Please enjoy this next blog post below from Max Pang ‘26 and Rich Zhou ’26, as they share about their day in Kahnawake, the Saint Kateri Tekawitha Historical Shrine, and the St. Francis Xavier Mission Catholic Church.
Today was a very informative day: we spent the morning and afternoon learning common phrases in the Kanien’kéha language and learning about the history of the people of Kahnawake. In the morning, after tasting some delicious Montreal bagels, we headed to the Kahnawake Survival School. There, we met the veteran school official Tewenhni’tatshon, who taught us the Kanien’kéha language. I was surprised to learn, for instance, that command phrases in the language differentiated between one person, two people, and three or more people (instead of the simpler commands phrases like “Do this!” in English, which uses the same grammar whether it’s directed at one, two, or two hundred people). A 2025 Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee, Tewenhni’tatshon also effused enthusiasm for the sport, showing us his lacrosse stick and proudly telling us of the time he prayed to the Creator with a lacrosse stick to miraculously subdue his friend’s terminal cancer into remission. Later, with a Google search, we learned that he used to be a very active player and coach in his youth – it felt like we were meeting a celebrity in real life!
Then, he invited his language students to come in and tell us about the traditions of their culture. Our discussions started with cheerful introductions to their annual powwow during the second week of July, but we gradually reached the topic of the Oka Crisis of 1990. When I heard that the Canadian military got sent in for a dispute over the construction of a golf course, it felt so ridiculous I couldn’t be sure of whether to scoff at the ignorance of the bigotry or express my anger. Tewenhni’tatshon later added that, in those 78 days of siege, across the very street that the classroom window overlooked were tanks from the military. As I learned about the incident independently, I managed to piece it together: the town of Oka had planned to build a golf course over a Native cemetery, which the Natives strongly contested. The authorities responded by sending in the Quebec Provincial Police, then the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, then the Canadian Armed Force. On one side, a tribe’s cultural heritage and their tie to the land looked set to be bulldozed; on the other, some residents wanted a golf course. None of us had never known that such attitudes existed on such a large scale in the 1990s in a country as progressive as Canada. Thus, as we ate the corn soup and meat pie, traditional foods of the Natives, in the school dining hall at noon, we are thinking about the distance between proclaimed support and concrete benefits for oppressed groups in politics, as well as the invisibility of the Native Americans/First Nation Peoples’ cause in national politics in both the US and Canada.
After our visit to Kahnawake Survival School, we visited two “souvenir” shops nearby to kill some time. One of them was our first of what should be quite a few Tim Hortons visits, a unique chain only found in Canada, and one in which everyone did some spending. The other one was a real artisan First Nations handicraft and souvenir store not far from the Survival School. There was less purchasing there: but we knew more opportunities were to come, some as soon as a few hours later when we meant to our main attractions, the Saint Kateri Tekawitha Historical Shrine and abutting it, the St. Francis Xavier Mission Catholic Church, which holds the remains of Saint Kateri. There, we learned the story of Saint Kateri: her tribal origins as a Mohawk child with a smallpox-infected family leaving her as the only survivor; her journey many miles north to the Jesuit mission of Kahnawake, which was where we were; her conversion and journey to get closer to God through self-mutilation, and her eventual death at a young age and her symbolism and impact on the modern day, most recently when she was made a saint in 2012 after her second miracle. The shrine/museum further brought her to life with various bead artworks, religious artifacts, portraits and sculptures—our tour guide Bronwyn, who you will hear more about—did a great job explaining all the history, from the specifics of having corn stalks in the church windows, just one of many examples of religious syncretism, to giving a full detailed story of how the Kahnawake bell, commissioned by the French, got stolen by the English and our very own John Williams, which was a cool and personal connection to us, and we heard about Eunice Williams and her experience with the Kahnawake Mohawks.
Afterward, Bronwyn continued to tour us, but this time took us to the Kanien’keháka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center also in Kahnawake. There we saw the Language Immersion Center, for those who wanted to re-learn the language and connect with their heritage, a studio where a Kanien’kehá language kids TV show in the style of Sesame Street—whose characters are local celebrities for the community—was and still is filmed. The show is called Tóta tánon Ohkwá:ri, and can be found on YouTube. Lastly, we visited the museum in gestation, as the site, set to launch in May of 2026, had yet to be fully completed. Once done, the museum and the exhibits we saw will be part of a fully functional and comprehensive Kahnawà:ke Cultural Arts Center & Museum. But site completion or otherwise, the exhibits were still well-made, and impressive. We saw corn husk dolls and artworks depicting cornerstones of Mohawk and Iroquois Confederacy culture and history, from the Five Nations Wampum Belts to the origin of the “bundle of arrows” imagery, an image still present in our dollar bills, and even a recovered wooden canoe. We got to observe the exhibits in their liminal state, fully fleshed-out and detailed ranging from pre-Colonial settlements and village maps to the present day, with coverage of the Oka crisis which occurred in 1990.
We ended up checking in on our initial dinner location, the Kahnawake Brewing Company, but they were full so we went back to the hotel, rested for a bit before eating an early dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Stanley, where a Family Feud style game, courtesy of Mr. Jan, resulted in a tie which the boys broke through with by guessing which country had the most female representation in parliament/government. While the day ended a little earlier for us, it was filled with much information, insight and inquiry which made the hours of time after dinner all the more introspective and impactful.
