STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Can't throw me out
I finished high school in 1966 at Bishop Whelan in Lachine. My mother gave me two weeks to find myself a job or something. It was a Wednesday when I was packing my clothes. I figured I would go and join the service because everyone was joining the Marines at the time.
They would have killed me
During the Siege of Kanehsatà:ke in 1990, it was a very bad situation in Kahnawà:ke. People were starving. My wife had to go to Dorval by boat to get vegetables. We didn’t even have gasoline. There were some people who smuggled gas in and sold it at a stand by the side of the road.
Wood burning stove and candies
As kids, we’re all sitting around the stove and then he’d tell us stories. Grandpa’s stories. That was such real fun. Then, remember? There were days at the end of the week that daddy paid us each five cents and we’d go to the village and go to Chene store.
He Only Spoke Mohawk to Me
My father passed this April, almost at the age of 82. Interestingly, when he was 80, he randomly said to me that when he was a small child, his grandfather lived with him in his family’s home.
Putting in the Seaway
I remember being a teenager at the old Kateri Hall when they were holding a meeting with the Seaway Authority and the mayor at the time, Matty Lazare. The Seaway Authority comes in and says, "We promise you we're going to put water and sewers through here.
Cannon ball anchor
When they first started building the Seaway, they built a wall by the marina as a dam. They dammed it, then they drained it, this way they can continue digging from down below.
Bootlegging
You know, when I was about 18, my uncle had a modern day Ford. We went all the way down near the border in that car to go buy beer because there, they would sell it to the Indians. You weren’t supposed to sell to the Indians back then.
Deliver the news
My route was the Old Malone Highway from Joe Stalk’s bicycle repair shop all the way to the CPR Tunnel, then around to Veteran’s Boulevard and finishing up behind Joe Delisle’s Pool Hall.
I believe in genetic memory
I don’t think the language was ever really lost here in Kenhtè:ke. But there were changes to education on the reserve that did have an impact. Here, there were day schools, which most of our students in the community attended.
You have my freckles
I got a phone call two weeks later from Ms. Whitacomb, and she told me that she had found my file, and that she didn’t have the heart to put it at the bottom of the stack because she knew that she could facilitate and reunite this family.
Very adventurous
She would work as a cook at the hospital, and she was part of the catholic church. They used to have busloads of people coming to the church and feed them at Kateri Hall, so she would go there and be a volunteer cook too.
Always feeding people
Even to this day, there’s a man in town who always makes it known to us that he was so thankful. When he was a young boy, he didn’t have much to eat and would ask my grandfather for a little bit of work and he would tell him to go and eat first.
Indian Agents
There isn’t an Indian agent anymore. I remember them. There were different ones. The government liked to get their Indian agents from the military, see, cause it was just after the war. All these guys are coming back and need some cushy post and they’d give ‘em a few Indians to manage.
Ruling the roost
When we moved from Yellow Island to the village of Ahkwesáhsne, my dad started attending the council meetings that happened about once a month. My parents only spoke Indian. After a while, I could understand some things in English, more than my dad. So one day he said, “Come to the meeting with me and let me know what’s going on.” So we went.
I stepped on the major
We danced and it was quite a crowded dance floor. There were all these people in uniforms and medals and whatnot all. Anyway, I remember, we made a turn out on this crowded dance floor, and I heard a cry of pain behind me.
The Council House
In the old Council House, well, at least the one with which I was familiar, on the main level, there was a room at the back. And, from the dance floor, as I like to call it, you went downstairs to the basement.
Hunting in Brasher
I hunted in Brasher, New York, since 1982. A friend told me about it, because he used to go up there. Before that we would go all the way to Lake Placid to hunt deer, because there were not many deer here.
Where the river curves
I didn’t have a boat back then, so I had to borrow one and I had to bring it back at a certain time. This one man, old man Buckshot, that man had nets in the water. I brought the boat back the next day, and he was kind of mad; we went out on his boat and checked his net.
The Ladies Eight
They always had a good group. People get together to help each other out. If somebody loses a family member, there’s somebody who can help out to make lunch. When the service is finished, they would all go to the church hall and food would be ready for them to eat.