Mohawk Nation
The Kanienkehaka, or Mohawk tribe of Native American people live around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in what is now Canada and the United States. Their traditional homeland is further South, in New York State, around present day Albany, New York. They belong to the Iroquois confederation. After the pre-historic formation of the Iroquois confederation (Hodenosaunee), the Mohawks became keepers of the Eastern Door, guarding the members against invasions from that direction.
During the 17th century, the Mohawks became allied with the Dutch at Fort Orange, New Netherland (now Albany, New York). Their Dutch trade partners equipped the Mohawks to fight against other nations allied with the French, including the Ojibwes, Huron-Wendats, and Algonkins. After the fall of New Netherland to the English, the Mohawks became allies of the English Crown.
Because of ongoing conflict 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 War of the Wabash Confederacy, and the War of 1812. After the Americans' victory, 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 Haudenosaunee nations) signed the Treaty of Canandaigua with the United States.
One large group of Mohawks, who were expelled by the United States as traitors were given land by the British Governor Craig and imposed to French speaking Quebecois who were refused new land because of not being English. They stayed in the vicinity of Montreal, where they served as the mercenaries of the British army. One of the most famous Catholic Mohawks was Kateri, who was later beatified. From this group descend the Mohawks of Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanesatake.
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/Caughnawaga in southwest 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.
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 deals 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, while Warrior Society has attacked that religion in favour of the pre-Longhouse Old tradition.
Meanwhile, the elected chiefs have tended to be associated (though in a much looser and general way) with democratic values. The Government of Canada who ruled the Indians imposed English school and separated families to place children in english boarding school. Mohawks like in other tribes have lost their native language and many left the reserve to mesh with the English Canadian culture.
The Mohawks, like many indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes region, wore a type of hair style in which all their hair would be cut off except for a narrow strip down the middle of the scalp. Today such a hair style is still called a Mohawk.
Food
Women practiced corn (maize) agriculture while men hunted during the fall and winter and fished during the summer.
Homes
Related families lived together in longhouses, the symbols of Iroquois society.
Political
According to traditional accounts the Mohawk leader Hiawatha was the first to accept the principles of peace preached by the prophet of peace, Peacemaker, who founded the Iroquois League. The Mohawk had nine representatives in the league, three from each of their clans of the Turtle, Wolf, and Bear.
Communities
Each Mohawk community also had a local council that guided the village chief or chiefs.
War
The Mohawk frequently warred against neighboring Algonkian tribes; the Dutch introduction of firearms in trade for beaver skins increased the number of Mohawk victories.
After contact with Europeans, however, their population decreased rapidly. Most Mohawk took the part of the British in the French and Indian War, but some Catholic converts (the "praying Indians of Quebec") at mission settlements on the St. Lawrence River, principally at Caughnawaga, espoused the French cause and guided expeditions against their former brothers of the league.
Later, during the American Revolution, the Mohawk were pro-British, under their leader Joseph Brant and followed him to Canada, where they have descendants at the Bay of Quinte and Six Nations Indian Reserve at Brantford, Ont.
Their total number in the late 20th century was about 5,000. Some are successful farmers, and others are workers in structural steel in the United States and Canada, traveling from city to city to find jobs.
The danger of this work seems to constitute part of its attraction for the Mohawk.
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