Earlier this week, Rebecca Geary and I visited the St. Regis Mohawk tribe in Akwesasne on the border of New York and Canada. We toured the reservation with Mr. Tsiorasa Barreiro, who serves as the Executive Director of the tribe, and Tom Cook, son of Bill “Flying Cloud” Cook. The St. Regis River separates the Canadian side of the reservation from the rest of Canada, so we were able to cross the border as easily as crossing a street – no passport required!
Tsiorasa and Tom showed us many sides of a strong and hopeful community. We saw the longhouse, empty and cold when we poked our heads in but easy to imagine brimming with song, footsteps, and laughter. We could imagine enough dancing to warm the place even without fires roaring in the woodstoves. We saw the community church, the second oldest Jesuit church in the United States, a towering stone testament to the resiliency of the people it serves as well as a small museum and well-stocked library, the museum bursting with beautiful Mohawk crafts, artwork and tools. Tsiorasa spoke excitedly of expansions that could be made to display even more of the Tribe’s achievements. Evident was a local economy on the rise, one which supports over 300 small business owners. There was suffering as well – the hardships of a people fighting for their right to exist and to be acknowledged. In everything we saw, both good and bad, there was hope, love for family and pride in self and community.
The occasion of our visit was to celebrate the partnership between the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and Farm & Wilderness. Because of that partnership, we will welcome 10 new families into our community. We had a great turnout for the meet ‘n’ greet we hosted for the families to inform about F&W and answer any questions. We look forward to bringing even more St. Regis Mohawk families to Farm & Wilderness in years to come, as we explore other opportunities that the partnership may offer. Farm & Wilderness strives to be an ally in the fight for recognition and awareness that indigenous people must wage, and we view our partnership as another avenue for their voices to be heard.
The trip was an incredible opportunity to get an intimate look at a deep and storied community. Quite a few folks we met expressed excitement about visiting us over the summer to talk about Native life, culture, history, and identity, and to share songs and crafts with our campers. I’d be thrilled to see them again, and so excited that campers would get to meet them too. After all, that’s what Farm & Wilderness is all about – bringing people together.