Back to the Water

Last spring, six paddlers representing three Haudenosaunee nations—two Mohawks from Akwesasne, two Oneidas and two Onondagas—began a journey along the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT). Hickory Edwards, a member of the Onondaga Nation and one of the Northeast’s best-known and most-experienced indigenous paddlers, led the group, beginning in Old Forge. Over the next couple of weeks they paddled on to Swanton, Vermont, following the 740-mile NFCT that runs from Old Forge to Fort Kent, Maine.

Hickory Edwards told me that it was an “awesome” adventure. “I never really canoed through the Adirondacks before,” he said. “We’re used to more just being on the water, but this time we were portaging.”

The Iroquois paddlers’ route has been explored by many others, but what made their trip special was that it continued a tradition that’s thousands of years old. Haudenosaunee and Abenaki people were here, living, hunting and fishing among our mountains long before the Europeans arrived. Hickory told me that his journey was a reminder to everyone along the way. “Our purpose on all our journeys is, as we say in Onondaga, ahsoñ• thoneñ idwe’s. We are still here.”

Hickory had his first canoeing experiences on Onondaga