French-Canadian genealogy, compared to other genealogy, is relatively easy -- until one reaches the fringes of the relatively homogenous French Catholic settlements in the St. Lawrence valley. One of the earliest "dead ends" in my genealogical research is, according to family tradition, a Mohawk from Kahnawake. This is the motivation for my research on this topic.
The most readily available work of good scholarship on the history of Kahnawake is John Demos' The Unredeemed Captive. It is also a good story, the story of Eunice Williams, daughter of the minister John Williams, who was captured in the Deerfield raid of 1704 and adopted by an Iroquois family at Kahnawake. Very extensive end notes and bibliography point you towards the primary sources for both the historian and genealogist. Here I present my findings from those sources which are available to me (see the Bibliography or list of sources at the bottom of the page).
Studying Kahnwake can be incredibly confusing to the starter, as I have learned myself. As with any early history, nomenclature is never consistent, but it is made worse by the fact that there are three disparate cultures -- French, English, and Iroquois -- entering the mix. There is no definite answer to what a given name means in a given instance -- but for the purposes of this page, I will use the following terms:
More specifically, Kahnawake began when 7 Oneida Indians, accompanying Fr. Rafeix, S.J., settled at the place known as La Prairie on the south coast of the St. Lawrence River. It is not clear if these are 7 men, 7 adults, or 7 people, although John Demos, writing in the late twentieth century, says "7 people." Also, Demos identifies the first settlers as Oneidas. An internet site, referencing Chauchetière, Demos' source, says these Oneidas with some friends went to Quebec in 1668 for religious instruction and baptism. In 1669, some American Indians from "above Montreal" also come. In 1671, the Indians set up their own government, electing two chiefs. It appears that the Mohawk begin immigrating to Sault St. Louis in 1673, following one of their chiefs who goes there. An unspecified number ("a few") of years later, the government was divided into separate chiefs for the Ononadagas, Hurons, and Mohawks. At this time, a number of Hurons left the village to establish a mission "beyond the river." More general historians summarize by saying that mostly Mohawks, with a few Oneidas and other Iroquoians, came to this first village.
In 1676, when the mission was moved to the second location of Sault St. Louis, Kahnawake, it had 22 "cabins" [probably meaning longhouses]; there were about 17 baptisms a year. It has been estimated that the total population was about 200. The village was named Kahnawake (Caughnawaga, older orthography), after an Iroquois village in present-day New York state. Kahnawake is Mohawk for "at the rapids." Around this time, immigration to Sault St. Louis sharply increased. Kateri and her religious group arrived in 1676, and there is probably some connection between the two phenomena/events. In 1679, 200 immigrants are said to have come to Kahnawake. By 1682, there were about 66 longhouses, and more than 60 baptisms a year.
Sometime in the latter half of 1689, the mission of Kahnawake was temporarily evacuated to the island of Montreal for safety due to the French being at war with the Iroquois. This evacuation lasted almost 1 year.
In the autumn of 1691, Sault St. Louis was again moved. It was named Kahnawakon, Mohawk for "in the rapids" because it was next to the most "rapid" part of the rapids. The place was fortified with stone by the French. About this time, the Kahnawake Indians took part in a well-known raid on Schenectady and some "other battles."
In 1696, the settlement of Sault St. Louis was moved upriver again. The new settlement was called Kanatakwenke, Mohawk for "from where one sets out." In the fall of 1703, the Kahnawake were probably involved in several border raids on the English colonies. In February of 1704, the Kahnawake sent a large force of warriors for the raid on Deerfield.
In 1716, the settlement was moved again, two French leagues further upriver (about 2 1/2 miles?). It remains there today, as the Kahnawake Indian reserve.
In 1846, the church burned and was rebuilt. The church of 1846 is the one found there today. foe agricultural reasons The original grant of land for Kahnawake is reported to be 40,000 acres. Some story about post 17xx immigrants being "refugees" as opposed to "original" inhabitants - from where?
When did Europeans begin to settle along the Hudson river valley? When did they begin to go up the Mohawk river valley?
The Great Lakes Plain (west of the Mohawk river), the Allegheny Plateau (west of the Catskills), and the Champlain Valley (the waterway including Lake Champlain, north of the Hudson river) were still prehistoric Iroquois lands at the time of the American Revolution (1777), apart from a few French missionaries and coureurs de bois.