Mohawk skywalkers is a nickname for Mohawk ironworkers and other construction workers who have helped construct buildings and bridges in American and Canadian cities including New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Mohawk workers have contributed to the construction of iconic structures across North America including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Sears Tower, the CN Tower, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the United Nations Building, and the Twin Towers. Mohawk volunteers and workers contributed to both rescue efforts at Ground Zero and the rebuilding of the new World Trade Center. [1]
The over 140-year history of Mohawk involvement in ironwork dates to the 1880s, when Mohawk workers from Canada and upstate New York began to travel to major cities across North America. In the 1920s, Mohawk families from Canada formed the ethnic enclave of "Little Caughnawaga" in Brooklyn, as many Mohawk ironworkers were employed in the construction of skyscrapers in Manhattan. [2] According to the Journal of American Indian Education, Mohawk culture values "physical bravery" and the ethic of taking risks for the greater good of the people. [3] In the 21st century, Mohawk workers remain involved in high-rise and bridge construction. [4]
The Mohawk involvement in ironwork began in 1886, when Mohawk workers were hired to help construct a bridge over the St. Lawrence River. According to journalist Joseph Mitchell, a group of Mohawk men from a nearby community were initially hired as temporary unskilled labor for this bridge project. When the Mohawk men showed keen interest in technical details of the construction and exhibited no fear of heights, they were trained in the skilled trades needed for the job. They soon became widely in demand due to their reliability and the excellent quality of their work. [5]
The term "walking iron" is used to refer to Mohawk ironwork and the term "booming out" refers to Mohawks travelling to major urban cities elsewhere for work. [4]
Mohawk ironworkers contributed to the construction of Lions Gate Bridge and the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. [6]
Mohawk ironworkers from the Six Nations of the Grand River contributed to the construction of the CN Tower in Toronto. [7] [8]
Maja Vodanovic, mayor of the Montreal borough of Lachine, has credited Mohawk workers for their contributions to Canadian construction work, saying that "The Mohawk helped build modern-day Canada." [6]
Mohawk ironworkers contributed to the construction of the Jacques Cartier Bridge and Tour Telus in Montreal. [6]
In 2015, the United States Mint released a $1 coin featuring Mohawk ironworkers to honor Kahnawà:ke Mohawk and Akwesasne Mohawk contributions to "high iron" construction. [3]
Mohawk ironworkers participated in the construction of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. [3]
Mohawk ironworkers contributed to the construction of Sears Tower in Chicago. [3]
Mohawk ironworkers and their families settled in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood. The Indians of North America Foundation, hosted by Most Holy Trinity Church in Corktown, provided educational and social resources to the neighborhood's Mohawk population. [9]
Mohawk workers began to settle in New York City as early as 1916. The Hell Gate Bridge was one of the first construction projects Mohawk workers participated in. [4] [10] Almost every major construction project in New York City since has involved Mohawk workers. Mohawk ironworkers were integral to the shaping of New York City's skyline, contributing to the construction of bridges and high-rise buildings including the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the Triborough Bridge, the Flatiron Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Henry Hudson Parkway, the RCA Building, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and both the destroyed and rebuilt World Trade Centers. [11]
By the 1920s, a Mohawk enclave of Kahnawà:ke and Akwesasne families had formed in downtown Brooklyn called "Little Caughnawaga". By the 1950s, over 700 Mohawk people lived in Little Caughnawaga. The enclave lasted until the 1970s. While mostly Mohawk, Iroquois and Indigenous workers also lived in the neighborhood. [12]
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has hosted an exhibit on the Mohawk skywalkers titled "Skywalkers: A Portrait of Mohawk Ironworkers at the World Trade Center". [1]
In 1925, the Canadian Kahnawake Mohawk worker Paul K. Diablo was arrested in Philadelphia. In a landmark 1927 federal court case, the judge cited the Jay Treaty of 1794 to rule that Mohawks are legally entitled to freely cross the Canada–United States border because the border crosses the Indigenous homeland of the Mohawk people. [13] [14]
The Mohawk, also known by their own name, Kanien'kehà:ka, are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy.
Kateri Tekakwitha, given the name Tekakwitha, baptized as Catherine, and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks, is a Mohawk/Algonquin Catholic saint and virgin. Born in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, in present-day New York, she contracted smallpox in an epidemic; her family died and her face was scarred. She converted to Catholicism at age 19. She took a vow of perpetual virginity, left her village, and moved for the remaining five years of her life to the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, just south of Montreal. She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's Basilica on 21 October 2012.
The Oka Crisis, also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance, or Mohawk Crisis, was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, over plans to build a golf course on land known as "The Pines" which included an indigenous burial ground. The crisis began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 days until September 26, with two fatalities. The dispute was the first well-publicized violent conflict between First Nations and provincial governments in the late 20th century.
The Quebec Bridge is a road, rail, and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Sainte-Foy and Lévis, in Quebec, Canada. The project failed twice during its construction, in 1907 and 1916, at the cost of 88 lives and additional people injured. The bridge eventually opened in 1919.
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, across from Montreal. Established by French Canadians in 1719 as a Jesuit mission, it has also been known as Seigneury Sault du St-Louis, and Caughnawaga. There are 17 European spelling variations of the Mohawk Kahnawake.
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.
Boerum Hill is a small neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bounded by Schermerhorn Street to the north and Fourth Avenue to the east. The western border is variously given as either Smith or Court Street, and Warren or Wyckoff Street as the southern edge.
The Honoré Mercier Bridge in Quebec, Canada, connects the Montreal borough of LaSalle on the Island of Montreal with the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake and the suburb of Châteauguay on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It is the most direct southerly route from the island of Montreal toward the US border. It carries Route 138, originally Route 4. It is 1.361 km (0.846 mi) in length and contains four steel trusses on its first section. The height of the bridge varies from 12.44 m (40.8 ft) to 33.38 m (109.5 ft) with the highest sections located over the St. Lawrence Seaway. The bridge is named after former premier of Quebec Honoré Mercier.
The building form most closely associated with New York City is the skyscraper, which has shifted many commercial and residential districts from low-rise to high-rise. Surrounded mostly by water, the city has amassed one of the largest and most varied collection of skyscrapers in the world.
The Dominion Bridge Company, Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of holding tanks for pulp mills and skyscraper framing.
Alexandrea Kawisenhawe Rice is a First Nations (Mohawk) actress. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Rice is known for performances in The Twilight Saga (2008–2012) and in a series of PBS films adapted from the mystery novels of Tony Hillerman.
An ironworker is a tradesman who works in the iron-working industry. Ironworkers assemble the structural framework in accordance with engineered drawings and install the metal support pieces for new buildings. They also repair and renovate old structures using reinforced concrete and steel. Ironworkers may work on factories, steel mills, and utility plants.
Doncaster, officially designated as Doncaster 17 by Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, is a Mohawk Native Reserve in the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada. It belongs to the Mohawk First Nation, specifically the people of the reserves at Kanesatake and Kahnawake.
Peter Blue Cloud (Aroniawenrate) (1933 – 2011) was a Kahnawakeronon poet, and folklorist.
Cuyler Presbyterian Church, also known as Cuyler Chapel and Cuyler Presbyterian Church and Parsonage, is a historic Presbyterian church at 358–360 Pacific Street in Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was designed by architect Edward Sargent (1842–1914). It was built in 1892 and is a two-story rectangular plan building with a steeply pitched, slate covered gable roof and molded terra cotta copings. It was converted to a private residence in the early 1980s. The former parsonage was built c. 1851 and is a Greek Revival style dwelling.
Kahn-Tineta Horn is a Mohawk political activist, civil servant, and former fashion model. Since 1972, she has held various positions in the social, community and educational development policy sections of the Canadian federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. She is a member of the Mohawk Bear Clan of Kahnawake.
Caughnawaga Indian Village Site is an archaeological site located just west of Fonda in Montgomery County, New York. It is the location of a 17th-century Mohawk nation village. One of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois League, or Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk lived west of Albany and occupied much of the Mohawk Valley. Other Iroquois nations were located west of them and south of the Great Lakes.
Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke are a Mohawk First Nation in Quebec, Canada. In 2024 the band has a registered population of 11,787 members. Its main reserve is Kahnawake 14, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River opposite Montreal. It also shares the uninhabited reserve of Doncaster 17 with the Mohawks of Kanesatake for hunting and fishing. The band is governed by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke.
High Steel is a 1965 short National Film Board of Canada documentary film directed by Don Owen about Mohawk Ironworkers from Kahnawake building New York City skycrapers.
Little Caughnawaga is a historical neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., with a large population of Kahnawake Mohawks, as well as those from Akwesasne and other Haudenosaunee peoples, many of whom were members of the Brooklyn Local 361 Ironworkers’ Union who were known as the Mohawk skywalkers and their families. During the mid-20th century, an area of ten square blocks north of the Gowanus Canal contained the largest Mohawk settlement beyond the borders of Canada. The neighborhood is now called Boerum Hill or North Gowanus. In the 1950s there were as many as 700 Mohawk people living in Little Caughnawaga.