9/11 Attack

The decade of the new millennium heralded a new time of Nation Building, community visioning and bringing a new reality of positive growth and development to Akwesasne. It was a time of internal optimism and the belief that anything we could want to do was possible. Our community programs, services and institutional infrastructure had been planted in culturally fertile ground and the foundation for a brighter future for our people seemed within our grasp. Mohawk pride and self-sufficiency was clearly visible in the eyes of our Elders who are our clearest monitor of how well we are progressing. We had recently finished a ten-year infrastructure development that included new buildings for the Elders by way of a residential and long-term nursing home, school buildings for the three districts, a new arena for the community, a police building and a health facility in the central village of St. Regis.

In this environment, our MCA Health Department was in full swing with meetings in progress to discuss the full takeover of health services for our people. High-level officials from Health Canada were at the table in Akwesasne for the first time to make real progress on the process of devolution of authority for health care. Members of the staff of the Deputy Minister and others were ready to make some decisions that would break the reins that Government typically held on the affairs of First Nations and their decision making powers.

It was then that the unimaginable occurred.... first was an announcement on the PA system that a large passenger plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York City and right away those of us who were from Akwesasne made eye contact with each other to give warning that this meeting might be breaking up in the next few minutes as we were always aware of the possibility that our Mohawk ironworkers lives might be in danger. A few minutes later a call comes in from the police station that a second plane had hit the other tower and that the borders might be closing down due to concerns that the United States might be under attack. Our federal guests didn’t need a second invitation to get back across the border as their delegation raced out of the building and into their cars to try to get back to Canada in time.

There were over one hundred Ironworkers who were from Akwesasne working in New York City when the attack came, probably the same number if not more from Kahnawake and other Iroquois communities. Some of our men had a bird’s eye view of the plane that passed over where the Akwesasne ironworkers were working where they were putting up the steel columns on a building that was only blocks away from the Twin Towers. A crew of twenty some men were working fifty floors up on a lower Manhattan job when an airliner passed right over the tower where they were putting up a new floor, Dick Otto from Akwesasne was on an iron column that just had gotten connected to start the next floor when he saw an airliner pass what seemed like fifty feet away from where he was perched, he could see the terrified faces of the passengers on the airliner as it leveled itself and headed directly towards the twin Towers. Dick immediately took out his cell phone and called his business agent Mike Swamp at local 440 in Akwesasne to tell him that a wing of an airliner almost clipped their crane where he was working from then seemingly seconds later, he sees the plane explode into the building. As Dick is describing what he just saw another airliner flies by from another direction and it too is headed straight for the Twin Towers. Dick tell business agent Swamp that this plane will also hit but before he can say anything the building explodes from the impact and right after that everything shuts off, no communication anywhere.

The same thing happens in Akwesasne as the phone system shuts down everywhere and residents are unable to call anyone in New York City so they started calling our MCA offices and at the police station for information. It is safe to say that probably every family in Akwesasne was affected by this unknown crisis, all I could think of was that my son and cousins were all working in New York City and we hadn’t heard from them or any of the ironworkers over the last few hours.

Business agent Mike Swamp decides to set up an emergency-clearing house where the Ironworkers can call in to let families know that they are safe. Over the next three days seventy-nine ironworkers had called in, some twenty men were still unaccounted and my son was among them. Finally on the fourth night I get a late call and it’s him, he apologized for not calling but he had been one of the few men certified for cutting iron as a specialized welder and that’s what they had needed so he volunteered for the rescue operations. The other missing men were also accounted for as we became aware that most of them were involved in the rescue operations at the Twin Towers site from day one.

Over the next few weeks we see the rescue operations on all the major U.S. networks, including CNN and other cable news networks. Everyone was glued to their TV sets as we would see the police and firemen would walk into view, carrying the flag draped caskets of the dead from the wreckage, one thing became obvious, that all the rescue personnel were wearing rubber coated boots, coats, surgical gloves along with gas masks and air tanks except for the Mohawk ironworkers who are at the front line cutting iron and not aware that their brave actions, might compromise their health in later years.

Another stark revelation comes out of nowhere over the next few days, all the major networks started reporting that the terrorists might have come through the Akwesasne Mohawk territory with each network displaying a map of our community and showing different routes they might have taken to get to New York. Even Senator Hillary Clinton comes on TV pointing out the easy entry into the United States through the Akwesasne territory. Everyone back home hope and prays that this isn’t the case and weeks later it is confirmed that the terrorists were already in the country but talk about being judged guilty before you have a chance to defend yourself was in itself a tumultuous time for our people. We wrote enough letters and talked to as many reporters as possible for them not to judge our community prematurely and I was one happy person when it was reported that Akwesasne was not the route taken by the terrorists to get into the country. Suspects in the hijacking of planes from Boston’s Logan Airport that were used in the attack were reported to have flown in from Portland, Maine, before that they had crossed the border near Vermont and also in Maine which was a good distance from Akwesasne.

Back to the rescue operations, because it is still in the first few days and everyone is praying that there might be some survivors still alive underneath all the steel rubble, the pressure is on our Mohawk ironworkers who are putting in the long hours along with their co-workers in the hopes that some may be found but hope fades as the days turn into weeks. Kahnawake ironworker Kyle Beauvais said he had seen things in the rubble that he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy. He said that he and his co-workers had found fifty bodies on what was once a floor and now a large pile of steel, which the ironworkers are trying to cut through. Brad Bonaparte from Akwesasne was also one of a crew of Mohawks who were part of the rescue operations, while also clearing debris and searching for human remains. Brad admitted that walking among the dead left one’s mind pretty heavy but there was nothing in place for spiritual healing and cleansing for the traditional Mohawk ironworkers. One day somebody told them that there was going to be tobacco burning ceremony at the Museum of the American Indian and the crew dropped everything and went, it helped for a while but the reality of knowing that thousands of people were buried underneath the pile of steel made their daily work that much more uneasy knowing that there were a lot of spirits who were wandering around on the site and the Mohawks could feel them because their time had not yet come.

According to another Akwesasne ironworker Jerry McDonald who worked at Ground Zero for eight months said that he started on the job not knowing how deep it was where they were working or what was under you, You had to work from the top down then cut and slash and watch out for body parts that you would find along the way, ask the spirits for forgiveness and help them be released from where they are. If you were a traditional practicing Mohawk then you would offer ceremonial tobacco and help the spirits find their way to their next life. You work as fast as you can but be ready to honour the dead and then keep working.

My son Randy was told by the police and firemen that when he came across body parts that he was to step back and the forensic specialists would be brought in on the crane basket to pick up whatever was identified as a body part. As the days passed, he and the other ironworkers didn’t find any success as far as finding survivors; then the days turned into weeks. Many of the Mohawk ironworkers stayed and worked at Ground Zero for another three to eight months before moving on to other jobs. Over fifty Mohawks ironworkers participated in the relief effort, time will tell how their health will be affected because they threw themselves into the rescue operations without regard for the long term effects from all the chemicals which they were exposed to at Ground Zero. It should be mentioned here that a special fund by Homeland Security was set up for all the workers who helped with the rescue operations, the information was never received by the Mohawk ironworkers until the last few days; the end result, they didn’t make the deadline.

“Every morning, in order to get to work we would ride the ferry from New Jersey to New York City and sometimes we would have a clear view of the Twin Towers all the way up to the top of the one hundred and tenth floor where on top of the building stood a hundred foot antenna. I would say to my co-workers, ‘I wish that one day we could be sent up there to work on that antenna, we could be standing on top of everything from the top of that building’. Well, it’s sad to say that one day I was on top of that floor, and I was standing over what was once the antenna that was on top of that floor except now it was all down on the ground on top of everything else that fell that day. I was standing over what was left of that antenna which was laying on top of a heap of scrap metal that used to be the building called the “Twin Towers or World Trade Center” - (Brad Bonaparte)

Brad Bonaparte comes from a long line of ironworking families in Akwesasne. His father and grandfather were both prominent ironworkers for local 440. Brad was one of the volunteers in the rescue operations at Ground Zero.

Brad Bonaparte poses with Soprano star James Gandolfini. Many celebrities and politicians often stopped by Ground Zero to talk with some of the Mohawk ironworkers involved in the clean up.

(Front page caption)

A rod crew watches in astonishment as they observe the attack on the Twin Towers from across the Hudson River. Over 100 Mohawk Ironworkers were working in New York City at the time of the attack which caused great concern back home because of the blackout in communications that lasted into the next day. Finally the business agent in Akwesasne, Mike Swamp, was able to set up an emergency hot line center for the Ironworkers to call and confirm their safety.