The Kanien'kehá:ka (or Mohawk) are one of the original indigenous groups to inhabit New York, Quebec and Ontario; before European contact they lived primarily in Southern Quebec and the New York State area known as the Mohawk Valley.Though they are commonly known as Mohawk this term is derogatory, the word Mohawk is taken from a native word meaning eaters of flesh. Mohawks call themselves Kanien'kehá:ka or Kahnyen'kehaka, which means the People of the Flint; this name comes from the stone tools they were famous for trading.
The Kanien'kehá:ka are members of the Haudenosaunee
, also known as the League of Peace, Six Nations or Iroquois Confederacy, Haudenosaunee means the People of the Longhouse. The other five nations of the Haudenosaunee are the Oneida, the Seneca, the Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Tuscarora. The Kanien'kehá:ka are known among the Haudenosaunee as the Keepers of the Eastern Door, meaning they were the ones who protected the Confederacy's eastern perimeter.There are currently eight Mohawk communities:
- Kahnawake
- Kanesatake
- Akwesasne/St-Regis
- Tyendinaga
- Six Nations
- Wahta
- Kanatsiohareke
- GanienkehBefore contact the Kanien'kehá:ka were a matrilineal society, local government comprised of condoled chiefs (Ratitsenhaiens,) chosen by clan mothers from the three Kanien'kehá:ka clans, the Wolf, the Bear and the Turtle. Families were headed by the women, men moved into their mother in law's house, his children belonged to his wife's clan as descent was reckoned through the women's lines. Women ran things because they would stay home and take care of their children and grow crops while most men went out on hunting or trading missions. The Kanien'kehá:ka practiced an advanced form of horticulture. (Not true agriculture as there were no beasts of burden in the New World.) Although they did not keep livestock the men controlled herd populations of wild game by regularly burning the underbrush, in this way they were able to create entirely new areas for elk and deer to graze and flourish. The main crops the Kanien'kehá:ka women grew were corn, beans and squash, also known as the Three Sisters. The traditional way was to move the village after a certain amount of time because after years of living in one place the soil's nutrients were leeched away and in need of replenishing. Village locations were rotated roughly every ten years, and accordingly the names of the villages would change depending upon where they were moved. E.g. Kahnawá:ke (by the rapids,) would turn into Kahnawakon (in the rapids) then to Kahnnatwenke (from where one sets out) and then finally everybody would move back to Kahnawá:ke and the cycle would begin again; by this time the soil would be fertile once more.
--Kenzie 01:38, 15 February 2007 (CST)
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