Loss of fishing tradition impacts culture

Local News

Discussion

PLEASE NOTE: There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

ALSO NOTE: Derisive name-calling of an individual or group will result in the entire comment being deleted. This includes the terms "stupid" and "idiot" and similar references.

Welcome to our new online comments feature. Before you can join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address.

Once you do, your comments will post after they have been reviewed by a moderator.

We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified, at the newspaper’s discretion, for a number of reasons. Here are some typical practices to avoid in trying to get your comment printed:

There is a 150 word maximum for comments. All comments greater than 150 words in length will be deleted in their entirety.

Don’t state as a fact something that is unsubstantiated or that our editors wouldn't know to be true.

Don’t presume someone’s guilt in a case when it hasn't been established by a court.

Don’t assail or impugn an identifiable individual or group. If you have that kind of criticism, sign your name and submit it as a Letter to the Editor. (There is some leeway on this in connection with public officials, but it is not unconditional.)

Don’t use profanity. This includes the term “tea bagger.”

Don’t be incendiary or tasteless. Those qualities are subjective, of course, and our editors will be the arbiters.

Do not identify yourself in the main content area of the article content form. Only by enforcing this rule can the moderators prevent unscrupulous commenters from falsely identifying themselves as someone they are not.

Don't type in all caps. It is considered the Internet equivalent of shouting.

In sports articles, do not criticize officiating.

Remember, moderators are not allowed to edit any article comments. If an article comment fails any of the above criteria, the entire comment will be deleted.

We monitor comments Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Approval of comments outside these times may be delayed.

comments powered by Disqus

August 6, 2009

By DENISE RAYMO The Press Republican Thu Aug 06, 2009, 05:50 AM EDT

AKWESASNE — When PCBs from manufacturing plants damaged the ecosystem along the St. Lawrence River, it also took cultural identity from some St. Regis Mohawk men.

Fishing was the traditional means to support and feed an Indian family on the Akwesasne reservation, said Tony David, program manager for water resources for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe's Environmental Division.

But during the 1970s to mid-'80s, the release of tons of polychlorinated biphenyl by General Motors, Reynolds Metals and Alcoa into the rivers leading to Akwesasne damaged the ecosystem and destroyed the fishing trade.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation now recommends that no one eat the fish that comes from these waters.

David said the contamination, to Indian men relying on the fishing trade, "ruined his currency, his means of support for his family and their food."

At the same time, the traditional relationship between grandfathers, fathers and grandsons was altered because there was no longer the activity of fishing to share and learn from their elders.

"You've lost that knowledge, and it's very hard to regain."

And that gap in strong generational ties might be manifesting itself in some of the illegal activities and violence in and around Akwesasne that make the headlines, he said.

"My personal belief is that the loss of that subsistence of culture contributes to our current problems.

"We're hoping to get it back, but the loss of cultural identity creates a void and an opportunity for bad things, and that's what's going on."

David enjoys strong cultural bonds because his father, uncles from both sides of the family and an aunt were ironworkers — skilled professionals who are all celebrated every year at a festival at Akwesasne.

But his desire to see a strengthening of those ties for future generations of Akwesasne men is important to him for another reason; his great-great-grandfather attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, which forcibly assimilated Indian children into white American society between 1879 and 1918.

E-mail Denise A. Raymo at: draymo@pressrepublican.com

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Local News

Search Results

Discussion

Loss of fishing tradition impacts culture

Site Map

Contact Us