A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 155
No Nation may exist when its claim to sovereignty is contradicted by its refusal to abide by its legal and moral principles. Canada and the US have entered into binding contracts with the aboriginal people by which they accept certain obligations while acknowledging the existence and legitimacy of indigenous nation states. It is the duty of the people to remind the various state institutions, including their own, of their obligations to administer to the well being of the citizens. No state may exist without the active, demonstrable support of...
Alcoa and General Motors announced March 27th that an agreement had been reached regarding their culpability in destroying the environment and undermining the traditional lifestyles of the Mohawk people. Of that, $8,400,000 is earmarked for strengthening the culture of Akwesasne. This money should not be given to one single council since the damages to our heritage are not restricted to the border or one agency, but has been of profound impact on every family within our territory-which includes all of our aboriginal lands in the region regardle...
The case of Roger Thomas should be of great interest to all Mohawks. If an inferior court in St. Lawrence County is allowed to qualify, if not outright eliminate, the aboriginal hunting, fishing and gathering rights of our people then we lose not only those activities, but our outstanding claims to those territories stolen from our ancestors by New York State. The argument out forth by Mr. Thomas’s lawyer was, unfortunately, backwards. First, there is no logical reason to use the Seven Nations of Canada as a defense since the leadership has l...
The students of the Cooperstown Central Junior/Senior High School had the courage to do what Daniel Snyder, the billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins, lacks; the willingness to tolerate abuse and condemnation by electing to remove a team mascot deemed offensive by those it was supposed to honour. For the past generation indigenous people, organizations and nations have appealed to sports teams which use derogatory nicknames like Redskins, Savages, Braves and Squaws. These mascots are root...
Throughout the autumn and winter of 1812-13 the residents of Akwesasne were being drawn into the war between Britain and the US. Since the controversial Seven Nations of Canada treaty of 1796 there had been restrictions on the movement of the Native people living on the “reservation” but the international border had not yet become internally divisive. Both English and American authorities recognized the importance of the St. Lawrence River as vital to the movement of troops and supplies from the ports of Montreal into the interior. If the...
There are good reasons for Canada’s Native people to be at the point where frustration, impatience and anger rush together in a blend of powerful emotions bordering on rage. It is to the credit of Native people that they have adopted peaceful, non-confrontational tactics as they march across highways and bridges or gather in malls and city centres in flash mobs to let the nation know they will no longer accept the dictates of the federal government, that the time has come to compel Canada to abide by its treaty obligations and remove the s...
The canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha took place over two days. The first part was her official recognition along with six other candidates, including Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii, at a massive open air event in the front of the Vatican facing the eastwards direction. Everyone should know that St. Peter’s was built on the ruins of a former church, which had stood for many centuries but was gradually wearing down and decaying. With t...
For the first time in generations the Iroquois people celebrated the return of a part of their ancestral lands without prolonged litigation or the animosity of the local residents. The land is located in the town of Waterford, NY on the north shore of the Mohawk River above the Cohoes Falls, called “Kahon:ios” in Mohawk. The property consists of 100 acres with 1200 feet of waterfront. It is considered sacred by the Haudenosaunee since it was the site where Skennenrahowi, the Peacemaker, con...
Some years ago the late Ernie Benedict told me a story about a group of Mohawks from Akwesasne and Kahnawake who had paddled west many generations ago. They were expert canoeists and trappers hired by various fur companies including the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest firms who were in fierce competition for animal pelts and needed the Mohawks. Our ancestors would undertake the long journey across the Great Lakes and then head south to the Mississippi and up the Missouri or go northwest, across Lake Winnipeg and then follow the North Saskatchewan R...
They carried the spirits of their ancestors, the inventors of the fastest game on two feet. They carried the power of those Iroquois players who dominated the sport from the first Olympics until being blackballed in the 1930’s. They carried the hopes of the Iroquois who have maintained their status as citizens of their own nations who have insisted on their right to play the game on their own teams, traveling on their own passports and entering the stadiums under their own flag, the only all N...
The Mohawk territory during the 17th century was over 11,000,000 acres or 17,200 square miles in size. It consisted of that land south of the St. Lawrence River (including present day Montreal) to the west branch of the Delaware River, east to the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River corridor, west to the West Canada and Unadilla creeks. This, according to the determination of the Mohawk Nation based upon centuries of active occupation and territorial enforcement. The capital region of the Mohawk Nation was in the Mohawk Valley area. Their clan...
Radio CKON was designed to serve the needs of the Akwesasne Mohawk community, to encourage the growth and retention of our culture, to provide a Mohawk perspective on historical and current events, to promote aboriginal entertainment, to become a primary means of expression using Mohawk language and to enhance the region’s understanding and appreciation for the Nation. The Akwesasne Communications Society was formed in the spring of 1982 to oversee a radio broadcasting facility including the drafting of rules and procedures designed to i...
It is tough to win a game when the lacrosse gods do their best to hand the match over to a team which is playing far beyond anyone’s expectations. The Homer Trojans are as sharp a contrast against the Shamrocks as there can be. The ‘rocks are fast, physical and have stickhandling skills which dazzle fans, frustrate goalies and leave their opponents stunned. The team has an attack line which can thread the ball through tight defenses and score which off stance and flying in front of the net. The...
Producers: J. Todd Harris and Mitchell Peck Co-producers: Neal Powless (Onondaga) and Ernest Stevens III (Oneida) Director: Steve Rash Writers: Tod Baird and Brad Riddell Crooked Arrows marks a new venture in filmmaking, one in which Native people break free from being mere subjects of a movie into a new reality where they have become actors, script editors and producers. In this instance, the Onondaga Nation contributed heavily to the movie, assigning one of their own, Neal Powless, to work in conjunction with Ernest Stevens III to insure the...
One of the more remarkable things about Mohawk culture and its teachings are the set of teachings referred to as prophecies. From the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to the present time there have been those who possess the ability to see beyond their time and witness events, which, if correct, will affect not only the Mohawks but all of humanity. That we are in a time of profound social and technological change is certain. That our current resource-exploitative lifestyles are affecting the planet in dramatic ways is also beyond...
When Onondaga Nation Clanmother Audrey Shenandoah-Gonwaiani passed into the spirit world on March 15 not only her family and community mourned but the entire Haudenosaunee Confederacy was cast into sorrow. For the past four decades she was a steady, reliable and dignified presence at Onondaga, ever ready to speak on behalf of the people while welcoming visitors to the capital and central fire of the world’s first united nations. As a clanmother (Iakoiane in the Mohawk dialect of the Iroquois language) Gonwaiani accepted the responsibilities a... Full story
When we examine Mohawk history as it involves Akwesasne we think about those individuals who had the most impact upon us. Names like Louis Cook, the ambitious political operative Joseph Brant, the patriot Ernie Benedict or the great teacher Ray Fadden come to mind but there is one person who has affected our culture, language and even our health in the most dramatic of ways. That person is Robert Moses. Other than a name hung on the St. Lawrence Power Dam on our property at Niionenhiaseko:wane, the man is virtually unknown among the Mohawks...
In December of 2010 I made a presentation to the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs followed by one to the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne in April of last year. I spoke at length about the need to establish a Mohawk Nation Department of Motor Vehicles as a natural, logical and badly needed extension of our status as a indigenous nation. Both councils listened with interest as I explained how this can be done and why other entities, such as Canada and the US, had no choice but to acknowledge our inherent right to do this. Other native nations in the... Full story
Resentments abound in Seneca power struggle What opponents call Robert Odawi Porter’s dictatorial style is at issue as bitter controversy surrounds tribal leadership By: Dan Herbeck – reprinted with permission When Robert Odawi Porter, an eloquent lawyer with a Harvard education, was elected president of the Seneca Nation of Indians last year, many people in the outside world welcomed him as a breath of fresh air. A year ago, influential government leaders flocked to his swearing-in ceremony, hoping that Porter’s presidency would be a big s...
On Monday, October 17 the US Supreme Court dealt the deathblow to the litigation part of the land claims brought about by the Oneida Nation of New York. In reality, the decision by the Court to not hear an appeal from a lower court removes any chance that any Iroquois government will receive legal remedy for the theft by New York State of millions of acres of our aboriginal land. However the fault lies less with the courts but with the complete and utter failure of the Haudenosaunee to act in concert or to prevent the Oneida Nation from gamblin...
When Skennenrahawi, the Peacemaker, walked among the Iroquois over 800 years ago his plan was to create the world’s first united nations entity dedicated to the idea that human beings may live in a world without war. To accomplish this he created a set of rules called the Kaienerakowa or the Great Law of Peace. This code provided the Iroquois not only with a constitutional form of government but also directed them to reach out to other nations to present them with an opportunity to join the league. The resulting Haudenosaunee Confederacy w...
On July 19, I gave a lecture at the Kanatakon Recreational Centre regarding the events that caused the War of 1812, the War of the Rivers. That conflict had a profound effect on Akwesasne since it affirmed the international border now dissecting our community, provoked conflict among the Mohawk people and provided New York State with an opportunity to remove additional territory from the original reservation while establishing the “trustee” system as a colonial administration despite vigorous internal opposition. I traced the origins of the...
Folksinger and environment protector Pete Seeger, 92, joined Oneida performer Joanne Shenandoah to pay homage to the late Ray Fadden-Tehanetorens as one of the great teachers of the 20th century. Fadden was acknowledged as one of the early environmentalists who inspired generations of Mohawks as a teacher, writer and outspoken advocate for the rights of the natural world. Seeger said he had visited with Fadden a number of times beginning in the 1940’s when the Mohawks had a performing group w...
During this time of changes it is helpful to take a look back and recall who we were as Native people. Much of what we believe has been somewhat distorted by the media, formal educational systems, books, movies and popular music. We now identify with symbols of our Indian status rather than actually living according to our ancestral values. But it was only a generation or two ago when the American Indian defined life by its beauties rather than its material potentials. An important book to read which summarizes Native society was written by...
Two of the most creative Mohawk artists of our generation have now passed into the spirit world but not before leaving a powerful legacy of their life’s work. Peter Blue Cloud Willams-Aroniawenrate and Salli Benedict-Kawennotakie were exceptionally creative and gifted individuals whose writings and communal work deeply affected their generation and brought honour to the Mohawk Nation. Both exercised their skills in many mediums but it was through their poetry that they were able to express the e...
