STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Train collection
I’ve got sets and sets and sets of trains. I’ve got buildings, I’ve got cars, buses. I bought them in Montreal, Massachusetts, New York City. My wife didn’t understand how much I liked trains, but she didn’t stop me. It’s my hobby.
Passing Knowledge Along
The first time I got introduced to medicine, I was a kid. I used to go pick wildflowers for my mother. I remember picking violets. They were so pretty. I picked a whole bunch of them.
Memories in the Garden
Being outside in the garden all the time, strange things happen that wouldn't ordinarily happen if you’re just sitting in your kitchen.
Enduring the cold months
When I was a child, our houses were not insulated like they are today. They would get very cold at night. In the winter, my father would have to put plastic over the windows and newspaper on the walls to try and keep the heat inside.
Just a business
I graduated from Chatelaine Business College in June of 1964. I was 18 and I started working in August for Dominion Bridge. I didn’t have a good job at first. It was the mail room then the print shop, but I made my way up eventually.
A comforting feeling
Church was just something you did. It was part of your week, and we always felt good about it. I remember our family had our pew where we always sat.
Learning on the job
The people that I worked with helped me. If I couldn’t say the word and if they could, they’d tell me how to say it. I received my education right there with those workers.
Shovel or pencil
My father told me, he said, “You want to quit school, then you’ve got to get to work. I don't want to see you walking on the streets in a year. Either pick up a shovel and work, or pick up a pencil and go to school.
Made it work
We made it work and would come back from Detroit for Christmas and summertime. But it got to a point that there were a lot of guys from town who would come back every weekend, right from work.
Union local 25
My father was in the business here in Montreal and he knew the ironwork business agents and people in the industry. So, I asked him to get me in instead.
Foundation of our strength
The impacts of the colonial genocidal project have created divisions and dysfunction within our communities. Centuries of hurt and trauma take time and often the oppression turns within, causing the divisions. In order to create reconciliation within ourselves, Indigenous people must understand their past, their stories of survival and life.
Inhabiting the land
When the Sulpicians came to Kanehsatà:ke, they claimed that there was nobody here. As time went by, people started moving away from the village of Kanehsatà:ke to the bay area, where most of our people are now.
Lost their homes
It’s always a sore point with Mohawks when talking about the Sulpicians, especially to the elders who remember their parents going through those hard times. The Sulpicians decided they wanted to remove the Mohawks from Kanesatà:ke.
Raised holy stink
Some kids would go away for school and would come back and couldn’t be part of the community because they don’t speak Indian. It was a mess. So, we continued to raise holy stink. These were the grandchildren of the people that were in residential school, where the language was just plain taken away from them.
Go on for miles
We had a few horses, a few cows, some chickens, and pigs. In the fall just before Christmas, they would butcher a pig and a chicken for a big supper.
Where I feel at home
The Pines or Onen’tó:kon, has always been a sacred place and one of refuge for the generations of my grandparents who sought peace in the Pines when the Sulpicians were harassing and brutalizing the people. They wanted us all to leave for Wáhta, but in the end, we have won because we are still here and we’re not going anywhere.
detach with love
I would have a lot of quiet talks with my mother on her back deck by the pool. My birth mother helped me a lot. She told me my father’s name and helped my children and I get status. I remember we went to some office, she spoke Mohawk for about five minutes, and within a month I had my status.