Mohawk people



The ' (Mohawk: Kanienʼkehá꞉ka') are the most easterly section of the, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around and the. As one of the five original members of the, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east.

Historically, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka people were originally based in the valley of the in present-day upstate New York, west of the. Their territory ranged north to the, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario; south to greater New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; eastward to the of Vermont; and westward to the border with the Iroquoian Oneida Nation's traditional homeland territory.

Quotes

 * Mohawk language and culture didn’t disappear on their own., the government policy to deal with the so-called Indian problem, shipped Mohawk children to the barracks at , where the school's avowed mission was "Kill the Indian to Save the Man." [...] Despite Carlisle, despite exile, despite a siege four hundred years long, there is something, some heart of living stone, that will not surrender. I don't know just what sustained the people, but I believe it was carried in words. Pockets of the language survived among those who stayed rooted to place. Among those remaining, the Thanksgiving Address was spoken to greet the day: "Let us put our minds together as one and send greetings and thanks to our Mother Earth, who sustains our lives with her many gifts." Grateful reciprocity with the world, as solid as a stone, sustained them when all else was stripped away.
 * Robin Wall Kimmerer,