Seed Ceremony Closes Grasse River Remediation Season

Nov 20, 2019

AKWESASNE - A closing ceremony for the seeds that were planted this year as part of the Grasse River clean-up and re-plantings was conducted on Tuesday, Kentenhkó:wa/November 19, 2019 by Tsionke Cook with his students from the Akwesasne Freedom School. Representatives from the Environment Division from both the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and Mohawk Council of Akwesasne were in attendance. The ceremony was conducted on the banks of the Grasse River following the planting season from river construction. Arconic dredged the nearshore and small areas of uplands to remove contaminated sediments with PCBs and replaced clean material back before re-seeding. Some of the new seeds were chosen because they are seeds of medicinal and traditional food plants – such as: Sweet flag (Ononnó:ron); Solomon’s seal (Kit kit aoéhta); Jewelweed (Kahne:ki); Angelica, Purple-stemmed (Ohnahsén:ra). The reconstruction will continue with more planting in 2020. The hopes of planting these plants in new areas of clean material is for the relationship of the Mohawk people to the plants be restored as well in the Grasse River Indian Meadows, traditional territory to the Mohawks.

# # # # #

The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council is the duly elected and federally recognized government of the Saint Regis Mohawk People.