Mohawk skywalkers

The Mohawk involvement in ironwork began in 1886, when Mohawk workers were hired to help construct a bridge over the St. Lawrence River. According to journalist Joseph Mitchell, a group of Mohawk men from a nearby community were initially hired as temporary unskilled labor for this bridge project. When the Mohawk men showed keen interest in technical details of the construction and exhibited no fear of heights, they were trained in the skilled trades needed for the job. They soon became widely in demand due to their reliability and the excellent quality of their work. The term "walking iron" is used to refer to Mohawk ironwork and the term "booming out" refers to Mohawks travelling to major urban cities elsewhere for work. Ontario Mohawk ironworkers from Akwesasne contributed to the construction of the CN Tower in Toronto. Quebec Maja Vodanovic, mayor of the Montreal borough of Lachine, has credited Mohawk workers for their contributions to Canadian construction work, saying that "The Mohawk helped build modern-day Canada." Mohawk ironworkers contributed to the construction of the Jacques Cartier Bridge and Tour Telus in Montreal. ==United States==

In 2015, the United States Mint released a $1 coin featuring Mohawk ironworkers to honor Kahnawà:ke Mohawk and Akwesasne Mohawk contributions to "high iron" construction. New York Mohawk workers began to settle in New York City as early as 1916. The Hell Gate Bridge was one of the first construction projects Mohawk workers participated in. Almost every major construction project in New York City since has involved Mohawk workers. Mohawk ironworkers were integral to the shaping of New York City's skyline, contributing to the construction of bridges and high-rise buildings including the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the Triborough Bridge, the Flatiron Building, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Henry Hudson Parkway, the RCA Building, the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, and both the destroyed and rebuilt World Trade Centers. By the 1920s, a Mohawk enclave of Kahnawà:ke and Akwesasne families had formed in downtown Brooklyn called "Little Caughnawaga". By the 1950s, over 700 Mohawk people lived in Little Caughnawaga. The enclave lasted until the 1970s. While mostly Mohawk, Iroquois and Indigenous workers also lived in the neighborhood. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has hosted an exhibit on the Mohawk skywalkers titled "Skywalkers: A Portrait of Mohawk Ironworkers at the World Trade Center". ==See also==