [of] long houses with ridge-pole roofs covered with elm bark... in the midst of fields of corn which extended to the edge of the forest." In 1671, Raffeix described the country surrounding Goiogouen as follows:

Goiogouen is the fairest country I have seen in America. It is a tract between two lakes and not exceeding four leagues in width, consisting of almost uninterrupted plains, the woods bordering it are extremely beautiful. Around Goiogouen there are killed more than a thousand deer annually. Fish, salmon, as well as eels and other fish are plentiful. Four leagues from here I saw by the side of a river (Seneca) ten extremely fine salt springs.

At the time of the American Revolution, Goiogouen consisted of "fifteen very large square log houses" (longhouses), deemed to be very well built by the scouting parties of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign; and "in the vicinity...were one hundred and ten acres of corn; besides apples, peaches, potatoes, turnips, onions, pumpkins, squashes and other vegetables in abundance." The village was destroyed by these American troops on September 23, 1779.

Chonodote was an eighteenth-century village of the Cayuga, located about four and a half miles from Goiogouen. Earlier, during the seventeenth century, this village was known as Deawendote, or "Village of the Constant Dawn." Archaeological digging has pinpointed the likely location of Chonodote on the northern end of Aurora. Potsherds have been found and evidence of the use of coal in the 1770s was discovered.

Chonodote was known as "Peachtown" to the American army because of its orchard of over a thousand peach trees. It consisted of about fourteen longhouses. On September 26, 1779, the village became the last one to be destroyed by the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, under the command of William Butler:

As remorseless as a cannon shot, the axe leveled every tree though burdened with its loads of luscious fruit, and the freshly ripened corn was gathered only to be destroyed. At 10 o'clock a.m., the torch was applied to the dwellings, and as the crackling flames lifted their fiery heads over this scene of havoc and destruction.

The Cayuga became involved in fur trade with the French during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, going to war over trapping territories as far south as Virginia. During the American Revolutionary War, the alliance split loyalty between the British and anti-British factions. Most Cayuga sided with the English. After the British defeat many Cayuga moved to Canada where they were given land in recognition of their loyalty to the Crown.

On November 11, 1794, the (New York) Cayuga Nation (along with the other Haudenosaunee nations) signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States. The treaty established peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Six Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and affirmed Haudenosaunee land rights in New York State.

Traditional Mohawk hair

The Mohawks, like many indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes region, sometimes wore a hair style in which all their hair would be cut off except for a narrow strip down the middle of the scalp from the forehead to the nape, that was approximately three finger widths across. This style was only used by warriors going off to war. The Mohawks saw their hair as a connection to the creator, and therefore grew it long. But when they went to war, they cut all or some of it off, leaving that narrow strip. The women wore their hair long often with traditional Bear Grease or tied back into a single braid. Today the hairstyle of the Mohawk is still called a Mohawk (or, in Britain, a "Mohican," because this enemy-tribe used it as a disguise during war).

Traditional Mohawk dress

Traditional dress of the Kanien'kehá:ka consisted of women going topless with a skirt of deerskin or a full woodland deerskin dress, long fashioned hair or a braid and Bear Grease otherwise nothing on their head, several ear piercings adorned by shell earings, shell necklaces, and puckered seam moccasins. The men wore a breech cloth of deerskin in summer, deerskin leggings and a full piece deerskin shirt in winter, several shell strand earrings, shell necklaces, long fashioned hair or a three finger width forehead to nape hair row which stood approxiamtely three inches from the head, and puckered seamed moccasins. During summer children wore nothing and went naked even until about age fourteen. Later dress after European contact combined some cloth pieces such as the males ribbon shirt in addition to the place of the deerskin clothing.

Mohawk communities today

These are grouped by broad geographical cluster, with notes on the character of community governance found in each.

• inland New York:
  • Ganienkeh. Warrior Society.
  • Kanatsiohareke. Traditional chiefs.
• along the St Lawrence:
  • Akwesasne/St.Regis. Traditional chiefs, elected chiefs on US side, elected chiefs on Canadian side. The Warrior society is also active.
  • Kanesatake/Oka
  • Kahnawake. Elected chiefs, traditional chiefs, Warrior Society.
• southern Ontario:
  • Tyendinaga. Elected chiefs.
  • Wahta/Gibson in southern Ontario. Elected chiefs, (traditional chiefs?).
  • Six Nations of the Grand River. Elected chiefs, traditional chiefs.
    • Bay of Quinte Mohawk
    • Upper Mohawk
    • Lower Mohawk
    • Walker Mohawk

Contemporary Issues

File:Oka stare down.jpg

Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimeter sentry, and Mohawk Warrior Brad "Freddy Krueger" Larocque, a University of Saskatchewan economics student, face off

The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted until September 26, 1990. It resulted in three deaths, and would be the first of a number of well-publicized violent conflicts between Indigenous people and the Canadian government in the late 20th century.

The crisis developed from a dispute between the town of Oka and the Mohawk community of Kanesatake. The Mohawk nation had been pursuing a land claim which included a burial ground and a sacred grove of pine trees near Kanesatake. This brought them into conflict with the town of Oka, which was developing plans to expand a golf course onto the land.

In 1717, the governor of New France granted the lands encompassing the cemetery and the pines to a Catholic seminary permission to hold the land in trust for the Mohawk nation. The Church expanded this agreement to grant themselves sole ownership of the land, and proceeded to sell off the land and timber. In 1868, one year after Confederation, the chief of the Oka Mohawk people, Joseph Onasakenrat, wrote a letter to the Church condemning them for illegally holding their land and demanding its return. The petition was ignored. In 1869, Onasakenrat returned with a small armed force of Mohawks and gave the missionaries eight days to return the land. The missionaries called in the police, who imprisoned the Mohawks. In 1936, the seminary sold the remaining territory and vacated the area. These sales were also protested vociferously by the Mohawks, but the protests produced no results.[5]

In 1961, a nine-hole golf course, le Club de golf d'Oka, was built on land, The Mohawk launched a legal protest against construction. By the time the case was heard, much of the land had already been cleared and construction had begun on a parking lot and golf greens adjacent to the Mohawk cemetery.

In 1977, the band filed an official land claim with the federal Office of Native Claims regarding the land. The claim was accepted for filing, and funds were provided for additional research of the claim. Nine years later, the claim was finally rejected for failing to meet key criteria.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Mohawk Creation Story. Retrieved on September 22, 2007.
• Snow, D., 1996. The Iroquois. Blackwell Publishers, New York. ISBN 1-55786-938-3
• Pritzker, B., 2000. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples, Oxford Press. ISBN 019513897x.

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