Franklin County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. To the north across the Canada–United States border are the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, from east to west. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 47,555. Its county seat is Malone. The county is named in honor of United States Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.
St. Regis Mohawk Reservation is a Mohawk Indian reservation of the federally recognized tribe the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, located in Franklin County, New York, United States. It is also known by its Mohawk name, Akwesasne. The population was 3,288 at the 2010 census. The reservation is adjacent to the Akwesasne reserve in Ontario and Quebec across the St. Lawrence River. The Mohawk consider the entire community to be one unit and have the right to travel freely across the international border.
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language currently spoken by around 3,500 people of the Mohawk nation, located primarily in current or former Haudenosaunee territories, predominately Canada, and to a lesser extent in the United States. The word "Mohawk" is an exonym. In the Mohawk language, the people say that they are from Kanien:ke and that they are Kanienʼkehá꞉ka "People of the Flint Stone Place" or "People of the Flint Nation".
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The center features contemporary and historical exhibits of art and artifacts by and about Native Americans.
The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne is a Mohawk Nation (Kanienʼkehá:ka) territory that straddles the intersection of international borders and provincial boundaries on both banks of the St. Lawrence River. Although divided by an international border, the residents consider themselves to be one community. They maintain separate police forces due to jurisdictional issues and national laws.
The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet, with more than 112,000 square feet of gallery space. The museum’s permanent collection has over 42,000 works of art. PAM features a center for Native American art, a center for Northwest art, a center for modern and contemporary art, permanent exhibitions of Asian art, and an outdoor public sculpture garden. The Northwest Film Center is also a component of Portland Art Museum.
The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. Its collection includes more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts representing various cultures, including Asian, European, American, African, Pre-Columbian, and Native American. The museum is also home to some Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculptures,and decorative arts from the late 13th century to c. 1750.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building, a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.
Kanatsiohareke (Gah-nah-jo-ha-lay-gay) is a small Mohawk/Kanienkahaka community on the north bank of the Mohawk River, west of Fonda, New York. The name means "The clean pots" and is derived from Canajoharie or "Upper Castle", one of the two major towns of the Mohawk nation in 1738. Kanatsiohareke was created to be a "Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Reverse", teaching Mohawk language and culture. Located at the ancient homeland of the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), it was re-established in September 1993 under the leadership of Thomas R. Porter. The community must raise their own revenue and frequently hold cultural presentations, workshops, and academic events, including an annual Strawberry Festival. A craft shop on site features genuine handmade Native crafts from all over Turtle Island.
The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and towards the New York State Capitol. The museum houses art, artifacts, and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development. Operated by the New York State Education Department's Office of Cultural Education, it is the oldest and largest state museum in the US. Formerly located in the State Education Building, the museum now occupies the first four floors of the Cultural Education Center, a ten-story, 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m2) building that also houses the New York State Archives and New York State Library.
CKON-FM is a private radio station located in Akwesasne, a Mohawk nation territory that straddles the Canada–United States border. The station's studios are located in the Akwesasne Communication Society Building; that building is itself on both sides of the international border, with part of it being in Hogansburg, New York, and part of it in Saint Regis, Quebec. The ACS building was deliberately constructed on the international border as a symbol of Mohawk defiance between Canada and the United States, as well as an expression of communal unity.
Nancy Bonvillain is a professor of anthropology and linguistics at Bard College at Simon's Rock. She is author of over twenty books on language, culture, and gender, including a series on Native American peoples. In her field work she worked with the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) and Diné (Navajo) peoples, and she has published a grammar and dictionary of the Akwesasne dialect of Kanyenʼkéha (Mohawk). She received her PhD from Columbia University in 1972 and has taught at Columbia University, The New School, SUNY Purchase, Stony Brook University, and Sarah Lawrence College. She now teaches at Bard College at Simon's Rock.
José Barreiro is an American novelist, journalist and activist. He is recognized as an advocate of Native community self-determination and autochthonous development (indigeneity). Barreiro is an elder and advisor in the Nación Taina.
Cornwall Island is an island in the Saint Lawrence River, directly south of the city of Cornwall. The island is located completely within Canada, but it is also part of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve, which straddles the Canada–United States border and the Quebec–Ontario border. The Seaway International Bridge, with a channel crossing on each side of the island, provides road access to Cornwall Island from both Canada and the United States.
Sherrill Elizabeth Tekatsitsiakawa “Katsi”Cook is a Mohawk Native American midwife, environmentalist, Native American rights activist, and women's health advocate. She is best known for her environmental justice and reproductive health research in her home community, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne in upstate New York.
Mary Kawennatakie Adams was a Mohawk First Nations textile artist and basket maker.
The Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment (ATFE) is a community-based grassroots activist organization developed to address issues of environmental justice and contamination within the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne. The mission of the ATFE is to preserve the Mohawk community's spiritual, cultural and biological integrity through activism, advocacy, and collaborative research. They achieve their efforts through projects related to political advocacy, environmental education and by conducting culturally-sensitive research to address the consequences of environmental injustices. The ATFE's influence has extended to surrounding public schools and has contributed to discussions on the introduction of Indigenous Knowledge into mainstream science curricula in the United States.
Margaret E. Jacobs is a Native American artist and member of the Akwesasne Mohawk tribe, known for her sculptures, jewelry, and sketching. She draws inspiration from her culture and upbringing. She values natural and synthetic objects and is inspired by buildings in the United States; they are a reminder of Mohawk ironworkers who left their tribes and communities to help build structures. Most of Jacobs' work has been based on the history of the Mohawks, her cultural heritage, and stories.
Marlana Thompson is an Akwesasne Mohawk, Wolf clan, beadwork artist, regalia maker, and fashion designer. She currently lives in Akwesasne, New York. Her artworks are in public and private collections in North America and Europe, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Adirondack Experience, and a museum in Bonn, Germany. Her artwork bridges her tribal community and the mainstream art world.
