Text & Photos : Ninka North
“To the rapids”…
Kahnawà:ke, called “Kahnawake 14”, is located in Montérégie, southwestern Quebec, eleven kilometers from Montreal.
Originally named “Caughnawaga”, (the old English and Dutch translation), the reserve took on the Mohawk name of Kahnawà:ke after an official request from the cultural center in 1985. It has 8164 inhabitants according to the latest census in 2016. Its history is linked to Kentaké, the first Iroquois mission established in New France in 1667. Moved several times, it was successively named “Kahnawà:ke” (or “at the rapids”), “Kahnawakon” (or “in the rapids”), and “Kanatakwente” (“the village as left”), before landing at its present location in 1716.
The Kanyen’kehà:ka or Kanien’kehá:ka are the “People of the Flints” or “Children of the Stars” in the Iroquois language of the Mohawks of southeastern Canada. Called “Mohawks” by non-Kanyen’kehà:ka, they are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, known as the “Iroquois Confederacy” and the “Six Nations Confederacy”. They are bound by the “Great Law of Unity (Gayanashagowa) with the Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations.
An agricultural people dependent on the “three sisters” culture – the Haudenosaunee practice of growing corn, beans and squash together, three independent varieties -, the Mohawks of Kahnawake once lived in longhouses with their families. Most of them were converted to Christianity during colonization, but there is a return to traditional beliefs and a perpetuation of the Handsome Lake religion.
These are the seasoned ironworkers, steel specialists renowned for their fear of heights. They erected the steel girders of the World Trade and prestigious bridges, but also helped clean up Ground Zero after September 11, despite the risks involved…
” Echoes of a Proud Nation“, their annual pow wow, takes place on Tekakwitha Island – a reference to the converted and beatified Kateri Tekakwitha: “She who moves forward hesitantly” in the Iroquois language – in mid-July, on a tree-shaded area bordering the river. It’s a renowned pow wow, bringing together many nations for dance competitions and native craft markets, but it’s also one of the most important celebrations of their traditional heritage.