The Mohawks

In Chapter 4 of Native Nations, Bonvillain discusses the Mohawk people of the Northeast. The Mohawks currently inhabit parts of Canada such as Quebec and Ontario, but also New York state. When I read about such things as the Tyendinaga community and Six Nations being granted land by Europeans like King George III, I can't help but laugh. How nice of the British to grant the Native Americans with their own land! It's just oxymoronic! Time after time we're enlightened about the injustices of loyalty and allegiance that Native Americans endured, and the Mohawk people were no exception. Having already established allegiances, Mohawks were attacked by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Just the same, Mohawks were attacked during the French and Indian War, in which they pledged allegiance and aided Great Britain. Europeans would rope in Native Americans with promises of protection and land rights, but as expected, no one ever upheld these promises. What else could Native Americans do but comply? They were outnumbered. They were rendered helpless to superior technology. They were losing people rapidly. Some Europeans allied with the Mohawks such as John Norton (pictured to the left), who was a Mohawk leader in the War of 1812 as he was part Cherokee, part Scottish.

Along these same lines, I think it's interesting to read what Europeans used to call Native Americans. Mohawks called themselves "Kanyenkehaka", which means "people of the place of flint", whereas Europeans called them "Mohawks", which means "human-eaters". Interesting how there was no record of Mohawks eating humans, but European ethnocentricity tends to run rampant with imagination.

Again we run into the respected position of women in society. Bonvillain states that if a woman was the victim of murder, her family would be given more wampum belts as restitution as opposed to a man. It was thought that women could not as easily defend themselves and because women replenish the earth with people, they're more valued as a part of the public. Also, Mohawks left wishes to the woman in sexual matters. This reflects the fact that rape and beatings were unheard of in Mohawk society.