The Indian settlement of Caughnawaga was established in 1667 when a French Jesuit, Father Pierre Raffeix, persuaded a group of Oneida Indians to take up permanent residence alongside several French immigrant families at La Prairie, on the south bank of the St. Lawrence across from present-day Montreal. This original mixed group of Indians and French habitants was soon joined by a much larger group of Mohawks from the south (New York State.) The Caughnawaga settlement moved several times over the years, finally settling on its present site near St. Regis in 1755.
The Mohawk-speaking inhabitants of Caughnawaga allied themselves with their French neighbors, and many were converted to Catholicism, most notably Kateri Takakwitha. The Iroquois at Caughnawaga fought alongside the French in all the major colonial wars. At the conclusion of the American Revolution, it was clear that Loyalist Indians were no longer welcome in the United States, and by 1777 nearly all of the Mohawk-speaking Iroquois had immigrated to British North America and settled on reserves in Quebec and Ontario. In 1890, Caughnawaga contained approximately 25 percent of the Mohawks in North America.
As a result of Caughnawaga residents' long association with the Catholic Church, their involvement in the fur trade, and the Canadian government's assimilationist policies, old Mohawk religious practice and longhouse ritual lapsed. In the 1920s, however, traditional Mohawk religion and political structure were reintroduced at Caughnawaga, and the settlement is now affiliated with the Six Nations Confederacy of Canada.
In 1989, the Mohawks living in Quebec and upper New York State, particularly those at Oka Reserve across the St. Lawrence from Caughnawaga, captured international attention in a military standoff with Quebec's provincial police. A dispute over a parcel of land claimed by the Mohawks at Oka but slated for development by provincial authorities as a municipal golf course escalated into armed confrontation between the Sûreté du Québec and a band of Mohawk "warriors." In an attempt to storm the barricades set up by the Mohawks, a provincial policeman was accidentally shot and killed. It is still unknown which side fired the fatal bullet. Negotiations continued for more than a year, starkly revealing a surprising level of anti-Indian sentiment by local non-Indians and insensitivity to Indian land claims by provincial and federal government officials. For Native Canadians, Oka was a victory because it made the average Canadian aware of native issues and was a primary step in raising official responsiveness and avoiding conflict in the future.
See also
Indian-White Relations in Canada, 1763 to the Present.
