Dedicated team make huge strides
with modern Mohawk Bible

By Sue Careless, freelance photojournalist for the Canadian Bible Society

KAHNAWAKE, Canada — Harvey Gabriel will never forget accidentally giving his teacher the strap. He had learnt only Mohawk in his Kanehsatake home northwest of Montreal, but at school on the reserve only English was permitted, even at recess. The young boy had been caught uttering Mohawk but, as the teacher whipped the dreaded strap down, Harvey instinctively pulled his hands back and she lashed her own knees instead.

Through such strict English-only instruction, a whole generation of native people eventually lost their mother tongue. Mr Gabriel, now 60, however, still cherishes his Mohawk language and, following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather Sose Onasakenrat, is a tireless Bible translator.

Mr Gabriel is part of a team that was originally formed to translate 2 Corinthians into Mohawk. This was the only book missing from a Mohawk translation that had been carried out between 1787 and 1839. But the team soon realised that there was a desperate need for a completely modern Mohawk Bible – and that, in fact, their work had only just begun.

‘The sisterhood’

Mr Gabriel works with Josie Horne (83), Charlotte Provencher (79) and Dorris Montour (80), all former school teachers at Kahnawake, and affectionately known as “the sisterhood”. Mavis Etienne is the team’s project co-ordinator.

Of the 30,000 Mohawk people in North America, only about 15 per cent speak Mohawk – but this number is growing as greater emphasis is placed on the importance of local languages.

To date, Harvey has drafted translations in Genesis, Job, Jonah, Daniel, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, James, the Epistles of John, and Revelation. He has just started work on Acts. The Sisterhood has completed Ruth, and are tackling Proverbs and Esther.

Once a month the team meets with native Mohawk speakers to determine the accuracy and clarity of their translations. Mavis, her brother Rodger Cree and their sister Hilda Garcia then translate the Mohawk back into English.

The back-translations are then checked against the original Hebrew and Greek by Tim Stime, the project facilitator and a former Wycliffe Bible translator, and Hart Weins, Director of Scripture Translation for the Canadian Bible Society, along with Ruth Spielmann, a CBS consultant. This team provides the native translators with both linguistic and theological support.

Amazed

The translators recently studied at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Arizona, where other North American indigenous translators were amazed at the enormous strides taken by the Mohawk project. However, at the current pace, these dedicated translators will not live long enough to complete the huge project, and the Canadian Bible Society is currently exploring ways to speed things up – including the possibility of appointing a full-time translator which would inevitably require an increase in funding.

The translation team’s greatest hope is to place modern Mohawk Scriptures in their hands, trusting that God will place it in their hearts.

The translation will be a tremendous spiritual and cultural legacy for the next generation. Of the 30,000 Mohawk people in North America, only about 15 per cent speak Mohawk – but this number is growing as greater emphasis is placed on the importance of local languages.

Bilingual

Children are also taught Mohawk in their first four grades, with an option to continue in a bilingual program right through high school.

The translation team’s greatest hope is to place modern Mohawk Scriptures in their hands, trusting that God will place it in their hearts. (WR 360/14 - 06.01) [PHOTOS]