Conflict cited in Karihwanó:ron building

Last term, Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) chief Iohahiio Delisle was in a meeting that he found heartbreaking. Karihwanó:ron, the community’s Mohawk immersion elementary school for more than three decades, was full of mold, teaching the language out of an “old cigarette shack” on the cusp of being condemned.

“For me, I was like, let’s get them out of there,” Delisle said. And he did, offering the school his family home on Zachary Road in time for the 2023-2024 school year, with the intention to build a new home elsewhere.

“I’m a big promoter of the language, so for me it was necessary to try to provide them a solution,” he said.

When the school moved in, even before a lease was finalized, a sense of relief was palpable. Just a few years after finally securing core funding from the MCK, Karihwanó:ron finally had another lifeline - a location it believed could become permanent.

After all, the school was promised an option to buy the property, one that seemed to perfectly suit its vision of a home-based environment.

But things weren’t so simple. Delisle, not only an MCK chief but also a Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services (KSCS) board member at the time, was planning to rent out, and ultimately sell his home, to a school that receives funding from both organizations.

When announcing the move alongside Karihwanó:ron, Delisle dismissed questions posed by The Eastern Door about a potential conflict, asking community members to look at his intent, which he said was to contribute to the revitalization of the language by providing a much-needed space at a below-market cost.

He also noted he was not on the education portfolio.

But Delisle’s gesture was nevertheless deemed a conflict of interest, he acknowledged this week in an interview with The Eastern Door, his roles with Council and KSCS scuttling the deal. The school has been based out of his home rent-free since, with no prospect of buying it with community funds.

“Sometimes when people do good things, some people don’t really look at it like that,” said Delisle.

“At the 11th hour, when the school put the request in for funding to purchase it, I was called on a conflict of interest, which in turn sort of sabotaged the initiative. But I don’t have any hard feelings on it. It’s just the way the bureaucracy works in Kahnawake.”

As a result of the debacle, Karihwanó:ron is once again, less than two short years after moving in, left without a home. It is unclear when the school will be moving, but it will be sometime after the end of the current school year.

“I really put my family outside the box there and tried to provide this solution, but either they buy the home so I can build a new home, or we’ve got to find them a temporary solution for now until their new school is built,” said Delisle, who has two children who attend Karihwanó:ron.

Now the school is again looking at a fate it only narrowly avoided last year - teaching the next generation of Kanien’kéha speakers out of makeshift trailers on land that is yet to be determined.

“Karihwanó:ron has never had a chance of running smoothly,” said Joely Van Dommelen, the school’s administrator.

She highlighted its crucial role in the quest to restore Kanien’kéha as the community’s spoken language, even as it spent 30 years fighting for core funding, whether locally or through other levels of government.

“Karihwanó:ron took part in discussions that led to the birth of Ratiwennahní:rats. Karihwanó:ron was part of discussions to develop the Kanien’kéha version of the Rosetta Stone teaching tool - in fact, most of the pictures in that teaching tool are Karihwanó:ron students.”

After the school was made to move in 2023 from its location on Mohawk Trail, the sale of the Zachary Road house fell through, putting the school in a tough spot once again. 

The move was announced to parents of Karihwanó:ron students last month, Van Dommelen said.

“It’s unfair that such a program like Karihwanó:ron has had to struggle like this for this long,” Van Dommelen said, imploring community members to help out. “There is so much money in Kahnawake. There is still land to build upon for the sake of our language and culture. This is how I feel as an individual and an employee.”

However, she disputed that the school is being evicted.

“To crush rumors, the landlord is not throwing us out; rather, we need to give back his home since we did not purchase it and need to progress in building our forever home,” she said.

Meanwhile, despite its apparent role in curbing the deal, the MCK did not speak with The Eastern Door to update the community about progress in securing land for the school despite repeated requests.

According to Tish Pungartnik, spokesperson for KSCS, the community organization continues to provide support to the school for operations and, while no agreement has been reached, discussions are ongoing about contributing to a capital project.

“Regarding the potential sale of the property, KSCS was not involved. Karihwanó:ron approached KSCS for funding to support the purchase; however, an agreement could not be reached as it required the involvement of additional community partners. To our understanding, the sale ultimately did not proceed,” said Pungartnik.

“In accordance with our conflict-of-interest policy, any board member must disclose a conflict of interest related to any matters before the Board of Directors. If a board member has a monetary or business interest in a decision, they are required to recuse themselves from that decision. Iohahiio would have followed this policy for any matters directly involving him,” she said.

Delisle no longer sits on the board as he is no longer assigned to the health portfolio.

As for a location, Delisle said there are a number of organizations working on finding land for a permanent home for the school, including the MCK and land management committee, Kahnawake Education Center (KEC), and Kahnawake Combined Schools Committee.

Delisle is also looking into helping the school find a different solution, he said, possibly even putting the school up temporarily in another property he owns, but he is wary.

“Now that I’m trying to find a location, am I going to be called into a conflict of interest again?” he wondered.

He acknowledged the value of bureaucracy, but feels it has its limits. “It’s needed, but I think in this case it should have been a good prime example of stepping outside policy and providing a solution for the better wellbeing of children,” he said.

PlanIt Consulting is currently conducting a needs assessment survey to try to determine what a future permanent home should look like. The project had been underway before the Zachary Road house, so it was simply restarted once the sale fell through, according to Van Dommelen.

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Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter