STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Way off-Broadway
In those days, nobody knew about Natives. No one gave a shit about us. Some Natives would go and watch, if they knew about it. They would put ads in the paper under current events for their plays.
A story with a lesson
Fishing alone, the man would reel in his net and catch more than he needed. Not being mindful, the man would choose all his favourite fish for himself and his family and chuck the rest ashore.
Yellow flower
Do you have a sense of peacefulness behind these trees? Yes, there’s a feeling of peacefulness behind these cedar trees.
Horse ranch surprise
For Lionel’s 80th birthday we went to a horse ranch; It was called Ridin-Hy. He figured that it was only supposed to be him and I, with our daughter, Natalie, and her husband, Tim.
Paris, France
One day, the phone rang. A woman was scouting for two children to be in a movie, and she liked the picture of Katsitsanoron that was at the Cultural Center.
Can't throw me out
I finished high school in 1966 at Bishop Whelan in Lachine. My mother gave me two weeks to find myself a job or something. It was a Wednesday when I was packing my clothes. I figured I would go and join the service because everyone was joining the Marines at the time.
They would have killed me
During the Siege of Kanehsatà:ke in 1990, it was a very bad situation in Kahnawà:ke. People were starving. My wife had to go to Dorval by boat to get vegetables. We didn’t even have gasoline. There were some people who smuggled gas in and sold it at a stand by the side of the road.
Wood burning stove and candies
As kids, we’re all sitting around the stove and then he’d tell us stories. Grandpa’s stories. That was such real fun. Then, remember? There were days at the end of the week that daddy paid us each five cents and we’d go to the village and go to Chene store.
He Only Spoke Mohawk to Me
My father passed this April, almost at the age of 82. Interestingly, when he was 80, he randomly said to me that when he was a small child, his grandfather lived with him in his family’s home.
Putting in the Seaway
I remember being a teenager at the old Kateri Hall when they were holding a meeting with the Seaway Authority and the mayor at the time, Matty Lazare. The Seaway Authority comes in and says, "We promise you we're going to put water and sewers through here.
Cannon ball anchor
When they first started building the Seaway, they built a wall by the marina as a dam. They dammed it, then they drained it, this way they can continue digging from down below.
Bootlegging
You know, when I was about 18, my uncle had a modern day Ford. We went all the way down near the border in that car to go buy beer because there, they would sell it to the Indians. You weren’t supposed to sell to the Indians back then.
Deliver the news
My route was the Old Malone Highway from Joe Stalk’s bicycle repair shop all the way to the CPR Tunnel, then around to Veteran’s Boulevard and finishing up behind Joe Delisle’s Pool Hall.
I believe in genetic memory
I don’t think the language was ever really lost here in Kenhtè:ke. But there were changes to education on the reserve that did have an impact. Here, there were day schools, which most of our students in the community attended.
You have my freckles
I got a phone call two weeks later from Ms. Whitacomb, and she told me that she had found my file, and that she didn’t have the heart to put it at the bottom of the stack because she knew that she could facilitate and reunite this family.
Very adventurous
She would work as a cook at the hospital, and she was part of the catholic church. They used to have busloads of people coming to the church and feed them at Kateri Hall, so she would go there and be a volunteer cook too.
Always feeding people
Even to this day, there’s a man in town who always makes it known to us that he was so thankful. When he was a young boy, he didn’t have much to eat and would ask my grandfather for a little bit of work and he would tell him to go and eat first.
Indian Agents
There isn’t an Indian agent anymore. I remember them. There were different ones. The government liked to get their Indian agents from the military, see, cause it was just after the war. All these guys are coming back and need some cushy post and they’d give ‘em a few Indians to manage.
Ruling the roost
When we moved from Yellow Island to the village of Ahkwesáhsne, my dad started attending the council meetings that happened about once a month. My parents only spoke Indian. After a while, I could understand some things in English, more than my dad. So one day he said, “Come to the meeting with me and let me know what’s going on.” So we went.