SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE F3
basket-making, but it’s also
known for crafting traditional
wooden lacrosse sticks, a skill
passed down through genera-
tions. Lacrosse has deep and sa-
cred roots here. The game was
founded by the Haudenosaunee,
who have long treated it as more
than a sport, considering it a gift
from the creator and a “medicine
game” used for healing. In the
1920s, Akwesasne became a com-
mercial hub for making wooden
lacrosse sticks and at one time
manufactured 97 percent of the
world’s lacrosse sticks, according
to Akwesasne Travel.
Few lacrosse sticks are made
from wood today, but Evan Cree
keeps the tradition alive at his
small but thriving business, Tradi-
tional Lacrosse. Cree’s great-
grandfather owned the company
that manufactured all those sticks
a century ago, and he carries on
the traditional methods as he
crafts each stick from hickory and
ash.
He’s busy when I find him in his
workshop, which is stuffed with
tools and half-finished sticks; the
business is a one-man show, and
only he needs to know where to
find things. Cree is working hard
to fill orders from colleges across
the country. Traditional lacrosse
sticks are largely decorative items
these days, and graduation cer-
emonies make up a substantial
portion of his orders. Where Hill’s
experience felt like hanging out
with a friend, Cree’s workspace
makes me feel like a first-day-on-the-job apprentice as I tag behind
him. For Cree, it’s just another day
at work turning hickory logs into
lacrosse sticks. He moves quickly
between each station, standing to
bend the top of the stick to form
the head, then sitting on an old-
fashioned draw horse (a com-
bined vice and bench used for
woodworking) to carve the stick
with a knife passed down from his
great-uncle. I leave still unsure of
the exact process, but that’s kind
of the point. Each tour is framed as
a way to meet the artisans, rather
than to learn how to imitate their
craft.
When planning to scale up its
tourism industry, Akwesasne
Travel conducted extensive inter-
views to feel out what the commu-
nity was and was not comfortable
sharing with visitors. For exam-
ple, “there has been negative feed-
back to teaching outsiders how to
make our baskets,” Peters says.
That’s why, in her tour, Hill only
teaches guests how to make a sim-
ple bookmark. “It gives you the
idea of how the weaving’s done,
and you get to feel and touch the
materials. But making an entire
basket with the fancy curls and
weaves and all of that? We
wouldn’t share that beyond [the]
community.”
Smoothing out misunderstand-
ings and misconceptions is the
focus of the third link in Akwe-
sasne Travel’s slate of tours. At the
Native North American Travelling
College (NNATC), cultural educa-
tors take visitors into the historythat path forward.Gardiner is a writer based in New York
state. Her website is
karengardiner.com. Find her on
Twitter and Instagram: @karendesuyo.sasne Travel is working to keep the
momentum going by soon adding
three more cultural experiences to
its offerings. The community is
also developing an art park and
art gallery at a former dam site on
the St. Regis River.
Peters says there has been a
surge in interest since the discov-
eries of unmarked graves at for-
mer residential school sites in
Canada. “I think there’s been sort
of an awakening,” she says of no-
n-Indigenous people on both
sides of the border. Learning
about Indigenous culture is one
thing they feel they can do, indi-
vidually, to learn more, Peters
says, and even tourism can be
part of that path toward under-
standing. “It can be learning
about Carrie and her basket-
making; about Evan and tradi-
tional lacrosse,” she says. Sup-
porting Indigenous businesses,
culture and art: It’s all a part ofBY KAREN GARDINERGenerations of Carrie Hill’s
family have made baskets. But it
wasn’t until she had her first child,
15 years ago, that she began to
weave them herself. She was a
stay-at-home mom, she says, “and
after about four months with dia-
pers and dishes, I was just like,
‘What about Carrie?’ ”
Seeking to scratch a creative
itch, Hill started visiting her Aun-
tie Laura, who made traditional
Haudenosaunee baskets from
black ash and sweetgrass. “She
would show me how to lay things
out and how to put it together and
how to weave, and it just felt like I
was supposed to do it,” she says.
Within a few years, Hill started
selling her baskets under the
name Chill Baskets, then, in 2014,
quit her job as a teacher’s aide to
become a full-time artist. She
hasn’t looked back. When we meet
at her studio in Akwesasne, a Mo-
hawk community in northern
New York, she’s just back from
showing her work at the presti-
gious Heard Museum Guild Indi-
an Fair & Market.
Hill’s small studio, which she
calls “the building that baskets
built,” is stuffed full of her work,
her awards and long, thin strips of
black ash splint hanging in coils.
Her technique is traditional, but
her designs lean contemporary.
She shows me a woven face mask
studded with skulls and “AWUSS”
(“Go away” in Mohawk) spelled
out in beads; a woven panel with
“Land Back” cross-stitched on;
jewelry; and lots of baskets, some
big enough to be carried on the
back, some so tiny they fit into the
palm of your hand. She credits her
aunt for encouraging her creativi-
ty. “Once my brain opened up, [I
thought], ‘Oh, I don’t have to just
do a basket. I can make earrings. ...
I can make cuffs. ... I can make a
million different things.’ I just like
to be creative and be able to utilize
the traditional techniques.” As we
talk, she shows me how to lay out
short strips of black ash, and I
clumsily weave pieces of sweet-
grass around them to make my
own bookmark.
I booked my visit to Hill’s studio
through Akwesasne Travel, the
marketing organization for the
Akwesasne Mohawk Territory,
which straddles the U.S.-Canada
border, and New York, Ontario
and Quebec. Despite the terri-
tory’s geographical complexity,
residents (Akwesasronon) consid-
er themselves to be one communi-
ty. Last fall, Akwesasne Travel
launched three tours to offer visi-
tors a chance to learn about Akwe-
sasne culture.
Tourism “has been a part of
who we are for centuries,” says
Penny Peters, Akwesasne’s tour-
ism industry development man-
ager. “We’re a very welcoming
community.” The plan to formal-
ize tourism in Akwesasne first
emerged in 2008 out of a compre-
hensive community development
plan that found that Akwesas-
ronon were interested in develop-
ing tourism as a way to tell their
stories and to support cultural
revitalization by helping people
make a living from their artistry.
The interest went both ways.
Peters says the St. Regis Mohawk
Tribe (which governs Akwesasne’s
New York portion, also known as
the St. Regis Mohawk Reserva-
tion) had been getting calls from
visitors who wanted to learn
about the community’s culture.
“They used to just send them to
the museum [at the Akwesasne
Cultural Center], because that’s all
we had.”
While drawing up tourism
plans, Peters and her colleagues
asked themselves what made Ak-
wesasne unique within the area
and unique among Mohawk and
Haudenosaunee communities.
From those questions emerged a
focus on artisans.
Not only does Akwesasne have
a strong, continuous tradition of
of Akwesasne, both before and
after contact with European colo-
nizers; teach guests how to pro-
nounce Mohawk words; and pro-
vide a safe space to ask questions.
NNATC lies on the Canadian side,
and, because I wasn’t able to cross
the border, I booked a Zoom tour
of the cultural center instead. A
legacy of the pandemic, a Zoom
option is available for all Akwe-
sasne tours. As my host, Lorna
Thomas, holds up traditional mu-
sical instruments to the camera
and shows me how to read the
shell-beaded symbols on a wam-
pum belt, she says she’s surprised
by NNATC’s virtual reach: It has
had guests join from as far away as
Scotland.
It’s a far cry from NNATC’s ini-
tial incarnation, operating out of a
VW van in the 1960s. The center
recently underwent a major reno-
vation, a sign of increasing inter-
est in Akwesasne culture. Akwe-On Canada border, artisan tours weave in Mohawk history
If You Go
WHAT TO EAT
Three Feathers Internet Cafe
759 Route 37, Bombay, N.Y.
518-353-6764
facebook.com/3featherscafe
This casual and friendly local
favorite is known for its traditional
corn soup, as well as fresh salads
and sandwiches. Open for breakfast
and lunch Monday to Friday, 6 a.m.
to 3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 6
a.m. to noon. Entrees from $5.50.WHAT TO DO
Akwesasne Travel
518-358-4238
akwesasne.travel
This company offers three cultural
tours in Akwesasne: an introduction
to basket-weaving and traditional
lacrosse-stick-making in New York,
and visiting the Native North
American Travelling College in
Ontario. Passport required to do all
three. Because of the complexity of
traveling around Akwesasne —
there’s overlapping residential and
commercial space, and you can
cross the international border
without realizing — staff members
typically accompany guests, and
tours must be booked through the
company. Tours from $39 per
person, minimum of two people.
Akwesasne Cultural Center
321 Route 37, Akwesasne, N.Y.
518-358-2461
akwesasneculturalcenter.org
This small museum, in the same
building as the library, introduces
visitors to the history of the Mohawk
people, the origins of lacrosse and
the artistry of Akwesasronon
through exhibits that include
intricate baskets, feathered hats
and a 250-year-old wampum belt.
Buy Akwesasronon-made jewelry
and crafts at the Akwesasne
Cultural Center’s gift shop, which
has an excellent selection of items
by local artisans. Museum
admission $5 per person.KAREN GARDINER FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTAKWESASNE TRAVEL
TOP: Carrie Hill makes traditional Haudenosaunee baskets at
her studio in Akwesasne, N.Y. ABOVE: An Ontario group’s
tour helps visitors learn about Haudenosaunee pottery.KAREN GARDINER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Evan Cree creates lacrosse sticks at his factory. Akwesasne was once a commercial hub for making
wooden lacrosse sticks. Few are made this way today, but Cree works to keep the tradition alive.To book your stay, please call 8 44 -204-6383 or visit CWResorts.comFROM MEMORIES IN TIMETO ADVENTURES IN SUNSHINE.YOUR BEST SUMMER EVER STARTS AT COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG.Our family-friendly attractions blend perfectly with our five-star, five-diamond accommodations.
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