STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Giving thanks
When I was growing up, my parents always made me go to kindergarten and church. My mother was a teacher, and she would take me with her.
Keeping warm
My grandfather was born during the civil war, 1862 I think. He was born before Wounded Knee. He did a lot of travelling around the country. In those days there was no welfare, they couldn’t get money to eat. So, they had to work.
Just a business
I graduated from Chatelaine Business College in June of 1964. I was 18 and I started working in August for Dominion Bridge. I didn’t have a good job at first. It was the mail room then the print shop, but I made my way up eventually.
A comforting feeling
Church was just something you did. It was part of your week, and we always felt good about it. I remember our family had our pew where we always sat.
Made it work
We made it work and would come back from Detroit for Christmas and summertime. But it got to a point that there were a lot of guys from town who would come back every weekend, right from work.
Union local 25
My father was in the business here in Montreal and he knew the ironwork business agents and people in the industry. So, I asked him to get me in instead.
Lost their homes
It’s always a sore point with Mohawks when talking about the Sulpicians, especially to the elders who remember their parents going through those hard times. The Sulpicians decided they wanted to remove the Mohawks from Kanesatà:ke.
Go on for miles
We had a few horses, a few cows, some chickens, and pigs. In the fall just before Christmas, they would butcher a pig and a chicken for a big supper.
Where I feel at home
The Pines or Onen’tó:kon, has always been a sacred place and one of refuge for the generations of my grandparents who sought peace in the Pines when the Sulpicians were harassing and brutalizing the people. They wanted us all to leave for Wáhta, but in the end, we have won because we are still here and we’re not going anywhere.
detach with love
I would have a lot of quiet talks with my mother on her back deck by the pool. My birth mother helped me a lot. She told me my father’s name and helped my children and I get status. I remember we went to some office, she spoke Mohawk for about five minutes, and within a month I had my status.
The only thing Indian was the students
My grandparents raised all six of us. I was six months old when my father passed away. I was told that the Indian Agency came into the house here and tried to take my brothers away. My grandparents told them to leave. If they would have succeeded, maybe today I wouldn’t have any nieces or nephews around. Who knows what would’ve happened.
Adopted during the Sixties Scoop
I have vivid memories of being a toddler in foster care. I was originally adopted by a family, but then was sent back to foster care until my adoptive mother, Pauline adopted me. My mom was a single, non-Indigenous women, yet she had Ojibwe ancestry from Walpole Island through her grandmother.
Enduring the cold months
When I was a child, our houses were not insulated like they are today. They would get very cold at night. In the winter, my father would have to put plastic over the windows and newspaper on the walls to try and keep the heat inside.
Ice Storm
During winter months, some community members would haul goods by horse and sleigh down the main street (or the front street as we knew it back then). There were thick ice ruts in the street, and it became extremely hazardous for horses, more so for people trying to walk on the thick ice.
Christmas in Kahnawà:ke
My father used to go with his uncle and his friend up to Saint Lucie before Christmas to cut down trees and bring them back for his uncle, my grandfather and a few others in the family. It was an all-day process so they would only get back late at night.
Four Guys and Two Canoes
When we stopped that first night, it was at a field’s edge. We had some overnight stuff in plastic garbage bags, and we brought the canoes on land, turned them over and with the angle of it on its side, it protected our heads. We would have half our bodies inside the canoe with our feet sticking out, just lying on the ground with some blankets.
Life in the big garden
We would also help with planting and harvesting. When you plant tomatoes and they get big, there are these large kinds of green caterpillars that get on them and eat the leaves. They’d be hiding under the leaf or whatever. We’d have to pick them off the tomatoes. That was scary.