Mohawks await Olympic torch

HOGANSBURG — The Olympic torch will light up Akwesasne on its way to Vancouver on Monday, and hundreds of people are expected to come out to cheer it on.

The torch will be greeted by students from 11 schools from both sides of the international border, as well as an ice skating performance, speeches and a community social.

"We are trying to do everything possible to make this a memorable moment for our students and community members," said Brendan F. White, spokesman for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, which is helping to plan the festivities around the torch's arrival. "We're just so proud of the involvement of our community."

An Akwesasne Mohawk has been selected as an honorary elder firekeeper, and several community members are flame attendants, who help torchbearers along the relay route. Two others have been selected as community torchbearers, who will run the torch from the city of Cornwall to the Anowarako Arena on Cornwall Island, or Kawehnoke in Mohawk, where the festivities will take place.

One of the bearers, Erin Seymour, a third-grade teacher, was a candidate to retrieve the flame from Greece. She was unable to make the trip and was selected to be a community bearer instead.

Another Akwesasne Mohawk did make the trip to Greece. Aronhiaies Herne, a subchief for the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs, left at the end of October to go on his first trip to Europe.

"It's just going to be the biggest honor of my life," Mr. Herne, 23, said before he left.

This year's relay incorporates "unprecedented Aboriginal participation," according to the Vancouver Organizing Committee, because the site of the 2010 games is on Indian land. The torch will visit 119 native communities, some of which are incorporating traditions into the relay.

Haudenosaunee runners, an Iroquois tradition, will carry the message of the torch's approach to the arena. Historically, Mohawks used runners to relay messages across Haudenosaunee territory, which stretched across the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.

But the runners are not just a display of Mohawk tradition. They bear an educational message as well.

"We have four individuals who will be positioned in Cornwall and once the flame arrives, we're hoping we'll have the opportunity to share with spectators in Cornwall the significance and meaning of having the runners," Mr. White said.

The torch will arrive in Cornwall at noon and progress to the Anowarako Arena shortly before 1 p.m. Spectators — as many as 2,000 — are expected to line the streets to cheer it on.

Before it arrives at the arena, there will be a performance by the Akwesasne Skating Club, speeches about the significance of this year's torch relay and highlights of the relay to date.

Events at the arena will begin at 11 a.m.

The flame will be in Cornwall and on the island for only a few hours. It will move on in the afternoon and by the end of the day, will be in Kingston, Ontario.

But at least one Akwesasne bearer's torch will stay on the reservation. Torchbearers have a chance to buy the torch they use, and the second bearer, Mike Benedict Jr., already has purchased his, Mr. White said.

"It would be nice, at the end, to have a little display at the arena with the torch and the torchbearer uniform and some pictures," Mr. White said. "What we're telling students when they see the torch is to remember it passed through the hands of an Akwesasne Mohawk."