Mohawk Martial Arts
Keeping The Mohawk Warrior Culture Alive...
Growing up in Millis, we were granted permission to use the Mohawk name for our athletics teams from the Mohawk tribal council, and it's never been lost on me just how much of an honor that was. The Mohawk people were not from this area, the boundary of their territory was in Eastern New York, but they still played a vital role in shaping the fighting spirit of our town's youth when we were growing up. Long before cancel culture, in the 90's, there was a culture based around honor and respect. Instead of trying to erase the name Mohawk from the annals of town history, our teachers and leaders taught us about the people, their accomplishments, and how they were remembered in history. I remember listening to football coach David Sperandio read to us excerpts of how feared the Mohawk warriors were, and one in particular how, "...the sight of just four or five Mohawk warriors were enough to send whole villages fleeing in fear..." As a small town we were always outnumbered, but to tap into that energy, feel that history, it was inspiring, and it lead us to continued athletic success against the towns whose teams greatly outnumbered ours. We weren't the Panthers, we weren't the Cardinals, we were the MOHAWKS, and that meant something so much more to us, and the pride we got to tap into taking that name into our battles.
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Who were the Mohawk People?
The people themselves did not self identify as Mohawks, their tribal name was Kanien’kehá:ka (translates to "People of the Flint" in their language). The word Mohawk is actually an Algonquin (Natives from Eastern Massachusetts) name that roughly translates to "cannibal." There is no historical documentation that they were ever cannibals, and it's believed they were given that name because their warriors fought with such unrivaled ferocity. The Mohawk people were also known as "The Keepers of the Eastern Door," as they were the most far east member of the Iroquois Federation. They were farmers, and hunters, and great family people. Their villages were filled with longhouses in which all family members would be living together. One of the most unknown facts about the Mohawk society was just how large a role women played in their governance. Mohawk clans were always ruled by women, who made all the land and resource decisions for their respective clans. Only men represented the Mohawks at the Iroquois Great Council, but only women voted to determine who the Mohawk representatives would be. And on top of that they were a matrilineal society, meaning that ancestry was passed down among female bloodlines, not patriarchal like we do in today's society. The Mohawk people in more modern times were known to be extraordinary ironworkers and are not so commonly known to have built both the Empire State Building & the George Washington Bridge in NYC. They were also great farmers, traders, and hunters and their legacy is one to be remembered, not erased from history because the reality of what was done is uncomfortable.​
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