Great Camp Sagamore Land Acknowledgment

Great Camp Sagamore is part of a wide area whose lands and waters were cared for by the Algonkian people known as the Mahican for over ten thousand years. About fifteen hundred years ago, a group of Iroquoian-speaking people, the Kanien-ke-haka (Mohawk) migrated to the area and also became stewards of this land.

The Mahican, who became known as the Stockbridge Munsee, were forced to remove first to Massachusetts, then to the area of Oneida, New York and eventually to Wisconsin where the Stockbridge Munsee Reservation still exists. Their name of “Mohican" relates to the Hudson River, the Muh-he-kun-i-tuk: the river that flows two ways. The Kanien-ke-haka (Mohawk) are the easternmost of the Five original Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations. Haudenosaunee means “People of the Longhouse” and Kanien-keha-ka means “People of the Flint.” The Mohawks, whose traditional villages were located along the Mohawk River, were forced to relocate to the Akwesasne Reservation straddling the Canadian border as well as further into Canada to several other reserves. Kanatsioharke, a contemporary Mohawk community led by Tom Sakokwenionkwas Porter, was established in 1993 along the Mohawk River near Fonda, New York.

Many Native people living in the Adirondacks never left, but simply laid low. In the 19th century, Penobscots and Abenakis, Algonkian people like the Mohicans, began to act as guides in the Sagamore region. Tourism also provided opportunities for Native artisans to sell their goods and they became a visible presence in such places as Blue Mountain Lake, Indian Lake, and Long Lake. Many people of Mahican, Mohawk, and Abenaki descent still live in the Adirondacks to this day.

Newly developed programs at Sagamore in the 21st century point the way toward true engagement with the original people of our regions. These go beyond land acknowledgement to direct involvement with local indigenous advisors in the creation of interpretive trails with signage drawing on indigenous knowledge, Native programming including music and storytelling, and the incorporation of Native values of land management and conservation ethics.

These programs connect deeply to what Sagamore has stood for and practiced in the past and look toward the continuation of the ideals of Sagamore and a closer relationship with the indigenous cultures of the region in the future.

Resources

https://akwesasneculturalcenter.org/
https://www.6nicc.com/
https://www.ndakinnacenter.org/
https://www.mohican.com/
https://native-land.ca/resources/territory-acknowledgement/
https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/