This included the adoption of European children into the community, as well as intermarriage with local colonial settlers over the life of the early village.
Located along the St. Lawrence River south of the city of Montréal on the shores of the St-Louis rapids, it dates to 1667 as a Jesuit settlement called Mission Saint-François-Xavier du Sault-Saint-Louis.
During the 1670s, the Catholic mission grew as many Mohawk families arrived; they rapidly outnumbered the more than twenty other Native groups that were represented there.
[1] Some families from here were co-founders of Akwesasne upriver, now known also as the St. Regis Reservation, as its territory extends across the St. Lawrence River into New York State.
[2] Below is detailed history of Kahnawake's most common surnames of European / North American origin.
He was a young man from the Beauvais family of La Prairie who was adopted and raised in Kahnawake.
[3] Canadien: this name comes from the wife of Charles Tehosteroton, granddaughter of Big John Canadian, whose father is unknown.
[3] Several D'AiIlleboust from Montreal, Chateauguay and surrounding areas owned native slaves known as "panis", a term believed by historians from be a corruption of Panismahas, a sub-group of the Pawnee.
In 1801, he married Anne Skaouennetsi (Iroquois, likely Mohawk), with whom he had four children, including Antoine-George de Lorimier.
Before and after the 1837-1838 Lower Canada Rebellion, there was controversy among the natives who wanted De Lorimier and other Europeans out of the community.
Their three sons, François-Xavier Tiorateken, Louis Onokohte and Pierre Ohahakehte, were brought up by Kahnawake resident Antoine Otes dit Zacharie and married local Native women.
McComber was born in Massachusetts, to a Protestant family that had lived there since the early 1600's and could trace its descent from, among others, Mayflower passengers Francis Cook and Richard Warren.
In about 1796, at sixteen years of age, McComber moved on his own from the United States to Kahnawake, where was hired by Thomas Arakwente, a controversial Mohawk Chief and powerful fur trader, who later adopted him.
He was commissioned in 1813 as a Lieutenant and interpreter in the Indian Department under Sir John Johnson, serving in a number engagements, including in command of a company of Mowhawk Warriors at the Battles of Beaver Dams and Chateauguay.
A Captain Andrew Montour who was Huron French employed by Virginia as an interpreter serving in the Braddock Expedition of 1755 carried the Montour name[9] Merry or Murray: Trueman aka Sotsitsionwane was the son of Ephraim and Diane Merry from Boston.
He was a Huron from the village of Jeunne-Lorrette (modern-day Wendake) who moved to Kahnawake in the early nineteenth century.
Another example from the same family: In the 1901 census: Marianne Nicolas, 73, widow, and her children: Wattie, 23, Anastasie, 21, Simon, 26, Michel, 24, woodcutter.
In the 1891 census: Marie Anne Tekanatoken , 61, widow, Pierre, 26, Wattie, 23, Anastasie, 21, Simon, 19, Michel, 16. in the 1881 census: Nicolas Tekanatokin, 59, Marie Anne Katitsak, 48, Jean, 23, Jn-Bte, 21, Xavier, 19, Anen, 29, Pierre, 17, Martine, 14, Anastasie, 12, Simon, 10, Michel, 5, Abraham, 27, Louise, 20, Anen, 3, Rachel, 11/12 months.
[11] The captives were taken to Kahnawake, where both the young boys were adopted by Mohawk families and baptized as Catholics.
The name potentially modified by the Priests appears in different formulas through the parish registers and censuses: Simon-Anaietha- Anayehta-Ana Yetta-Nayetta- Onehieta-Oninyetta.
Married successively to Agnes Karakwannentha, Louise Daudelin in 1784, and Marie Angélique D'Ailleboust des Musseaux in 1769, he had a total of fourteen children.
[19] Eunice became thoroughly assimilated as a Mohawk and refused to leave the community to return to New England life.
She visited her brother Stephen Williams more than once in Massachusetts, but lived in Kahnawake the remainder of her life.