A sunset over Lake Erie as seen from Voinovich Park in Cleveland, Ohio. Photo by Jeff Futo
Charles Kader, a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, is moving from New York to Ohio and keeps finding Native connections along the way:
Lately I have been embarking on a series of 500-mile road trips between the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory and the City of Cleveland, Ohio. My family needed a change in scenery so I have been relocating them to a residential property there that is currently being fixed up. It has already been quite an undertaking journey. Leaving the reservation has been bittersweet. Many friends and colleagues were surprised that I was going to do this. Why THAT city? What about THAT sports team? Do you know anyone there? The fear of change marks these questions. Staying fixed in place is a luxury reserved for no one. From our earliest ancestors to the latest of the seventh generation now born, the likelihood is that in order to stay competitive, then a move is somewhere on a personal timeline. Yet, as I steadily observe and memorize the New York State place names along Interstate 90, I am drawn to those who lived here before. It is from these historic connections that many of these map points take their names. Cheektowaga, a Buffalo suburb located on the Seneca Territory at the western door of the Iroquois Confederacy, is an obvious one. Canandaigua is another, a small town located in central New York and the site of an influential treaty signing in 1794. Even Lake Erie, which I drive alongside for almost 200 miles, is a namesake of a people now long-missing from their glorious former hunting grounds.Get the Story:
Charles Kader: Rearview Mirror to the Past Along the Red Road of Life (Indian Country Today 7/8)
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