STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
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.
Upholding traditions
Families would prepare lunches to bring to the grounds. Everyone looked forward to the picnic; it was special. It was a good feeling to see everyone gathered. Eventually, it became one of our traditions.
Restore the friendship
When they had the crisis in Kanesatà:ke back in 1990, a lot of people had bad feelings towards us. So, we had powwows to restore the friendship. We said, “Come and find out for yourself.” And they did find out. They never dealt with people so friendly.
Echoes of a proud nation
We decided we would choose the second weekend in July to commemorate what had happened that weekend in 1990. We also chose to host the powwow in the same area that the army had tried to invade in Kahnawà:ke, honouring the resilience of our community.
Kanoronhkwáhtshera'
At the revival of the Mohawk language, people wanted to learn their language and their culture. The more they would learn, the more they would say, “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with who I am, there’s nothing wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with the way Shonkwaia’tíson’, or God, has made me. I am perfect just the way I am.”
If you don't use it, you can lose it
I’ve helped write a lot of books. I helped with the typing but it would take so long because the language is not like English. There are only 11 letters in our language but there are so many accents. Language groups in several Mohawk communities have used those books we made.
Always in their garden
My grandmother had a garden. We couldn’t really walk straight in the backyard or the front yard because the rows made it bumpy. We had a lot more variety back then, more than we have now. We had fruit trees – plum trees, pears, apples, peaches, cherries. People grew white apples, McIntosh.
Echinacea, Boneset & Yarrow
Echinacea has pink flowers and looks beautiful in your garden. You can make tea with the flowers and leaves for your immune system. However, it is the roots that are most powerful as an immune booster.
Remembering the Indian Village
The Indian Village had a big Quonset hut with a palisade fence and little stores all around it. There were a lot of people who worked there. That’s how a lot of teenagers who danced used to make money for school, clothes, and pocket money. There was no such thing as rent on the little stores of the artisans.
Don’t back down
In the winter, we had to walk for miles and cross on the ice. I wouldn’t go to school in the spring when the ice wasn’t safe or in the fall when the ice was coming in. Just when I could row the boat or walk on the ice.
Childhood hijinks
I think the road from Kateri School to the hospital was the only road that was paved here in Kahnawake. There were a lot of dirt roads, a lot of hills. There were a lot of old houses. I remember a lot of the houses didn’t have good insulation, and in the wintertime there would be giant icicles on many houses - some right to the roof, right from the ground.
Death Feast
I never attended a death feast until my younger brother, Irvin, passed away in December of 2009. A few days later, his wife, Dale, called me to tell me that she was hosting a 10 day death feast and she was inviting me.
Music Is my medicine
I went to the back door of K103 radio station at 10 o’clock one night. I had a Hank Williams record with me and asked, “Could I pay you $10 to play two or three songs?” I knew it wouldn’t be allowed if I had asked at the main entrance. They would think I’m crazy. So I bribed them all - everyone except the manager.