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Most poker players that have heard of the Kahnawake know them solely for their Gaming Commission. They’re those guys that make sure the websites you play on stay in check so that you can feel safe when depositing your money. They offer licenses to a great number of online casinos and poker rooms and expand their business every year. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established in 1996, but what is the Mohawk history like pre-Commission?

Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is just the most modern name given to the area. Over the years it has also been known as Fort St. Louis, Caughnawaga as well as 17 other European variations of “Kahnawake”. The Kahnawake in specific are one of eight communities which make up the Mohawk Nation. According to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake website they have “historic, political and cultural ties based on Honor, Trust and Respect to the Oneida, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora Nations of the Northeastern part of North America.”

Once, during a time long forgotten, these nations initiated an innovative development by forming a Confederacy and devising a system of governance which they called the Great Law of Peace. To this day they use the Great Law as a democratic model for governing themselves.

Due to their superb location (only 10 kilometers from Montreal), they have been a part of many historical moments in the Northeastern part of North America, and during the 17th and 18th centuries the French and British colonies were locked in a fierce battle for control over this area. The Kahnawake often found themselves stuck in the middle of these conflicts, as their traditional territory was wedged between the fur trading posts of Quebec City established by the French and Albany which was established by the British. Being that the Kahnawake were already established and militarily organized, they were able to play off the two colonial powers to their political and economic advantage.

During the War of 1812, the Kahnawake were recognized for their outstanding show in combat. They were able to stave off two attempts by the Americans to invade Canada. Then again in 1813 the American army was moving towards Montreal alongside the Chateauguay River and in order to protect their settlements the Kahnawake teamed up both with the French and the British. After organizing their forces they successfully pushed back the Americans once again. In 1814 the Mohawks of Kahnawake joined the Akwesasne, Kanestake and Six Nations in the infamous Battle of Beaver Dams where American forces surrendered to the British thanks to the help of the Indians.

It was after these years in the early 19th century that the traditional Kahnawake way of life began to change dramatically. According to the Mohawk Council website, “Within less than a hundred years, repressive government legislation, such as the 1876 Indian Act, would ravage a thousand years of our political growth, social development and economic prosperity.” The Kahnawake were just one of thousands of different Indian nations that suffered after the Europeans came and settled the land which they had inhabited for generations. The Indian Act, created by the Canadian government, as well as the rest of the following legislation was aimed at “civilizing” the Indians and to assimilate them into the newly emerging societies. They were prohibited from speaking their native tongue, from practicing their religion, took away land and even created their own set of rules about how to define a person as “Indian”.

The federal and Quebec governments slowly began creating large civil engineering projects in order to benefit the southern Quebec economy. These projects all went through Kahnawake land and included power lines coming from newly built hydroelectric plants, rail and vehicle highways as well as bridges. Later on the Saint Lawrence Seaway canal cut through their village, permanently separating them from their natural river shore.

One of the most famous projects was the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Saint Lawrence Bridge. The bridge was built on 1886 – 1887 and the company hired many Kahnawake men to do the work. These men performed the most dangerous jobs because the company believed that Indian men were unafraid of heights and would have no problem working hundreds of feet in the air. It was from this project that the stereotype of Native Americans having no fear of heights began.

The Kahnawake have had problems with other residents straight through to modern times. Best known of these crises is the Oka Crisis of 1990, which involved a land dispute between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec. At the end of the conflict there were three deaths and was it the first of a number of well-publicized violent clashes between the Canadian government and the Mohawk territory.

To date the Kahnawake feel that they are still shedding off the effects of the Indian Act, and they are fighting hard to regain their place in the world after years of repression. The creation of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission brought a great deal of prosperity although whether it will bring stability is still in question – with prosperity has come a great deal of social problems from the sudden influx of wealth. Stay tuned for part two of “The Rise of the Mohawk” where the history of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission will be discussed as well as its functions in the poker world.