Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs

Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs

What happens when the story gets twisted?  The story keeper and the storyteller got their wires crossed.  Bunny, the story keeper, decided to tell a different story about her son.  And the extended family all colluded. Eventually the son found out his true story – ‘the last man standing’.  Tom Wilson discovered he is a descendant of  mohawk warriors, hunters and chiefs …but he was denied the truth until he was in his 50s.  You can see his artwork at the TAP Centre of Creativity until December 21st.  Now he gets to tell his story – his story can be viewed here on film.  

Everyone has a story.  And all our stories are compelling and amazing.  Why not write yours down for your descendants?  Our children want to know about their ancestors and our ancestors want us to tell their stories. Truth preferred – the truth as we know it and have experienced it.   Story keepers and story tellers.   – Mary Simpson

Art by Tom Wilson

TAP Centre for Creativity presented Mohawk Warriors, Hunters and Chiefs, a solo exhibition of the artwork of Tom Wilson tehohåhake (two roads). Tom is a musician, writer and visual artist based in Hamilton, Ontario. Tom’s art exhibition ended December 21, 2024

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Brown Tom’s School Days, 2nd Edition

Brown Tom’s School Days, 2nd Edition

Book about Life at Mt. Elgin Residential School, Chippewa of the Thames, a local Indian Residential School.

Books available for sale at The Archives or from the bookseller. University of Manitoba: https://uofmpress.ca/books/brown-toms-schooldays 

The Author: 

Reverend Enos Montour (1898-1985) was a United Church minister and writer from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. 

Over the course of his retirement, Rev. Montour wrote a collection of stories about Mount Elgin Industrial School at the time he attended (ca.1910-1915). Mount Elgin is one the earliest United Church-run Indian Residential Schools and was located on the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. With the help of Dr. Elizabeth Graham, Montour finished and titled his book Brown Tom’s Schooldays.

With no publisher in sight, photocopies were made and distributed to family members in the early 1980s. This important book is difficult to find today, so Professor McCallum, worked with the University of Manitoba Press,  Dr. Graham, and Montour’s two granddaughters Mary I. Anderson and Margaret Mackenzie, to issue a new edition.  

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“Trial By Fire, 1915″ – from Brown Tom’s Schooldays

By Reverend Enos Montour

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