STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Crossing the St. Lawrence by canoe
I remember it was on a bright summer day so long ago and that this wasn't my idea, so of course I said yes. We prepped for an overnight stay, borrowed my brother Stephen's canoe, and pushed off from just about where Billy Two-River's laundromat used to be.
Fire Brigade on parade
The day of the parade, we had all the kids get dressed in regalia to stand on the trailer with the heart. The moose heart is meant to take care of children who don’t have anybody, like orphaned children.
It happened at Christmas
So, one Christmas morning, as he was accustomed in doing every Christmas morning, he hitched his team of his horses to a winter sled to go up the mountain to cut wood. This was just to offend the people that were going to church on Christmas morning.
Amateur naturalist
I am part of the Bear clan so I wouldn’t hunt a bear. Maybe if someone else offered me a steak from a bear they hunted I would accept but besides that I am not interested in hunting or eating it. I would only shoot it if I had to in self-defense.
All the way up
The swamp was surrounded by fields, no houses at all. No trees either, you’d only see one apple tree and some torn bushes. Besides that, it was all cut. Cows and horses used to go free around here, and they used to clean the fields up, eat all the grass.
Catholic school
"You were forbidden to speak Mohawk in school. You want to get a good whack? Say something in Mohawk. The nuns and the priests were in on it. “Break them. If you break their language, you got them,” was the line that they told. "
Walking to school
We lived close to Kateri School because we were downtown. The Lafleur family had their first store on the front street. The MCK office is there now but that was where the Lafleur’s had their butcher shop and groceries so we weren’t that far from school.
Passing it on
I think it's important that people pass on the stories and the traditions, because I'm sure families have different stories and traditions that were passed down to them. They probably just thought it was old people telling them stories, but it's important to hear those stories because there was always a moral behind it.
Brightsun Bakery
Baking was in my blood—my mother was a baker. When we were kids, we’d run down the road to deliver hot bread straight from the oven to people who had placed orders. She also made meat pies, which she’d store in an upstairs unheated room to keep them cold.
We’re not selling out
When they were building the seaway, they were moving the houses away from the construction, but my uncle said, “We’re not moving. We’re not selling out.
Old Malone Highway
"In the late 1930s and early 1940s, we didn’t have snowplows in Kahnawà:ke. There were not many cars yet, it was mostly horse and buggies that traveled our roads."
I'll be damned
Right around 9:30 I told one of the guys who I was working with, "Hey look there's a girl on the balcony over there. Bet you if I wave to her, she's going to wave back."
Died on the iron
For two years, one leg was shorter than the other. He had a hearing aid, and he had a big steel plate in his face. Whenever he would drink beer, his skin would tighten up and you would see the mark of the plate in his cheek. He was off work for five years.
Splice service technician
So, I went to Montreal to get some tools. Pliers, work boots, gloves, whatever I needed and they supplied the rest. I wasn’t the crane operator. I was what they called the “tag man” on the radio giving him signals to move the crane.
O'tónhkwa'
Back then, we used to play in this area of Kahnawà:ke called Hooks Point, where I think they have the Quebec Bridge monument.
Ohniare'kó:wa
Early the next morning I went to see my uncle, Mike Woodrow, and told him of my dream. He said not to be afraid and went to burn tobacco.
Way off-Broadway
In those days, nobody knew about Natives. No one gave a shit about us. Some Natives would go and watch, if they knew about it. They would put ads in the paper under current events for their plays.
A story with a lesson
Fishing alone, the man would reel in his net and catch more than he needed. Not being mindful, the man would choose all his favourite fish for himself and his family and chuck the rest ashore.
Yellow flower
Do you have a sense of peacefulness behind these trees? Yes, there’s a feeling of peacefulness behind these cedar trees.