Description
Kahnawa:ke: Factionalism, Traditionalism, and Nationalism in a Mohawk Community is a social, cultural, and political history from 1870 to 1940. Author Gerald F Reid had worked with this community in the early 1980s and is the author of a geography text for students of Kahnawake's Survival School. This current title is part of the University of Nebraska Press series called Iroquoians and Their World. Today, Kahnawa:ke is a Mohawk community along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, Quebec. This community has undergone numerous changes as a result of external political and social events. Like other Iroquois communities, Kahnawa:ke's political history has undergone periods of turmoil and unrest which have been described by anthropologists as factionalism. Reid looks at these issues of factionalism and their impact on this Mohawk community. He disagrees with anthropologist William Fenton's view that factionalism is dysfunctional. Reid believes that Mohawk community members were responsible for the dynamic changes the community underwent. Community members revitalized their local government and religious institution through their return to traditionalism and nationalism. The book begins with a brief historical overview of the Mohawk Nation within the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), and the settlement of the Kahnawa:ke community. The main section of the text looks at the external changes imposed on Kahnawa:ke from 1870 to 1940. The Canadian government through the Indian Act, the Catholic Church through the Sisters of St. Anne, as well as the loss of land, and changing economy all affected the Mohawks at Kahnawa:ke. In response the community adapted in a variety of ways. One small faction supported the move to acculturation while most supported Mohawk sovereignty and nationalism. The book is divided into chapters that examine the changing political organization from the Council of Chiefs to a band council system under the Indian Act; opposition to the Indian Act and support for Mohawk and Iroquois nationalism; the role of the Catholic Church in the community, and the return to the Longhouse. The author draws on government records and oral histories as sources. He notes that this period of Kahnawa:ke's history has had limited coverage. This book fills a gap in Mohawk history. The book includes several photographs, maps, a bibliography, and index.