STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Opening doors
I try to open whatever doors I can for them by teaching them. I'm starting with manual stuff. Next week, we're doing dream catchers with the kids. Later, they’ll help me teach about 60 of their teachers and supervisors how to make them.
Profile: Leonard Bordeau's career
Leonard Bordeau may have retired more than 15 years ago, but he’s never slowed down. At 78, he remains active in Kahnawake—taking part in community activities, serving on the board of Sharing Our Stories, and continuing his efforts to preserve Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) language and culture.
Moving into the Treatment Center
Each day that we met with Ciaccia, we would tell him about the monstrosities that the SQ had been perpetrating. One day they would shut our water off, and then the next would be our power. Intimidating the residents of Kanehsatà:ke was a daily affair.
It’s too heavy
I don’t take it personally. It’s not about me, it has nothing to do with me. When I do this kind of work, I’m just not here. It’s second nature to do that.
We are not alone
We weren’t allowed to watch TV, that was only for white kids. So we would climb the fence and we could see through their window and watch TV.
Something missing
John and Stephen McComber were the teachers for the guys. There was also Barbara Littlebear who taught us some beadwork and how to make our own moccasins. She did powwow dancing too.
They all boxed
We had tournaments in our basement too; chess tournaments, dart tournaments, even wrestling. We had boxing down there!
Onen’tó:kon
So, Friday night comes and at about six o'clock we all go into the cedar room to have a meeting. They said, "Earl, where is your roommate?"
The last white pine forest
I remember when people used to respect the land and followed the teachings passed down through stories. But today, we see so many people getting sick from diabetes, cancer, things we didn’t have before.
Years in Brooklyn
I was in the public school system and got to meet a lot of different people. It was a whole new system that you had to adapt to. It was a lot different from Catholic School here in Kahnawà:ke.
514 Atlantic Avenue
My mother decided one day that we’re going to live in Brooklyn, and she packed all of our belongings. In those days we didn’t have luggage, we had paper shopping bags.
Vibration travels through the earth
There were a lot of things to witness at that time, a lot of healing ceremonies that they did through sound. It was an awesome experience. They had a huge drum and when they hit the drum, it reverberates against the walls of the higher mountain peaks in the Rockies and creates a vibration.
Healing in the Indigenous world
If you have long-term issues, over time, they have a tendency to create disease within the physical body. Then those long-term issues are now unconscious because they’ve been there for so long.
Everyone remained quiet
It was June 1st, 1988 when we got raided by the RCMP. They came in with the buses and set themselves up on the mountains with their machine guns and snipers.
Booze and Spirits
This is when we all get into fights, we are robbed or killed. Any kind of thing can happen when we are in that state. These are understandings I got from the old people. “Tóhsa shnekì:ra, don’t drink.” There’s going to be trouble because you are going to be attracting it - you are now in negative mode.
Cemetery Hill
This was the story he told. Well, that man never drank again and he became an elder in the church. And he is the one that got me to start read the scriptures in the church. And I read in the church for 43 years.
Smell signals
I learned this on a shoot: smoke signals. The real code was not just smoke. The smell. We were shooting in Arizona at Window Rock, and we wanted to do an interview. So, it was all organized with the daughter. We went to the daughter’s place, the mother lived up the hill.
Head Veteran
I am proud to be a Mohawk Veteran; I take the responsibility with much pride and bring the knowledge I carry from my 21 years of service into the powwow circle for the benefit of our people.