Iroquois Confederacy re-unification begun

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When Brian Skidders was condoled as a Mohawk chief in Akwesasne's longhouse on May 7, Iroquois Conferacy (Haudenosaunee) supporters saw it as a stride towards the much-hoped-for restoration of their traditional system of government.

More than 1,000 people attended the condolence (a word for the ceremony by which a traditional chief is formally welcomed to the Confederacy council) although only half of them could find a seat inside the longhouse. Kenneth Deer, the publisher of Kahnawake's weekly newspaper, The Eastern Door, was one of the people in attendance. Deer said the occasion was an emotional one for many in attendance.

"I talked to some people from Six Nations and they said they don't care where the next one is, they're going to be there," he said. "It was great. I loved it."

Staunch Confederacy supporter Norman Jacobs, a resident of the Six Nations of the Grand River territory, and his wife Carole made the six hour drive to Akwesasne and came back with a sense of pride and hope. Jacobs said the chief, his sub-chief and two faith keepers were put in place.

"We became one mind again," he said. "It was really, really something. It was a real tear-jerker at times. We figure it's been 12 years since there's been a condolence."

Elected Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell grew up in the Mohawk longhouse tradition. He's been praised for his efforts in encouraging the return to traditional ways. Because of divisions created by the imposition of the Canada/United States border through the middle of traditional Haudenosaunee territory, the hereditary line of titles has been broken and confused, especially within the Mohawk Nation. Originally there were 50 chiefs who sat around the fire at council meetings. After the arrival of the Europeans, the council split, with 50 chiefs on the U.S. side and another 50 on the Canadian side. Before his death last year, respected Cayuga Chief Jake Thomas urged the council to clear up the confusion and restore order.

"I was a little boy then, but I clearly remember that a lot of the council meetings that took place at Onondaga where they had grand council meetings, as well as Grand River, and the inconvenience of having so many chiefs show up with the same titles," Mitchell said. "So they said, 'Listen now, we're going to have to agree to let the titles die out and start all over again whenever the time is right.' During the last 10 years, most of the title holders have passed away. More specifically over the last 10 years they have been seriously deliberating how they could bring the Confederacy back together as one because, following the Revolutionary war, when Joseph Brant took his followers to Grand River, they moved the fire, they split the wampum and they had 50 chiefs in Grand River (southern Ontario) and the rest of the Confederacy fire went back to its original place in Onondaga (central New York state). From that time on there were 50 chiefs in the original, traditional Confederacy in Onondaga. In 1888, they moved the Mohawk Nation fire from Mohawk Valley (Onondaga in New York) to Akwesasne. So the capital, if it can be referred to as that, of the Mohawk Nation was moved to Akewsasne. In essence, what you had was two Confederacies. Over the last few years, at a time when Jake Thomas was still alive, he strongly urged the Confederacy to come back together after 200 years and that in the condolence, when they're raising new chiefs, they should keep that in mind. This is the end result."

The goal now is to continue to rebuild and work towards condoling 50 chiefs whose titles are respected by all members.

In Mohawk communities along the St. Lawrence River and eastwards past the Great Lakes, the bitter divisions between traditional government supporters, who believe they are living in occupied territory, and band council supporters, is deep and disruptive. Mitchell believes this split must be healed for the good of the people.

"The relevence, and you're speaking to a lader who's an elected leader but one who grew up in the longhouse, the significance for us . . . in Akwesasne I have made it my life-long goal to recognize the traditional government. Very early in the 1980s, when I became the grand chief, we passed a major resolution that formally acknowledged the Mohawk Nation traditional council as our historic national government," he said.

"So then one would ask, 'well, who is the elected council of Akwesasne?' The simple answer is: we are the community government, they are the nation government. We endeavor to find ways to support each other and to reflect that in our decisions. It became more clear as we looked at major issues like land claims and government relations, what our roles are."

He said it was, and still is, a struggle to get over the antagonism between traditional council and band council supporters.

"There needed to be a re-educating of ourselves, of who we are. Of course, in Akwesasne, that's a pretty complicated history as we found out when we challenged Canada in our border crossing case," he said.

But the research led the judge to decide that Akwesasne had proven they were a member of the Iroquois Confederacy. That decision, which confirmed the rights of Akwesasne Mohawks to trade across the Canada/United States border, is scheduled to be appealed by Canada one last time at the Supreme Court on June 16.

Mitchell noted that the home of the other Confederacy Council - Six Nations - is still bitterly divided with both traditional and elected chiefs claiming they are the legitimate government.

"They both may be right," he said. "In this day and age, rather than seeing that difference continue into the next generation, I've sought ways to seek a protocol where we would recognize ourselves (elected council) for the good that we're able to do and what is our place within the Mohawk Nation. So it was incumbent upon me to recognize our traditional leaders within the nation government even if Ottawa didn't."

Inernal fighting, Mitchell believes, doesn't accomplish anything for the people.

"Especially when we're seeing the end of the era of Indian Affairs and the Indian Act. There has to be an evolution towards something - self government. We've chosen to start working our way back towards the Confederacy. So, if we become the administrative arm of the Mohawk Nation and we maintain the traditions as well as the treaties and the Aboriginal rights that derive from nationhood from the Mohawk Nation then that seems to us like just cause to pursue that direction," he said.

But rather than focus on the bitterness and the unresolved problems, Mitchell wanted to talk about the happier events in the longhouse on May 7.

"It's almost a re-birth. We talked it up in our community and everybody's glad to see it re-vitalized and the spirit of everything that it represents. The rekindling of the Mohawk Nation, that's where it starts."