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Mohawk people

The Mohawk people (Mohawk: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka[2]) are in the easternmost 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 Mohawk are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east.

This article is about the people from eastern North America. For the people from western North America, see Mohawk people (Oregon). For other uses, see Mohawk (disambiguation).

Regions with significant populations

33,330[1]

5,632

At the time of European contact the Mohawk people were 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.

Kanièn:ke

Ahkwesáhsne

Kenhtè꞉ke

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 (royaner), nominated by Clan Mother matriarchs in the traditional Mohawk fashion. Mohawks 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.


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, Mohawk communities have been dealing with considerable internal conflict since the late 20th century.

Contemporary issues[edit]

Casinos[edit]

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.


On October 15, 1993, Governor Mario Cuomo entered into the "Tribal-State Compact Between the St. Regis Mohawk First Nation and the State of New York". The compact allowed the Indigenous people 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 state police, with some law enforcement matters left to the community. As required by IGRA, the compact was approved by the United States Department of the Interior before it took effect. There were several 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 Governor Cuomo exceeded his authority by entering into the compact absent legislative authorization and declared the compact void [21] On October 19, 2004, Governor George Pataki signed a bill passed by the State Legislature that ratified the compact as being nunc pro tunc, with some additional minor changes.[22]


In 2008 the Mohawk Nation was working to obtain approval to own and operate a casino in Sullivan County, New York, at Monticello Raceway. The U.S. Department of the Interior disapproved this action although the Mohawks gained Governor Eliot Spitzer's concurrence, subject to the negotiation and approval of either an amendment to the current compact or a new compact. Interior rejected the Mohawks' application to take this land into trust.[23]


In the early 21st century, two legal cases were pending that related to Native American gambling and land claims in New York. The State of New York has expressed similar objections to the Dept. of Interior taking other land into trust for federally recognized 'tribes', which would establish the land as sovereign Native American territory, on which they might establish new gaming facilities.[24] The other suit 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. In 2010 it was pending in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.[25]

Culture[edit]

Social organization[edit]

The main structures of social organization are the clans (ken'tara'okòn:'a). The number of clans vary among the Haudenosaunee; the Mohawk have three: Bear (Ohkwa:ri), Turtle (A'nó:wara), and Wolf (Okwaho).[26] Clans are nominally the descendants of a single female ancestor, with women possessing the leadership role. Each member of the same clan, across all the Six Nations, is considered a relative. Traditionally, marriages between people of the same clan are forbidden.[note 1] Children belong to their mother's clan.[27]

Religion[edit]

Traditional Mohawk religion is mostly Animist. "Much of the religion is based on a primordial conflict between good and evil."[28] Many Mohawks continue to follow the Longhouse Religion.


In 1632 a band of Jesuit missionaries now known as the Canadian Martyrs led by Isaac Jogues was captured by a party of Mohawks and brought to Ossernenon (now Auriesville, New York). Jogues and company attempted to convert the Mohawks to Catholicism, but the Mohawks took them captive, tortured, abused and killed them.[29] Following their martyrdom, new French Jesuit missionaries arrived and many Mohawks were baptized into the Catholic faith. Ten years after Jogues' death Kateri Tekakwitha, the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Tagaskouita, a Roman Catholic Algonquin woman, was born in Ossernenon and later was canonized as the first Native American saint. Religion became a tool of conflict between the French and British in Mohawk country. The Reformed clergyman Godfridius Dellius also preached among the Mohawks.[30]

Mohawk fashion designer

Tammy Beauvais

Mohawk writer and poet

Beth Brant

Mohawk leader, British officer

Joseph Brant

Mohawk leader, sister of Joseph Brant

Molly Brant

Mohawk artist

Joseph Tehawehron David

Mohawk dancer and singer

Esther Louise Georgette Deer

Mohawk filmmaker

Tracey Deer

Mohawk chief

John Deseronto

called Flemish Bastard, Mohawk chief

Canaqueese

quilter, beadwork artist

Carla Hemlock

woodcarver, sculptor

Donald "Babe" Hemlock

Mohawk chief

Hiawatha

or Captain David Hill, Mohawk leader

Karonghyontye

activist

Kahn-Tineta Horn

film and television actress

Kaniehtiio Horn

Olympic water polo player

Waneek Horn-Miller

actress

Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs

lacrosse player, coach

Sid Jamieson

Mohawk chief and interpreter

George Henry Martin Johnson

writer

Pauline Johnson

former NHL hockey player

Stan Jonathan

professor

Dawn Martin-Hill

singer-songwriter

Derek Miller

lawyer, activist, educator, and author.

Patricia Monture-Angus

Olympic K–2 1000m.

Alwyn Morris

(b. 1954), filmmaker, photographer, and installation artist

Shelley Niro

Scottish born, adopted into the Mohawk First Nation and made an honorary "Pine Tree Chief"

John Norton

Mohawk activist

Richard Oakes

wife of Dutch colonist Cornelius A. Van Slyck

Ots-Toch

actress

Alex Rice

singer-songwriter, The Band

Robbie Robertson

actor

August Schellenberg

actor

Jay Silverheels

multimedia artist and curator

Skawennati

professor, writer/author, activist, and GSNEO Woman of Distinction 2012

Barbara Stanley

professor and activist

Taiaiake Alfred

actress, singer-songwriter, and visual artist

Kiawentiio Tarbell

rock singer (Staggered Crossing, Julian Taylor Band)[41]

Julian Taylor

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

Hendrick Tejonihokarawa

actress, writer, and director

Devery Jacobs

"Lily of the Mohawks", a Catholic saint

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

women's rights activist

Mary Two-Axe Earley

professional wrestler

Billy Two Rivers

physician, Scholar

Oronhyatekha

Iroquois Confederacy

Iroquoian languages

Kahnawake surnames

Mohawk language

Native Americans in the United States

Native American tribe

Oka Crisis

The Flying Head

(1994). The Iroquois. Boston: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-55786-938-3.

Snow, Dean R.

; William A. Starna; Charles T. Gehring, eds. (1996). In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives about a Native People. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815604105.

Dean R. Snow

Archived 2019-04-14 at the Wayback Machine on the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte website

Culture of the Haudenosaunee

at the Akwesasne website

Akwesasne News

articles on history and culture

The Wampum Chronicles: Mohawk Territory

archived site

"Mohawk Institute", Geronimo Henry

?

Mohawk skyscraper builders and construction workers in New York City

at Project Gutenberg

The Iroquois Book of Rites by Horatio Hale