Kahnawake Elects First Woman as Grand Chief
Written by Paul Graif on 4 July 2021
After twelve years as an elected official, Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer has made history, as she was elected Grand Chief by her community on Saturday, becoming the first woman to head the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. “I’m not somebody who is usually at a loss for words,” Sky-Deer said moments after her win. “I’m not even sure what the words are. Is it happy? Is it thrilled? Is it exhilarated? It’s honoured. I’m so honoured that the community that came out to vote, that I was the one whose vision and whose platform, and I believe it was the language and culture that set me apart from the other candidates. I heard it time and time again that the community said that we can not have our representative not being someone who knows our language, who knows the culture. And that’s part of the direction I want to take our community.”
Sky-Deer will have five new members to work with come Monday morning.
Alan John Rice, Jessica Lazare, Ryan Montour, Barton Goodleaf and Arnold Boyer will be making their political debuts.
Tonya Perron begins her second term having received the most votes with 992.
It feels really good,” Perron said. “It feels like community has a lot of confidence in me. But it’s a tall order to fill at the same time.”
1397 votes were cast in all. There were just two spoiled ballots according to Electoral Officer Angus Montour.
Meanwhile Perron is looking forward to having a woman as Grand Chief.
“It’s going to be a whole different game I think,” Perron said. “First female Grand Chief. Language speaker. Culture behind her. I only see amazing things moving forward.”
