The Mohawk Indians are a Native American tribe from central New York state and part of the Iroquois League. The Mohawk Reservation has a population of just under 3,000 residents and includes the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino and Mohawk Bingo Palace. The Mohawks were “keepers of the eastern gate” and protected the Mohawk Valley from invasions. They joined the British in the American Revolutionary War but were defeated and stripped of their ancestral lands, before returning to sign the Treaty of Canandaigua.
The Mohawk Indians are a group of Native Americans indigenous to what is now central New York state. They are one of the original Five Nations of the ancient Iroquois League and one of many remaining native tribes in the United States. The Mohawk Reservation, also known as the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation or by its Mohawk name, Akwesasne, is a small reservation in Franklin County, New York. It is one of several reservations in upstate New York, along with the Oneida and Onondaga reservations.
According to data from the 2000 United States Census, the population of the 14,500-acre Mohawk Reservation is just under 3,000 residents. The Mohawk Reservation contains the villages of St. Regis and Hogansburg in upstate New York near the Canadian border along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Disputes over tribal law and state and federal laws have been contested almost since the ink on the Treaty of Canandaigua has dried. Since New York State passed casino gambling laws in the 1980s, the Mohawk Reservation has built the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino and Mohawk Bingo Palace starting in 2011.
Sometime before 1600, the Mohawk tribe and the Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, and later Tuscarora tribes formed an alliance to defend themselves during warfare and to promote peace among the tribes. The Mohawks, for whom the mighty Mohawk River in central New York is named, settled along the eastern border of the confederacy and were considered “keepers of the eastern gate.” They protected the eastern portion of what is now the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York from invasions by fierce New England tribes and southern Algonquins.
Following in the footsteps of other Iroquois tribes – with the exception of the Oneida – the Mohawks joined the British against the Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Led by the charismatic Mohawk chief Thayendanegea – or Joseph Brant, his English name – the Mohawks savagely massacred small settlements along the Mohawk Valley Trail from Cherry Valley to Oriskany, New York. Defeated by the Americans, the Mohawks, along with other Indian tribes allied with the British, were stripped of their ancestral lands. These tribes fled for Canada, only to return to sign the Treaty of Canandaigua which promoted peace between the United States and the former Iroquois Confederacy.
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