#kahnawake

[walls-to-the-ball]

HIGH STEEL, the iron workers of Kahnawake circa 1965, here

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Indian Learns Value of Silence At Cost of Month's Freedom," Montreal Star. August 1, 1934. Page 3. --- JOSEPH MCCUMBER, 25, Caughnawaga Indian brave, will, in future, be a staunch believer in the old adage that silence is golden. This morning he appeared before Judge Enright in answer to a charge of receiving an electric battery stolen from the automobile of Armand Cardinal, also of Caughnawaga, guilty. He was found guilty.

"I'll sentence you to a month in jail, though, in view of your record, I do not know whether that is sufficient or not," Judge Enright announced.

"I'm innocent - I never took the battery - the battery belongs to me." McCumber said all in one breath. "I-," he commenced again.

"I think you had better serve two months in jail," His Honor remarked dryly as he turned to the next case.

Cardinal had told the court that he found a battery he identified as his own in an automobile belonging to the accused.

[jana-hallford]

Happy Friday, Everyone! I just received some welcome good news: I will be presenting at the annual conference of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association this June in Oklahoma City. The theme this year is "Roots and Origins." My topic, taken from my thesis, is "Creation Story Motifs as Expressions of Identity and Resiliency in the Visual Culture of Kahnawà:ke," highlighting fashions by Tammy Beauvais and beadwork by Leith Mahkewa.

I am grateful.

[slashdementia7734]

Invasion of Kahnawake Reserve // Oka Crisis // Quebec // 1990.

Working Class History

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"TWO INDIAN YOUTHS JAILED FOR THEFT," Montreal Gazette. January 18, 1940. Page 23. --- Get 15 Months for Attacking and Robbing Fruit Peddler at Reserve ---- Two Indian youths who attacked a fruit peddler and robbed him of 75 cents worth of bananas on the Caughnawaga Indian Reservation a week ago were each sentenced to 15 months in prison when they appeared before Judge Gustave Marín yesterday following previous pleas of guilty.

The two sentenced were Christopher White, 20, and John Bordeaux, 19, both residents of the reserve who were taken into custody by Chief John K. Jocks, special Federal police officer of the Caughnawaga municipality.

Fernard Trottier, the peddler, was enticed into a lane in the Indian village on the pretext that a woman wanted to buy fruit. Four boys, two of them juveniles, attacked him and knocked his fruit to the ground. After punching him they fled with their loot. Advised of the thefts and given descriptions of the attackers, Chief Jocks rounded them up at their homes a few minutes later. The boys claimed that they had at- tacked the peddler only "to scare him."

A. Williams, 31, charged with the theft of $800 worth of tires, and office supplies as well as with stealing a truck, pleaded guilty when arraigned yesterday before Judge F. T. Enright. He will be sentenced on January 23.

Detective-Sergeants Boyer, Pashby, Clarkin and Harvey arrested him on Wednesday morning when they raided premises at 765 Versailles street. The stolen merchandise was the property of Tire Distributors, 744 Mountain street.

Henri Lasalle, 40, alleged to have posed as a detective and to have obtained fraudulently from Mrs. Rose Toupin, 40, 6770 St. Hubert street, a sum of $178 to provide a job for her fiance, was committed to further hearing yesterday by Judge Amedee Monet in Enquete Court. Lasalle will face the court again on January 24.

To obtain a job for Paul Emile Champagne, 40, 6720 St. Hubert street, Mrs. Toupin testified that she had paid Lasalle the money. The accused had represented to her, she said, that she must donate $15 to the electoral fund; money for presents to the Hon. T. D. Bouchard, buchard, Minister of Roads: similar disbursements for Hon. Wilfrid Girouard.

Atorney-General: and pay the expenses of trips to Quebec and Ottawa to further Champagne's application.

"I wanted Paul to have a job so much before we were married, that I paid over the money," said the witness.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Full-Blooded Iroquois Will Be Jesuit Priest," Kitchener Record. May 17, 1934. Page 1 & 2. ---- First Of Tribe To Be Ordained In Church Whose Missionaries Martyred --- MONTREAL, May 17. - (CP) - Descendant of the proud Iroquois tribe whose only deity was the sun that shone down upon their vast reserves reaching from the St. Lawrence River to the Laurentian Mountains and beyond, Rev. Michael Karhaienton Jacobs, S. J., will be ordained to the priesthood at his native Caughnawaga July 1.

A full-blooded Iroquois of the Mohawk tribe, Father Jacobs will be the first of his nation to enter the priesthood of a church whose early missionaries to Canada found the tomahawk the answer to their teachings.

The young novice is particularly well versed in the history of the lives of the martyred missionaries and is scheduled to speak after his ordination on the heroism of Saint Isaac Jogues and Fathers Brebeuf and Lallemand who died with a prayer on their lips the gospel they tried to preach would eventually win converts among the savages or at least the Indians' children's children.

Baptized Papoose Ordination ceremonies will take place at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, on the Caughnawaga Indian reservation, birthplace of the aspirant, with Mgr. Guillaume Forbes, archbishop of Ottawa, officiating. It was Archbishop Forbes, pastor at the reservation mission from 1890-1902 who baptised the then papoose in the latter year.

Rev. Michael Jacobs was educated at the little Caughnawaga school and at the College of the Sacred Heart, at Sudbury, Ont. After entering the Society of Jesus he studied philosophy at the Immaculate Conception Scholasticate, Montreal, taught for a time at the Jesuits college, at Gaspe, Que., and returned for the course in theology he is now following there.

Special celebrations both civil and religious are being planned by his compatriots at Caughnawaga. A special Indian pow-wow is now being rehearsed and several prominent pale faces will be received as honorary members of the tribe and will smoke the pipe of peace with the chieftains.

Similar celebrations will take place when the newly-ordained Indian priest visits the Iroquois Indians of St. Regis, near Cornwall, Ont., and also at Oka, Que., where there remain a small number of Iroquois and Algonquin Indians.

Will Visit Shrine Rev. Father Jacobs is also scheduled to visit the Jesuit martyrs' shrine at Midland, Ont., where he will celebrate high mass and preach on the Canadian martyrs. He is expected likewise to visit the American martyrs' shine at Auriesville, N. Y., the site of the martyr- dom of Saint Isaac Jogues, 8. J., the apostle of the Iroquois and the birthplace of the Indian maiden, Kateri Tekakwitha, surnamed the "lily of the Mohawks" because of her renowned holiness.

The young Indian priest is a descendant of converts made by the Jesuits in the 17th century at Caughnawaga-- in Indian Kanawahke which means "at the rapids." This historic Indian settlement was founded in 1667 and its presbytery is part of the old fort built in 1719 and contains numerous interesting antiques and objects of genealogical interest.

[A fascinating if very racist description of the ordination of the first Indigenous Jesuit priest in Canada, Rev. Father Michael Karhaieton Jacobs. More information in his archival fonds here.]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Le maire Rinfret, membre de la tribu des Iroquois!" Le Petit Journal. June 11, 1933. Page 22. ---- Jne pittoresque cérémonie évoquant l'atmosphère d'Hochelaga et de la rencontre des chefs sauvages avec les premiers blancs à venir au pled du Mont Royal, les Jacques Cartier, les Champlain, les Maison- neuve, s'est déroulée hier après-midi au pare Jeanne-Mance alors que M. Fernand Rinfret, maire de Montreal, et M. Georges Caron, échevin d'Hochelaga, ont été faits grands chefs honoraires de la tribu d'Iroquols, relique indienne du vieux Montréal, aujourd'hui établie à Caughnawaga.

Les Indiens ont profité de la circonstonce de cette curieuse investiture pour donner une manifestation publique de leurs réjouissances collectives. Comme les Peaux-Rouges il y a 400 et 200 ans ont dù le faire pour Jacques Cartier, Champlain et Maisonneuve, les Peaux Rouges d'aujourd'hui ont fait asseoir sur une large peau de bête les deux représentants de la moderne ville de Montréal. Les chefs actuels de la tribu étaient assis à leurs côtés. Le calumet fut vite allumé et passa d'une bouche à l'autre. Un pacte de paix, plus solide que le pacte de Mussolini, était en mette temps signe et la fumés bleue qui montais vers l'immensité bleue du ciel, en était l'avertissement à ceux qui ne pou- valent voir de près le groupe d'honneur.

Et pendant ce temps, sauvages et sauvagesses de Caughnawaga dansaient en cercle autour du groupe en lançant des cris de joie inintelligibles aux Montréalais de 1933.

M. Rinfret n'était pas loquace et il semblait trouver le casque de plumes dont on lui avait couvert la tête un peu chaud, M. Caron, qui est d'Hochelaga, semblait mieux prendre les choses. Tous deux toutefois accomplissaient le rite surtout pour permettre à la tribu de la rive sud de recueillir quelque argent de la foule et d'aider ainsi à leurs oeuvres. La misère a été grande, dit-on, parmi les sauvages de Caughnawaga durant l'hiver dernier. C'est bien le moins que les Blancs d'aujourd'hui donnent à ces premiers habitants de Montréal une obole.

La fête s'est prolongée jusqu'à six heures et MM. Rinfret et Caron se sont un moment confondus parmi cette foule bigarrée et ont danse avec elle. Les Montréalais présents ont applaudi.

Le représentant du "Petit Journal" était loin de la scène, en route pour le bureau, qu'il entendait encore les bruits sourds des tambours primitifs des sauvages...

[AL: A VERY racist account of the Mayor of Montreal becoming an honorary member of the Mohawks of Kahnawake - which seems like a savvy move on the part of Kahnawake when the First Nation was attempting to secure more relief from the federal government...]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"LA POLICE APPREND QUE FRANK PERRAS, LE DERNIER A VOIR N DECAIRE TRAVAILLE A NORANDA," La Patrie May 24, 1933. Page 3. ---- Des détectives se rendront à cet endroit afin de tenter de faire identifier les objets trouvés avec le squelette découvert il y a trois semaines à Caughnawaga. --- Les détectives provinciaux, faisant enquête au sujet de la découverte d'un squelette dans le vieux cimetière de Caughnawaga. partiront aujourd'hul pour Noranda, afin d'y questionner Frank Perras, un bûcheron de la Téserve indienne. Les agents recherchent Perras depuis quelques semaines afin de le questionner au sujet de la disparition, il y a quinze ans, de Nick Decaire dont on croit avoir retrouvé les ossements.

Le squelette fut trouvé par trois indiens creusant une fosse dans le cimetière. Les deux jambes avaient été séparées du tronc qui avait été mis dans un sac de pommes de terre et enterré sous deux pieds de terre. On apprit que Perras était le dernier indien à avoir vu Nick Decaire lors de sa disparition. Perras était également disparu depuis nombra d'années.

A la suite d'une fort difficile enquête, le chef Jocks, de la réserve indienne, parvint à apprendre où se trouve actuellement J'erras, Le chef apprit que Perras avait une sœur qui tenait une maison de pension quelque part sur la rue de Bullion, à Montréal. Toutes les maisons de pension de cette rue furent visitées par le chef qui découvrit finalement cette femme, Mme Marie Trudeau.

Mme Trudeau fut longuement Interrogée et finalement déclara aux détectives que son frère travaillait dans une mine à Noranda. Elle déclara avoir reçu plusieurs lettres de lui, mais ajouta qu'il n'avait jamais parlé de la disparition de Decaire.

Perras, dit la police, n'est pas recherché comme témoin. mais simplement afin de donner certains renseignements parce qu'il fut le dernier à voir Decaire lors de sa disparition. On veut aussi tenter de lui faire identifier les objets trouvés dans le sac de nommes de terre. Il se peut que, Perras soit ramené à Montréal. dit la police.

Au cours des derniers deux jours, le chef Jocks a longuement questionné un grand nombre de résidents de Caughnawaga, qui connurent Decaire, mais aucun d'entre eux n'a pu jeter de lumière sur son étrange disparition. La majorité de ces indiens sont d'avis que ce squelette n'est pas celui de Decaire. pendant que les autres croient que le disparu a probablement tombé en bas du pont conduisant de Caughnawaga à Lachine.

Perras, dit in police, vit Decaire à la Côte Saint-Paul, un an après sa disparition, Perras communiqua alors avec la mère de Decaire qu'll informa de ce fait. Quand le chef Jocks et Mme Decaire rendirent à l'endroit mentionné par Perras, il ne virent ni Decaire ni Perras. Rien ne fut jamais plus mentionné de cette cause jusqu'à il y a trois, semaines quand le squelette fut trouvé et que l'on crût être en présence de celui de Decaire, qui est le seul indien disparu de la réserve depuis nombre d'années.