Pequots honor skywalkers
Don't Look DownNew Mashantucket Museum exhibit celebrates the art of 'skywalking'It's not that they are not afraid of heights. It's more that they've disciplined themselves to be comfortable working just one misstep away from a freefall. That's how many of the Mohawk Indians who have helped build some of the tallest buildings in the country, including most of the iconic, soaring architecture of New York City, have explained their generations-long tribal tradition of “walking the iron.”
At the Mashantucket Pequot Museum through May 27, a new exhibit, “Booming Out: Mohawk Ironworkers Build New York” tells some of that unusual story, how so many American Indians from upstate New York and Canada came to help build the skyline of one of the world's great cities.
9 comments:
I'd love to see this exhibit. I saw a documentary not too long ago about the collapse of the Quebec Bridge in 1907 in which many Mohawk Nation of Canada steel workers were killed. The courage of these "skywalkers" should be honored and recognized more frequently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Bridge
How long before the obligatory Pequot-bashing comments appear?
Writerfella here --
Two nanoseconds. No doubt the first exhibit put together for the display was a huge photo of Mark Hamill in costume, and the Pequots all sang great praise for the King of the Skywalkers: "We represent the Skywalker Guild, the Skywalker Guild, the Skywalker Guild, And in behalf of the Skywalker Guild, We wish to welcome you to Pequot Land..."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
P.S.: writerfella, though an infrequent visitor to NYC, has been there often enough to know that most Natives in the city now work on the underground water system as sandhogs...
writer fella: Was this song of praise in STAR WARS EPISODE 5 - THE CLONES STRIKE BACK or was it in STAR WARS EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM JEDI ?
-anomynous
Writerfella here --
No, it was in honor of the real inspiration for STAR WARS EP.4 - A NEW HOPE, namely THE WIZARD OF OZ (and the song, 'The Lollipop Guild'). Think about it...
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Re "How long before the obligatory Pequot-bashing comments appear?" I'm wondering that too.
Russ, is there any chance Lucas got the name "Skywalker" from the Mohawk ironworkers?
Writerfella here --
No. Think this: George, from the Greek, 'earth-walker'. In other words, a farmer. The next step up is a 'sky-walker'. Lucas becomes 'Luke' and thus the story begins. Now, in German, father is 'vater'. Take 'earth', go back one letter and you have 'darth'. Add the two words and you have 'Darth Vader'. There is the rest of the story. The various words in STAR WARS come from whatever Lucas found around himself. Per exemplum, Dantooine only can be derived from dantoin, an ingredient in shampoo! Who says that artistic 'inspiration' is anything that the rest of us can understand?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Interesting. Are you hypothesizing these derivations or did Lucas actually state them?
Writerfella here --
No, these come forth from the writings of Samuel R. DeLany, whom writerfella is fortunate to call his teacher at the Clarion Workshop in Science Fiction and Fantasy. 'Chip' as we knew him took all of us students through many galaxies and dimensions by saying one single word. Wow!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
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