A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
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On February 14 Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba made a historic ruling by holding Canada responsible for the pain and suffering endured by over 16,000 Native children taken from their communities and placed in foster homes across the province and into the United States. The federal government took an active role in ripping the children from their families resulting in psychological, spiritual and physical harm. The children were placed into non-Native residences and stripped of their heritage. In many instances the placements...
Seneca Falls, NY is located within the ancient boundaries of the Cayuga Nation, a member of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Haudenosaunee. It is also the birthplace of the movement towards securing the right to vote by American women, a decades long struggle beginning at the first national conference in 1848. Most of those in attendance at that time would not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 which codified the right to vote by women. There were few instances in western European or Asian history where...
Our Iroquois people have decades of experience living through political and social crisis whether in stand offs with the police or organizing protests on a national and local scale. We have been, like those intrepid protectors at Standing Rock, tear gassed, arrested, beaten and jailed. We have picked up arms as a last resort but have also relied on the wisdom of our traditional leaders to get us out of very dangerous situations. As one example, in June of 1980 my home community of Akwesasne was under siege by contingents of the New York State P...
Beyond most predictions the worse candidate for the US presidency in the nation’s history has emerged as the victor, elected by an American people who voted against their own interests and in utter defiance of common sense. Power has been given to Donald Trump and to a Republican controlled Congress which will now make an all out assault on Natives, on women’s rights, on blacks, Latinos, on the earth itself. This alliance will eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency, thrust women back into back alleys, take away medical care for mil...
Over the years there have been many non-Natives, enamored by aboriginal culture, who have posed as Natives. Some have done so with sincerity and others for personal gain. While many of these imposters have been exposed with little residual harm there are instances when they have caused serious problems. In our own Mohawk society there is a procedure to become “naturalized” regardless of the circumstances of one’s birth. To become a citizen of the Mohawk Nation required formal sponsorship by a family, a commitment to learning the culture, a com...
For the Native Nations affected by the upcoming US elections hinge on the following two paragraphs of the Constitution: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of...
One of the skills we seem to have lost, or discarded, over the past couple of generations is the art of the visit. Before the arrival of the electronic age the Mohawks of former times relied on personal contact to exchange information, share news and entertain themselves with stories and music. No appointment was needed, no need to call ahead or to set aside time to visit; when it felt right families and friends would walk across the village or fields or take to their boats and canoes carrying food, cards, musical instruments to share. Arrival...
Fundamental to the well being of all humans is the need to identify oneself with a specific name and to have that name acknowledged within the family, the clan and the community. To assume a name is to assert individuality, to express uniqueness, to affirm continuity. What we are becomes who we are. Communal names are equally important as they are an essential element within any specific culture. Names may be extracted from geography, events or individuals but they are a vital part of the collective sense of awareness and form a bond by which...
In 1979-80 Akwesasne was in a state of turmoil. Officials within the St. Regis Tribal Council had lost control over their police force as the community became frustrated by the clashes between those who were advocates for integration and the more traditional minded residents. Added to this was the secret negotiations by tribal officials to cede all of Mohawk territory for a few million dollars and the “return” of the Hogansburg triangle. The Mohawk Nation Council was also on the rise as it challenged the Tribe on key issues such as jur...
There is a movement among some African American actors to boycott the upcoming Oscar ceremony because, they believe, the exclusion of black nominees in any of the major categories represents racism within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This despite the fact that the president of the AMPAS Cheryl Boone Isaacs is black and many of the recent nominees and recipients from Denzel Washington to Jennifer Hudson are African in origin . When they accepted their awards there were no cries of racism then but universal pride in their...
The idea of a center for the preservation, learning and teaching of indigenous knowledge in a formal setting is something as old as the Iroquois Confederacy. When Skennenrahowi began his work to create an alliance of human nations based upon the principles of Peace, Power and the Good Mind he did to restrict his vision to those people who lived south of Lake Ontario, west of the Hudson River, north of the Susquehanna or east of the Niagara Falls. He wanted all human beings who desired to live in a permanent condition of peace with each other...
It has stood on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, on land, which is clearly within the reservation as defined by the Seven Nation of Canada treaty, massive, and seeming permanent, its smoke stack emissions tainting the sky, it’s wastes contaminating the waters. Recently, the Alcoa Corporation, owner of the Reynolds aluminum plant, announced it was closing the factory and moving its smelting operations to Asia while trying to stick the American taxpayers with a massive clean up bill. This from a company that had in 2013, revenues of ove...
It is a well-established law in the United States that Native nations have the right to full access and use of water that crosses through their respective lands. In 1908 the US Supreme Court decided in the Winters v. US (207 US 564 (1908) that since “reservations” had, as part of their design, the intent of making Native people self reliant and self sustaining, water was a vital part of this a decision which has been affirmed in subsequent cases. Water which flows adjacent to Native lands can be attached for use in whatever manner deemed approp...
The recently concluded World Indoor Lacrosse Championship has brought honor and pride to the Onondaga Nation and they deserved all of the accolades they received. By doing so the Onondagas added another rafter to our symbolic longhouse and strengthened us all. With its $10,000,000 price tag the Onondaga Nation proved it was willing to give its physical resources not only towards the event itself but also to the practical application of aboriginal sovereignty. The games were never merely symbolic but an assertion of a distinct native identity...
When the Onondaga Nation elected to host the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship it went all in. Long a bastion of aboriginal sovereignty, the Onondaga Nation is its own self-defining entity, rejecting any American law which in any way qualifies its right to self determination. No tribal or band councils here, no Indian Act or Indian Reorganization Act, no New York State laws or the compromises in their status as a nation and none of the glaring contradictions between what Native leaders espouse in the way of sovereignty and the truth that,...
On Sunday, September 20 the second key match of the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship took place before over 5,000 fans at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse. The game was between the defending WILC champions Team Canada and the runners up for the past three tournaments the Iroquois Nationals. Two nights before, in the first game of the WILC the Iroquois used their speed and stick handling skills to turn back Team USA 11-9 in a contest which set the tone for contests to follow. The Iroquois Nationals were, and are, favorites to captu...
Of the 700,000 or so lacrosse players in North America, an enormous and growing talented pool, the Iroquois have at the most a couple of thousand players performing at all levels of the game: peewees, bantams, midgets, juniors, seniors, on the college level and as professionals. Lacrosse is a game invented by the Iroquois many generations before contact with the Europeans as an alternative to war and conflict among communities and nations and as a contest, which promotes peace and physical healing. At one time it was played by hundreds of...
A few years ago I was on a trip with the late Mohawk Nation chief Jake Swamp and as was usual with us we discussed many topics ranging from personal experiences to our ancestral teachings. Jake, as was his way, told many stories most of which had his unique sense of humor. He would reflect on his days as a young man before he embraced the longhouse way and how he was always ready to learn more about Mohawk history and culture. When asked about what made a true leader Jake thought about this for a while and said that there were many symbols...
A young bald eagle (akweks) takes flight from one of the Akwesasne islands, June 14/2015. The Mohawk territory on the St. Lawrence River is the site of the largest fresh water marshes in eastern North America. The area is home to many animal, fish and bird species from beavers to great blue herons but they are at risk. The invasive cormorant birds, native to Japan and released some years ago in southern New York by the ill advised State Department of Environmental Conservation, has now become...
The recent revelations regarding the lies of Eastern Washington State University ethnic studies instructor and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People regional representative Rachel Dolezal bring up a very sensitive issue to Native people. Far from being a benign issue the decision by individuals such as Ms. Dolezal to elect to represent themselves members of an ethnic group they were not born into can cause serious problems not only for themselves when they are exposed but to the people they claim to represent. Native...
Twenty nine years ago the Mohawk Nation Council endorsed a delegation of Mohawks to travel to Germany (then West Germany) to establish a formal youth exchange program and to promote universal peace by the planting of an evergreen in that country. Under the guidance of Beverley Pyke and Elizabeth Maracle the Mohawk students travelled to various communities in Germany conducting classes on the culture, history and then current events among not only the Kaiienkehaka but other Iroquois communities....
I recall my uncle, the late Angus George-Sohahiio, talking about the lost area of Dundee and how he believed the Mohawk people had that area of Akwesasne stolen from them but the actual proof demanded by the Canadian government was hard to find. He said that he was driving in Kanatakon and happened to go by the residence of one of his friends and noticed there were people there burning what they thought were meaningless papers. He stopped his car and asked them if he could look at the papers before they were thrown into the flames. Having been...
That history is powerful and essential in any culture and it cannot be denied. Some may wish to have it obscured or even buried but it defines each one of our lives no matter how it may be twisted. All of us are the result of individual and collective actions taken deliberately or by random events which may seem to be mere chance yet coalesce into a complex narrative, a story, an explanation. Many Mohawks lived through the tragic spring of 1990 while a new generation knows of that troubled time only in bits and pieces. Although the years have...
The genius of Skennenrahowi, the Peacemaker, takes many forms from his use of universal symbols such as the “Tree of Peace” to his creation of the world’s oldest united nations and his teachings showing humanity that there is an alternative to war. Central to his thinking was the idea that women are the life givers in creation and as such have specific powers designed to protect the unborn, foster the young and provide for the people. Of necessity, Skennenrahowi reasoned, women must have the ability to provide for the physical needs of their...
The life and tragic death of the US soldier Chris Kyle, along with the release of the biographical film "American Sniper", has attracted much interest into the role of these concealed and proficient long range killers. The word "sniper" comes from the snipe bird. Noted for its erratic flight it took considerable skill to shoot a snipe, particularly with the smooth bore muskets and flintlock rifles used by British sportsmen in India where the term was first used. By the 20th century it was used...
