16 On the Banks of the Mohawk River
Josie Wierson
Inspired by “Putting Down Roots” in Braiding Sweetgrass
Summary: This story is about the struggle the Mohawk people faced as they were forced from their homes on the Mohawk River valley in New York and relocated to Indian reservations. Their native language and culture began to disappear. What will happen seven generations later?
Keywords: Disappear, braids, blended, memories, Kanienkeha
Long ago Mohawk people settled along the Mohawk River valley,
where they would carry bundles of sweetgrass on their backs and plant the sweetgrass along the banks of the river.
Back then the river was full of fish and it fertilized the cornfields each spring as it flooded.
Now the Mohawk people have been replaced by waves of immigrants and the Mohawk River is now flooded with power dams used for electricity.
Today some of the Mohawk people live in small reservations as if they are an endangered species.
The Mohawk culture did not disappear on its own.
The government policy was to deal with them as problems and they were then forced and pushed from the valley in New York to many different locations found around the country.
The Mohawk language and culture was disappearing.
Their braids were cut off and their Native languages forbidden.
Girls were trained to only cook and clean. Boys learned how to play sports and skills such as carpentry, farming, and handling money.
Did the Mohawk people surrender?
The Mohawk people call themselves the Kanienkeha which means People of the Flint and they were not going to give up their language and culture.
Some Mohawk women returned to the valley seven generations later. They are welcoming the sweetgrass back home.
They are reunited as neighbors.
The women share their stories on the banks of the Mohawk River.
Now their Native language, Mohawk, is blended with English.
These old memories the women shared are now creating new stories to be passed onto generations.
