STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Booze and Spirits
This is when we all get into fights, we are robbed or killed. Any kind of thing can happen when we are in that state. These are understandings I got from the old people. “Tóhsa shnekì:ra, don’t drink.” There’s going to be trouble because you are going to be attracting it - you are now in negative mode.
Smell signals
I learned this on a shoot: smoke signals. The real code was not just smoke. The smell. We were shooting in Arizona at Window Rock, and we wanted to do an interview. So, it was all organized with the daughter. We went to the daughter’s place, the mother lived up the hill.
Head Veteran
I am proud to be a Mohawk Veteran; I take the responsibility with much pride and bring the knowledge I carry from my 21 years of service into the powwow circle for the benefit of our people.
Mohawk name
That little girl entered this world, waving her little hands and arms. I thought to myself, “Look at her! She is already showing off her wings, our beautiful little snipe.”
Mohawk language curriculum
I used to teach Mohawk at Howard S. Billings from 1972 to 1979. Once I walked out of the school I never went back. That was in ‘79 with Bill 101 but, I had to stay and finish that year even though I had no more students because all the students came back to Kahnawà:ke.
Another century
I get down there and I saw the bathroom doors. I looked and there’s my cousin Mavis. I recognized her shoes. I was so happy to see someone I knew so I spoke to her. I don’t even remember what I was saying to but as soon as I turned around WHOM!
Runway model
This was all free; all these people, these hairdressers, everything! We had all the clothing supplied for us, and we even got all of that for free. I had La Tisseur, a very exclusive store, they dressed all the men and women. I had Zellers, and I had Woolworths in Lachine at one time; so many came to help us.
Passing it on
I think it's important that people pass on the stories and the traditions, because I'm sure families have different stories and traditions that were passed down to them. They probably just thought it was old people telling them stories, but it's important to hear those stories because there was always a moral behind it.
O'tónhkwa'
Back then, we used to play in this area of Kahnawà:ke called Hooks Point, where I think they have the Quebec Bridge monument.
Ohniare'kó:wa
Early the next morning I went to see my uncle, Mike Woodrow, and told him of my dream. He said not to be afraid and went to burn tobacco.
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.
Welcomed with open arms
We were bringing women up to the Laurentians to do sweat lodges, talking circles, and sharing circles with Sedalia Fazio, the elder for the Native Women's Shelter. She's become my elder too, for 18 years. That was my introduction to my culture, and where I started working and taking part in the community.
Bees are my medicine
Beekeeping came to me about eight years ago. I was in a really tough place emotionally and mentally, so I decided to take three months off work. I went to a lodge in the Munsee Delaware Nation for three weeks, with 18 other women.
Buffalo Burger
We didn’t always have a powwow in Kanehsatà:ke. The powwow started here in the 90s after the Siege of Kanehsatà:ke. Walter David Sr. started it in July, but it’s now done at the end of August.
The Fair Dance
The Council House had these big windows, almost from the floor up. Out in the back, the young guys would come and call flirtatiously towards the girls who hung out the window. Courting kinds of things and all that sort of stuff.
Learning to Dance
All those dances at the Council House, they were always a big deal when we were kids – teenagers. I remember the first dance I went to with a date. We were both kids and we'd been friends forever. Neither one of us knew how to dance.
Foundation of our strength
The impacts of the colonial genocidal project have created divisions and dysfunction within our communities. Centuries of hurt and trauma take time and often the oppression turns within, causing the divisions. In order to create reconciliation within ourselves, Indigenous people must understand their past, their stories of survival and life.
Raised holy stink
Some kids would go away for school and would come back and couldn’t be part of the community because they don’t speak Indian. It was a mess. So, we continued to raise holy stink. These were the grandchildren of the people that were in residential school, where the language was just plain taken away from them.
Threading the Needle
In the winter months, the old ladies would come to our house. I don't know if they were really old ladies. But to me, they were old. There would be a lamp set in the middle of the table and a whole bunch of them would do beadwork.