Every skyscraper in New York has been built with crews of Mohawk Indians. For over a century, they have worked on the high rise buildings that are the skyline of the city.
“A lot of people think Mohawks aren’t afraid of heights; that’s not true. We have as much fear as the next guy. The difference is that we deal with it better. We also have the experience of the old timers to follow and the responsibility to lead the younger guys. There’s pride in ‘walking iron.’” —Kyle Karonhiaktatie Beauvais (Mohawk, Kahnawake)
A 21st-century Mohawk ironworker might easily be called a real “man of steel.” For more than 100 years, Mohawk people have taken part in the seemingly superhuman task of building skyscrapers and bridges throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad. Working in New York City since the 1920s, these brave and skilled ironworkers built the city’s most prominent landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the George Washington Bridge, and the World Trade Center.
The Mohawk tradition of ironworking began in the mid-1880s when they were hired as unskilled laborers to build a bridge over the St. Lawrence River onto Mohawk land. They quickly earned a reputation for being top-notch workers on high steel, and “booming out” from their Native communities in search of the next big job became a fact of life.
High Steel Mohawk Indians.
Today, American Indians are dispersed widely throughout the New York metro area, and can claim no ethnic enclaves along the lines of Chinatown or Hasidic Jewish neighborhoods. It wasn't always like that, however, as there was a distinctly Mohawk community throughout much of the 20th Century, centered in what is now Boerum Hill in Brooklyn (formerly North Gowanus).
The community reached its zenith in the 1950s, when some 700 Mohawk men made their homes there with their families, mostly around Nevins Street. There was a bar in the area called the Wigwam. At a church on Pacific Street, the local pastor learned to speak Mohawk so he could better minister to his flock. It was in this church that a young Louis Mofsie (now in his seventies) practiced singing and dancing with his friends; that group would later become the celebrated Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, which still perform to rave reviews. Mofsie is Hopi and Winnebago.
The economic engine behind the Mohawk community in Brooklyn was steel. Over many decades, Mohawk ironworkers played key roles in constructing New York's built environment, having helped raise the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Henry Hudson Parkway, the George Washington, Triborough and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges, and the World Trade Center, among many other structures.
More recently, Mohawks worked on the AOL Time Warner towers at Columbus Circle. Mohawks were also some of the first skilled workers to comb through the rubble when the Twin Towers came down in September 2001.
Mohawk Ironworkers: The People that Built New YorkHigh-rise work has been a tradition among some Mohawk since the mid-1800s, particularly among men from the Kahnawake (pronounced ga-nuh-WAH-gay) reservation near Montreal in Canada. Observers have suggested that the dangerous, demanding labor is a natural extension of the Mohawks tradition of building 200-foot longhouses. Others have pointed out that when the Mohawk first entered the business, there weren't many other jobs available to them. Over time, the high-stakes career was often passed from fathers to sons. In the building trades, Mohawk men earned a reputation as being sure-footed and excellent workers.
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Originally Posted by w0aew
Thank you. I no longer live in the city, but I do find it interesting that they've had cowboys and indians. There is a strong line of Mohawk in my family so we were aware of Mohawks and other tribes working on the skyscrapers. I knew at least 4 indians in my building in Fort Hamilton Brooklyn, including the main rain dancer for the Thunderbird Indian Dancers. Putting up any kind of antenna on the roof of a building has become nearly impossible since the Reign of King Rudy. They have actually made it illegal to go on the roof and helicopters are in the air all day and night with IR scopes enforcing that law. With buildings being so close and nosy neighbors, even putting a magnet wire long wire antenna is a big challenge. There are a few with Yagis or GR5Vs but they're homeowners willing to deal with their neighbors.
