Some Mohawks are starting to reclaim their right to use ancestral lands
Last month, a court ruled New York State had acquired thousands of acres of land from the Akwesasne Mohawks illegally in the 1800s. The ruling opens the door for Mohawks to buy land in northern St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, ushering in a new era in the relations between Akwesasne and its non-native neighbors.
Some Mohawks aren’t waiting for the next legal moves. A small group started tapping maple trees on state land as a symbolic reminder that the land has always been Mohawk.
In late March, about 30 Mohawk men, women and children met along the main road on Barnhart Island, the island near Massena owned by the New York Power Authority, the location of the massive power dam across the St. Lawrence River.
It was a beautiful early spring sunny day, says Onientahtahse. "Everyone was really happy and in a good mood and joking around," she recalled. "We were talking to trees like, 'hi, wow, you’re looking good, hope you don’t mind we’re going to tap some sap!'"
Mohawks dispute that island is "owned" by NYPA; they say the land was taken from them hundreds of years ago.
In fact, in that group that gathered to tap trees, said Onientahtahse, included relatives of people who had once lived on that land. "We had the great-great-granddaughter and the great-great-grandsons of the Barnhart family that was removed from this island," she said. "That was really uplifting and powerful because we reconnected that bloodline with their actual ancestral area. This was where their family grew up."
They came to Barnhart Island to do something their ancestors had always done – tap maple trees for syrup and for the medicinal properties of the sap.
Yet Onientahtahse, who’s in her 30s, had never tapped a tree herself before that day. And so this basic act, she says, was like reconnecting the children, including her own, to their Mohawk history.
"To just show them that this is their people’s area," Onientahtahse said. "It’s not our fault that we got pushed out. So to normalize that, so that in 50 years our kids are gonna go, 'oh well, my grandma went out there and tapped trees and I remember it and I was there for that, so I’m going to go too.'"
Technically this tree-tapping isn’t allowed on Barnhart Island. But a NYPA security guy stopped by without incident. A NYPA spokesperson seemed to know about what these people were doing and had no comment, adding that NYPA is always trying to improve relationships with native tribes in the North Country.
There’s a long history of antagonism and tension between Mohawks and New York State. This time, it seemed like no one really wanted to go there.
"We’re not trying to pick a fight," said Gabe Oakes, who visited the following day with Dean Sakoiateiosta George, to harvest the sap, pouring it into bright orange 5-gallon buckets from Home Depot to take back to Akwesasne. "It’s been a long time since these been tapped," Oakes said.
Oakes swept his hand before all the woods before him. "Nobody stole this land. It’s here. It’ll always be Mohawk land," he said.
"We don’t want to step on no toes. Whoever did this obviously is not alive now. Whoever did the injustice to the Mohawks isn’t alive. It’s just, let’s be honest, let’s be realistic, there’s a lot of natural resources that our people could use."
Mohawks used these woods sustainably from time immemorial, Oakes says. Why not after centuries of injustice and discrimination let Mohawks use the land again, he said, for hunting, medicine gathering, wood.
"I see a lot of dead trees. They have companies come in and cut the trees. Why wouldn’t you ask the Mohawks to come cut it? They can take it home and use it in ceremonies. They could use it when we do our ceremonies at the longhouses."
There’s a state park over there, Oakes said. Why not let Mohawks operate an educational sugarhouse for the tourists?
Oakes and George hand the buckets of sap to Dagraheydunggee Davie, who loads them into the back of a pickup truck.
He’s a young guy, and says the recent land claim victory for Mohawks isn’t the biggest reason why they’re doing this now. Barnhart Island isn’t even part of area covered in the court ruling.
He says everything from the Dakota Access pipeline protests to Black Lives Matter to pop culture makes now the right time to start reclaiming history.
"Native issues are out there now. It’s more socially acceptable. We’re all over the media now," Davie said. "People suddenly realize all our issues, so it seems like the right time to get out there now."
In the 1800s and 1900s when all this land was taken, Mohawks were forcibly sent to residential schools. Onientahtahse says they couldn’t fight back.
"It was illegal for a lawyer to represent an Indian in court, so how are we supposed to fight against anything for land?" she said. "But now that our elders are getting older and they’re telling us, that was our family’s, your family used to farm there, your family used to get maple syrup there. Our younger people are going, the court kind of sided with us on that one. We might as well start using all of it."
Our people have the right to use this land, she said flatly. "That’s it."
