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For other uses, see Mohawk.

Mohawk
Total population
30,000
Regions with significant populations
Canada (Quebec, Ontario) 24,000  United States (New York) 6,000
Languages
English, Mohawk
Religions
Christianity, Longhouse
Related ethnic groups
other Iroquoian peoples

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. 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 west that European settlers first appeared, sailing up the Hudson River to found Albany, New York, in the early 1600s.)

The language of the Mohawk people is the Mohawk language.

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, but the most widely-accepted one is that the name is from the word for " in some Algonquian language (e.g., Narraganset Mohowawog).^[1][2]

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

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.

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 consensus-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 concurrence 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].

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. They did this because they did not want the creator to go with them to war.

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. 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.
• Kanesatake
• 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

Notable Mohawks

• Joseph Brant, Mohawk Chief
• August Schellenberg, actor
• Jay Silverheels, actor

Mohawk Ceremonies

• The Summer Initiation Festival: at the beginning of May, each year, the Mohawks gather to celebrate the coming of summer and the life it brings. This has been a very respected and honoured festival of the Mohawk people for several thousands of years. For five days, the Mohawks perform various rituals, such as planting new seeds that will flourish into plants over the summer, that honour and celebrate Mother Earth for the life she is giving to the Earth. The Mohawks believe that winter is a time of death in which Mother Earth goes into a long slumber, in which many plants die, but when spring arrives and nature begins to flourish, she has woken up and given life once again. This is the reason why the Mohawks spend this time celebrating summer and Mother Earth's return.v

See also

• Oka Crisis
• Iroquois Confederacy
• Mohawk Nation News
• The Kahnawake Iroquois and the Rebellions of 1837-38

Notes

References

• Mohawk Creation Story
• Dean R Snow, 1996. The Iroquois. Blackwell Publishers, New York. ISBN 1-55786-938-3

External links

• NativeWeb, collection of links and resources related to the Mohawk nation
• The Wampum Chronicles: Mohawk Territory on the Internet, a website dedicated to Mohawk history, culture, and current events

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