Kahnawa:ke: Factionalism, Traditionalism, and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community

1. “At the Rapids”

[First Page] [1], (1) Lines: 0 to 4 ——— 7.396pt P ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TEX [1], (1) 1. “At the Rapids” Historical Overview of Kahnawà:ke to the Late Nineteenth Century Rotinonhsiónni and Kanien’kehá:ka in the Seventeenth Century I n the sixteenth century the territories of the Rotinonhsiónni stretched across present-day upper New York State from the Hudson River west to the Genesee River. Protecting the eastern flank of the Longhouse nations were the Kanien’kehá:ka, or Mohawks, the Keepers of the Eastern Door. To their west were the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, the Keepers of the Western Door. The organization of these five nations into a confederacy with its Central Fire at Onondaga predates European contact and influence. Based on the clan system of the five nations and the principle of decision making by consensus , the Confederacy was a segmentary network of relations that joined households into villages, villages into nations, and the five nations into a potentially strong but potentially fragile political alliance.1 According to Rotinonhsiónni tradition, the Confederacy was organized through the efforts of Deganawida, “the Peacemaker,” to bring an end to the feuding and strife that had long characterized relations between the five nations. Dennis has argued that the Confederacy was created to bring peace not only to the five nations but to other native nations in the region as well.2 On the other hand, Brandão has suggested that the alliance was the product of efforts by the five nations to defend themselves and wage war against their common enemies and thus was related as much to war as to peace.3 Though the date of the founding of the Confederacy has been the subject of much “At the Rapids” 1 [2], (2) Lines: 40 ——— 0.0pt P ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [2], (2) debate, archaeological and historical evidence suggests that the Confederacy of the five nations was completely consolidated by the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.4 The population of the Rotinonhsiónni at this time is difficult to estimate, but by the 1630s their numbers exceeded 20,000.5 The largest of the five nations was the Kanien’kehá:ka, which numbered about 1,700 in 1580 and grew to nearly twice that size in the early seventeenth century. Owing to natural increase and the integration of large numbers of other native peoples through adoption, by 1634 they totaled more than 7,700 people living in four villages.6 Early in the sixteenth century the Kanien’kehá:ka controlled and used a large territory extending from the Mohawk River in the south and the Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain in the east through the Adirondack region north to the St. Lawrence River and west to Lake Oneida. The villages of the Kanien’kehá:ka were along the Mohawk River west of present-day Albany, between Schoharie Creek and East Canada Creek. In the mid-seventeenth century the principal villages were Tionnontoguen, Kanagaro, and Ossernenon, which later became known as Kahnawà:ke.7 The first Kanien’kehá:ka contact with Europeans was in 1609 when a small contingent of their number encountered and was defeated by a French-Algonquian force under Samuel de Champlain at Ticonderoga. The confrontation defined Kanien’keh á:ka–French relations for the next half century. The Dutch, and later the English, sought to exploit the Kanien’kehá:ka’s enmity for the French to curry their favor, establish trade relations, and forge alliances against the French. Trade with the Dutch was sporadic until 1624, when they expanded upriver from New Amsterdam and established an outpost, Fort Orange, on the doorstep of Kanien’kehá:ka territory at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.8 In 1634 a smallpox epidemic swept through the Kanien’kehá:ka villages and in a just a few months wiped out more than half the total population.9 2 “At the Rapids” [3], (3) Lines: 58 to ——— * 462.0pt P ——— Normal Pag PgEnds: TEX [3], (3) 2. The Rotinonhsi ónni and their territories in the sixteenth century [4], (4) Lines: 58 ——— 0.0pt P ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [4], (4) During the 1640s continued hostility toward the French and concern about French efforts to establish trading and military ties with their traditional enemies to the north and west led the Kanien’kehá:ka and the Rotinonhsiónni in general into a series of campaigns against French settlements and...