Dune Buggydune Buggy by Akwiranoron Stacey
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Dune BuggyDune Buggy by Akwiranoron Stacey I bought a 1990 Toyota Tercel from a scrap yard and transformed it into a dune buggy. First I ripped of the roof, trunk and doors and cut the car in half to shorten the wheel base. Then I welded the axle back on and reconnected the brake and gas lines. I put on 18-inch wheels in place of the 14-inch wheels that it came with it to increase the clearance off the ground. Right now my dune buggy is excellent for driving on hills as an ATV. There's still a little more work to be done in the future. I want to weld on a roll cage. Akwiranoron Stacey, a Mohawk student from Kahnawake, is in Business Administration. He spends a lot of his free time working on his dune buggy. One day he would like to be self employed as a general contractor or own his own business customizing cars. POW-WOWS by Katsitsahawi Ashley Thomas Pow-wows in Kahnawake started in 1990 just after the Oka crisis. Pow-wows are gatherings that bring the people together. They are also a way of bringing non- natives and natives together. The Pow- wow starts on a Friday night where they have many Kahnawake singers entertaining the audience from 6 pm to 7pm. After that they have a traditional social for the rest of the night. The social is usually held in the longhouses but they have it so that the non-natives can see how we sing and dance. On Saturday the Pow-wow dances start around one o’clock when there is a grand entry. The grand entry is where all the dancers dance around in the arena, something like a parade. In the grand entry you have dancers from near and far: there are veterans from the military, a head and female dancer and a head veteran, someone who has been dancing in Pow-wows for a very long time. All these people dance at the beginning, followed by the dancers of all ages. Throughout the weekend the dancers all dance to win money. The categories are: fancy dancers, traditional dancers, smoke dancers, jingle dress dancers and grass dancers. The ages of the categories are: tiny tots, 6yrs-11yrs, 12yrs-17yrs, 18yrs-44yrs and the golden age. I can remember as far back as being six years old, sitting with my To:ta (grandmother), my Baba ( grandfather), and my parents at my grandparents’ craft stand. Our craft table consisted of dreamcatchers, beaded earrings, necklaces, anklets, wooden tomahawks and many more beautiful native crafts. All these crafts are handmade by my family including myself. The crafts are made with beads, leather, feathers, sinu (cat gut), and thread to name a few. We get our supplies from the pow-wows, native craft stores in Kahnawake and big name stores like Wal-Mart. Making the crafts takes a great deal of time and patience. I can remember when my To:ta and my parents first taught me how to make some of the crafts. At first it took me forever to make a dreamcatcher earring because I didn’t have patience. As I grew older it took me less and less time to make one. This is a good thing. Over the years after my Baba died, my To:ta couldn’t handle the craft stand by herself so she handed it over to my parents. I love being at the Pow-wow not just because of the craft stand but also just being there listening to the Pow-wow music and participating in the dances. It’s a very enjoyable and exhilarating experience. What I also love about the Pow- wow is the food. They serve hamburgers, hot dogs, buffalo burgers, walleye nuggets, cornbread and steak and many other traditional foods. They’re all very delicious. I especially love the fry bread and the freshly made strawberry juice. 47 During the winter is mostly when I make all my crafts with my family. When springtime comes around I am so happy because I know that the Pow-wow is just around the corner. So if you are interested in coming to watch our dancing, hear the beautiful singing, and try some food, Kahnawake Pow-wows are usually held on the second weekend in July each year. So come on out and enjoy the fun! Katsitsahawi Ashley Thomas is a Mohawk student from Kahnawake. She is currently in social studies majoring in child studies. One day she hopes to become a Mohawk teacher in her community. 48 BBBBeeeeeeiiiiiinnnnnnggg ggg IIIIIIddddddeeeeeennnnnnttttttiiiiiiccccccaaaaaalll lll By Katsithawi Ashley Thomas In youth we dressed the same, Friends and relatives called us by the wrong name. We would resent being called “Hey Twin.” An identity crisis we feared within. As teenagers we made the big transition. To prove we were unique we favored a division. Different classrooms, different clothes, Sometimes different clothes we chose. But we both knew no matter how different we tried to be, We still loved sharing our similarities. It seems without realizing why, Our lives run parallel as the years go by. We know what is on each other’s mind. We dial the phone at the same time We share all our emotions and tell each other our darkest secrets, This is just typical for identical twins. Sometimes I wonder about all the identical twins in existence, For each twin, physically and mentally there is so little distance. Yet we have the gift of separate lives to lead, This was our destiny since the implanted seed. With the love and support of my identical sister, Life for me is all the richer. So for her there is me and for me there is her, Another life we would never prefer. The affection my sister and I feel is a gift from the creator That no one can steal. And while I write these words I can guarantee that My identical sister is thinking of me! 49 Gender Roles among the Iroquois By Katsithawi Ashley Thomas Since around the 1800’s women and men have been “doing gender,” especially the Iroquoian people. Hundreds of years ago women and men had certain gender roles to follow. Men went out and hunted, they were the warriors and did more of the activities outdoors. Women on the other hand stayed at the longhouse (An Iroquoian home made of wood that had a fire pit and beds made out of wood. The longhouse held up to six families.) took care of the children, cooking, preparing the food, and making all the clothing for the family. Today, it is different; men and women try to share the responsibilities evenly among themselves although there are a lot of men and women who are very old fashioned, especially the older generation. The difference in the gender roles among the Iroquois in terms of power authority, agriculture and the children is that there is more equality nowadays. Iroquoian woman had a great amount of authority and power in the community. Since the Iroquois are a matriarchal society, the women are the more dominant gender. “In the Iroquois community, women were the keepers of the culture. They were responsible for defining the political, social, spiritual, and economic norms of the tribe.” (Iroquois Democracy.) Warner (1925) states, “In the Iroquoian political system, women possessed an unusual amount of power. All the male delegates to the ruling of councils of the Iroquois nation were designated by senior women in the clan or tribe.” There are four different clans: bear, wolf, turtle and snipe. Women were the clan mothers in the longhouse, while men were the chiefs. Clan mothers’ roles were to make sure everything was running smoothly in the community. They were to make sure that all the families in their clan had enough food and that the family was able to survive during the winter. “Clan mothers, the leaders of the clan, select the council members or chiefs, and have veto power over the men’s decisions” (Carnegie museums.) The clan mothers were also in charge of putting together all the festivals and ceremonies for the community. Some of these festivals were Corn-Planting festival, Strawberry festival, and Maple festival. These festivals were to celebrate corn, maple and strawberries and at the same time pray that there would be a good harvest for the years to come. There was also the false face ceremony “Various masks are carved by dancers and used in longhouse ceremonies in order to ward off spirits who cause sickness or to cure those people who are already afflicted,”(Warner.P.146) This is why the false face ceremonies are held each year. Women also appointed men to be chiefs in the community. Chiefs took care of all the politics among the tribe and the confederacy. Men did the traveling to other communities to talk about land claims and other political issues, and also some issues concerning the white people. Men were also the warriors of the tribe; women were not allowed to fight for the community, they were told that they had to stay home and watch 50 over the reserve. Not all men went out and fought for the tribe; the medicine men, the elders and those men that were too weak to go out and fight were told to stay home. The people had great respect for those men that went out and fought for the welfare of the community. A man who gained great respect among the tribe became the war chief. Since the women had a lot of power, the family name was passed on through them instead of the father.